What is Augmented Reality?
Augmented reality is a combination of digital information that is connected to the users in real time. AR collects the information of the environment and overlays new information on top of it. It helps the user to place life-size 3D models in the environment of their own choice. AR is becoming more popular in the gaming industries, to ensure the user gets the immersive experiences that utilize their actual surroundings. Pokemon go is one such example.
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There is a lot of competition among social media games and applications. Each one of them is trying hard to improve engagement rate through increased user interaction with advanced technologies. In this situation, leveraging the potential of Augmented Reality comes as a rescue.
Snapchat is the clear winner in the race of using AR for social media apps. This is the sure shot sign of increased use of this technology in social networking platforms in the near future.
Facebook: Facebook has designed an AR glasses so that user can experience the AR world right from their pockets.
The most successful application (mobile game) that has made a huge success in AR is “Pokemon GO”, the game spread so widely that it made a mark in the world of augmented reality.
AR Kit of iOS 11 is the new entry of Apple into the AR segment. WWDC 2017 observed some major announcements done by Apple. One of them was the introduction of AR Kit. This tech giant sees the bright future of AR in enhancing users’ experience. It brings forth a new framework called AR Kit for developers to experiment this technology to its fullest.
Apple has opened up ways for developers to build apps that go beyond the restricted screen size of the device. It is possible for them to craft immersive AR experience for users that provides perfect blending of digital objects with the real world.
Augmented reality social media and messenger apps have proven results of attracting users with its special effects. This technology has brought a new revolution among mobile phones users.  Technology leaders are now dreaming of living in a world that is at the intersection of their imagination and real scenario. Introduction of AR in social media app that gives users just what they expect could be a grand success.

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The global augmented reality and virtual reality market is anticipated to witness remarkable CAGR of $150 Billion during 2017 – 2025

Advancing technology has given us so much new tech in a short span of time. One such inroad into development led to the emergence of AR & VR and the gaming industry is too eager to try it on

The mark of Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality game is that it seeks to awe the players by warping their perception of reality. This is done by combining storytelling and imagery with the latest hardware. The storytelling and imagery should totally immerse the players in the experience and the latest hardware is the platform in which you present it.

Since 2015, the likes of Oculus, Microsoft, and Sony have given us Virtual Reality devices that have created brand new opportunities to create these immersive experiences. These devices are reliant on content creators, without which it’s just a piece of expensive hardware. This rapid device-content collaboration has resulted in some standout experiences.

Together, virtual reality and augmented reality are predicted to generate about $150 billion by the year 2020.

An enormous flow of money into these industries is no surprise, despite the fact that there are only few hardware platforms presently available in the market. Thus, we will witness many newer gears to be launched shortly.

At the moment, the QA/Testing is predominantly focused on Mobile apps, analytics, IoT and other digital areas. As the AR/VR will have much to offer in the future, it will be a good move for the QA/Testing providers to build testing competency in Augmented and Virtual Reality applications.

Future Applications and Uses:

A broad range of industries like consumer goods, entertainment, aerospace and defense, commercial, and medical fields are being influenced by advancements in AR and VR.

VR could be ideal for environments that are expensive, dangerous or complex to simulate in other ways. For example, emergency services training. VR is already used by a number of military forces around the world for precisely that purpose. It is currently being used to train medical staff, oil workers and teach students. But the potential audience is much bigger.

In the last year, we have seen consumers getting access to a number of AR/VR hardware and also some exciting software that is providing an exciting experience to the customers.

Between now and 2022; the AR/VR market will definitely grow to current $ 150 Billion. This growth will clearly come from the content.  As with anything, without content, even the most sophisticated hardware is not of much value. It is in this area that the future growth of AR/VR Testing will come from, and the QA/Testing providers need to participate in this growth and grab the opportunity.

Game titles created for VR and AR have taken a huge step forward in 2016. Multiple VR headsets are available in the market, with some mind-blowing titles that are changing the very nature of gaming. VR has gotten off to an exciting start, but it’s AR gaming that has already seen its first mega-hit.

Some of the applications that may come up in AR space are Games, Theme park rides, Web Browsing, Commerce, Consumer Applications, Advertising, Voice calls, and film/TV streaming (both 2d and 3D) etc.

These are the areas which the QA/Testing companies need to capture in the near future.

There is a lot to be developed in AR/VR space: Apart from design and development, sensors, imaging, and processing are few related things that are considered in the development phase. Each of these requires specific expertise, they will, in turn, contribute towards cost escalation. By providing the right expertise at a lower cost the QA/Testing firms can play a critical role in bridging the gaps and improving the ROI.

To perform AR/VR testing, the QA vendors need to understand the lower level requirements of the applications and the UI/UX.

Few of such expertise should be into Art design, Gyro and accelerometer sensor, speech recognition and image processing.

The testing expert should use manual testing for user interface and can further use their existing test automation expertise to test the functionality of the application.

In AR/VR applications, the user can interact with every object in the virtual environment. A further level of challenge will be presented due to various combinations of possible user interactions. The testing team should follow, adopt and master the testing tactics to test the user interactions.

We will discuss in detail about AR/VR Testing in our later blogs. Stay updated by subscribing to our blog.

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