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         Voice AI has seen incredible growth over the last few years and has become a part of our everyday lives. Voice Technology not only takes into account how people search for information with their voice through smart voice assistants, or the ability to execute tasks through voice commands, it also takes into account how to aid a person with accessibility needs in his or her daily life in order to ensure equal access to the same experiences as people without accessibility needs.

Let’s be honest. For years now, automotive infotainment systems have really not been the greatest. The first infotainment system was first unveiled in the Buick Century T-Type and Riviera of 1986, called CRT (touch screen cathode ray tube). Yes, car radio, trip data, and climate control with touchscreen 30+ years ago. Talk about ahead of its time.

      As we adjust to the at-home “new normal” in the face of COVID-19, we have all come to depend heavily on mobile devices to manage our basic needs. In response, a greater number of companies are transitioning resources towards finding new and innovative ways to reach customers at home. Of the latest mobile technology trends, augmented reality (AR) has emerged as an innovative new way for businesses to showcase products and services. With mobile AR experiences, the customer is able to interact and experience products that are digitally represented in three-dimensional space. The value in being able to offer this feature to customers is more important than ever as many do not feel safe returning to stores, but still want the ‘try-before-you-buy’ experience.

      Last week, we discussed the way in which voice technology has transformed from a nascent technology relegated to the world of science fiction, to something that people increasingly utilize on a day to day basis. As we delve deeper into the world of voice technology, there is a great deal of jargon and terminology to keep straight. In order to help make that task a little easier, and so you all know what we are talking about, we have created this handy guide to breakdown and help you understand the most commonly used voice technology vocabulary. 

      What was once a nascent technology is now becoming more mainstream. Adoption of voice assistants via smart speakers and other voice-enabled devices has made a leap over the last few years. About one in four (24%) US adults 18+ own a smart speaker (around 60 million people) and U.S. households with smart speakers own an average of 2.6 smart speakers. Many more devices such as smartphones have voice-enabled and this presents a major opportunity for brands to tap into. 

     Q&A with Leap Motion CTO David Holz in AltspaceVR 

       As more and more people across the world continue to stay locked down indoors, we are seeing experimentation in how we communicate and stay social with friends,  family and colleagues. From a work perspective, we are seeing what the NYT defined as the “World's Largest Work-From-Home Experiment”. While from a recreational perspective we are seeing more and more apps rise to the occasion and develop creative solutions to keep us connected (and quite frankly, sane). Here at Key Lime Interactive, we’ve decided to be proactive about the emerging trends in XR that we were seeing in the marketspace and optimize our XR strategy. That’s why we’d like to explore the ways  XR, such as Social XR, can be used as a communication tool in both our work and recreational lives.

    Since the inception of Key Lime Interactive as a user experience research and design agency, the company has come a long way to be a leader in the market. We are trusted by 100+ of the world’s most admired companies to help them improve the user experience for their products and services. An important pillar of the company’s core values is discerning the bigger picture and deciphering the puzzle. Abiding by this core value, the company’s thought leaders and strategists took a deep dive into understanding what elements of emerging technology will play a pivotal role in shaping 2020 and the new decade that lies ahead of us.

      Leveraging the collective brainpower of the digital experience experts on the team, the company embarked on a new chapter to tackle the exponential rise in influence of eXtended Reality (XR) in the emerging technology market space and guide the company’s growing list of influential clients on how to deliver user experience value through the optimized use of XR.

    During this time when technology is shifting at a fast pace, with all the automation and remote work, the reports are indicating that the XR market size will reach USD 571.42 Billion by 2025. Today, thinking of incorporating eXtended Reality (XR) into your businesses seems to be a practical and effective approach. However, a few questions remain unanswered, such as: when is the best time to adopt, what type of XR tech fits my needs, how to streamline all parts of my business to prepare.

Part 3 of 3: Creating a Mixed Reality (MR) Experience 

In the first part of this series we covered what XR is and what types of technologies fall along it's spectrum. We then talked in depth about what it would take to create a simple MR experience including the need to take into account the prior experiences of the user and their interaction with the virtual and physical space. Things can get complicated very quickly so it's important to really think about the type of experiences you are trying to provide the user.  Once you have a good handle on that it's time to break that down step by step and then take those steps and dissect it even further until you have a very detailed outline of the all of the possible ways that a user will perceive and interact with the digital world that you've created.  

Part 2 of 3:   The Cube Example

In part one of this series we touched briefly on what the XR landscape is and who the major players are in this space. Once you have an understanding of the general space, it is then important to grasp just how fast this space is changing with new innovations emerging all of the time.  In this quickly evolving technological landscape we have a situation where the technology and applications are advancing to a degree where usability guidelines no longer apply. If you do not understand the factors of usability and user centered design in spatial computing applications then you are not going to be able to create intuitive interfaces with natural affordances allowing the user to easily navigate virtual information living in the physical world.

Part 1 of 3: An Introduction to XR   

   In this three part series, we are going to briefly cover what extended reality (XR) is and the different ways to think about this space from a user perspective.  When you hear the term XR it means the spectrum of space between the digital and physical world that includes physical reality, virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. In physical reality we interact with a world that provides us with immediate feedback on an object's affordances or it's properties and what the sorts of actions that can be taken with it. While in virtual reality, the physical world is removed and replaced by a virtual space and virtual objects. These virtual objects may have specific affordances that arise not from evolution but the limitless bounds of the designer’s imagination. With so many possibilities,  a person encountering a new virtual experience is similar to infant exploring her environment for the first time (Sherman & Craig, 2018).  

       Within the last few years, technology has grown at an exponential rate with Augmented Reality being introduced in multiple industries, such as education and training. Augmented Reality (AR) is defined as the enhancement of the real environment by computer-generated content, allows its users to see the real world together with an additional virtual world added in real-time to the same field of view. AR technology has been introduced into the tourism industry to add more interactive elements and improve the traveler's overall experience.