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As Social XR (eXtended Reality) experiences continue to soar, enthusiasts speculate what will be the next leading trend. In Virtual Reality (VR), this needs to be an application that not only has great features to socialize and communicate with others but also gives users power to create these spaces themselves. Enter a new contender: Facebook Horizon.

Previously, we’ve discussed our anticipation for Facebook Horizon whilst reviewing a variety of Social XR meeting tools. After being invited to its closed beta, we’d like to dive deeper into the experience and give our feedback from a User Experience (UX) standpoint.

Voice technology has made a leap over the last fews years and is now becoming part of our everyday lives. At Key Lime we’re excited about the many opportunities that a voice experience (VX) provides for customers and brands: It can help remove friction and help humanize interactions with technology. At the same time we know voice tech is still far from perfect.

Today the main use cases for a great voice experience are in service and sales. Think about frequently asked questions and transactional interactions such as turning a light on or off. In the future there is a potential for voice to go towards in-depth conversational interactions. The use case can make or break your voice experience and it is one of the key factors for creating a successful voice experience.

Seeing and reading the news these days has become pretty overwhelming. One of the biggest reasons for the unrest is the push for a more inclusive society with no place for racism, sexism, and violence. This push is long overdue and calls for us to be more humane in general for the well being of the whole world and to move towards a better and sustainable future. 

Education, awareness and empathy are probably the most important factors that drive change, but individuals are harder to convince otherwise once they’ve formed their own opinions. Thankfully, we live in an age where individuals can be educated, made aware of, and put in someone else’s shoes all while wow-ing them with the help of Virtual Reality (VR).

     In January 2020, no one anticipated that a pandemic would be the defining event of the year. However, in October, the impact and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are still currently underway, especially as we see parts of the world preparing for a second lockdown. So during all of this, we ask ourselves: how can technology be used to help us through this? In regards to voice technology, one of the areas of focus for voice tech is in healthcare, and COVID-19 has only heightened that focus. Voice technology is seen as something that could potentially help reduce the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 as well as help to improve current social distancing standards.

  Aside from the increased uptick that has been seen during quarantine of increased usage in voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home, there are numerous opportunities for the way in which voice technology can be integrated to be a beneficial feature of our “new” normal. Additionally, the ability to connect to others via voice user interfaces, or even extended reality like social XR, could potentially help individuals to feel socially connected while remaining physically distant.

        As we all learn to navigate the new normal in the midst of the ongoing pandemic, one area that has seen repeated debates in the last few weeks is education. Should schools hold in-person learning? What is the safest way to move forward? Can virtual learning be effective? There are probably as many solutions to this hurdle as there are schools, with some families even calling distracting kids with iPads education. There does not seem to be a right way to go about reopening schools or if they should be open at all now that the fall has rolled around. Rather than add to that debate, we will discuss XR (eXtended Realities) as an alternative to in-person learning.

      With many companies continuing to opt for remote working environments, some still search for ways to make their once in-person, now remote meetings feel a bit more interactive. As we have explored before, Social XR can help users feel more connected in our recreational and professional lives. These applications can help you feel immersed, allow you to reach a wider audience and help you stay focused. Ideally, they combat meeting and screen fatigue, lifting spirits, and most importantly, they go beyond what is physically possible by enhancing/augmenting reality.

        While many feel as though voice technology is a newer innovation. However- the study, development, and implementation of voice and speech recognition technologies has been going on for the last 70 years. This article attempts to provide an overview of the history of voice technology, and how it has developed since its creation. In 1952, the first speech recognition system designed by Bell Laboratories was known as the “Audrey” system and could only recognize single voice digits spoken aloud (source). “The machine understood digits 0-9 is speakers paused in between, though it would have to adapt to each user before it could capture their speech with reasonable accuracy” (source). 

      In recent years, automated speech recognition (ASR) systems have become an integral part of many applications; creating a world of virtual assistants (VAs) who live in our mobile devices, smart home applications, and vehicle-systems. What makes ASR systems special is its ability to quickly and accurately convert spoken language to text. For speech recognition to work requires sophisticated machine-learning algorithms capable of converting all of the nuances and complexities of spoken language into actionable commands in real-time. This is possible thanks to deep learning algorithms ability to digest large datasets and create new strategies for improved accuracy.  

         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.

         Over 68 million people are now using Augmented Reality (AR) technology every month thanks to increased accessibility via mobile devices (eMarketer, 2019). AR as a form of emerging technology, is unique in its ability to overlay digital information such as images, text, and sounds onto the real world. More than 90% of companies with annual revenues of $100 million have started using AR mobile marketing to increase customer engagement by creating new and exciting ways to interact with a product (Deloitte, 2019). While many of us remain at home in the face of Covid-19, AR technology provides innovative solutions in its ability to create virtual “try-before-you-buy” experiences. Moreover, AR offers several advantages over more traditional marketing methods providing companies, who do it right, a competitive edge.