A new report from mobile and video technology research and development company InterDigital shows how the standards, solutions and emerging challenges are shaping new XR opportunities.
The white paper titled ‘Defining the XR Experience: Enabling the Immersivity Ecosystem‘ presents the robust basis of wireless and video advancements that form the core of a wide range of XR encounters, encompassing AR, VR and MR.
It goes on to emphasise the significance of standards in guaranteeing compatibility and addressing the issue of technology fragmentation among the different devices, networks and systems that enable XR encounters.
Despite the gradual adoption of XR headsets and services by consumers, the report emphasises that advancements in device hardware, content capture, encoding and specific distribution of XR content are essential elements that will power the XR market’s expansion to fuel growth in the future.
Rajesh Pankaj, CTO of InterDigital says, “Today’s XR capabilities are forged from innovations in wireless and multimedia that enable us to capture audio, video, haptic,and kinesthetic data into one scene representation and transmit that complex XR traffic across our networks to achieve a seamless blend of our physical and virtual worlds.”
Mainstream adoption of XR
The report’s projected shipments of XR devices suggests that standalone VR devices will be the most popular form factor, with shipments reaching 140 million units in 2027. VR mobile devices will come in second, with shipments of 120 million units in 2027.
VR-tethered devices will be the third most popular form factor, with shipments of 100 million units in 2027. AR monocular devices will have the fourth highest shipments, with 80 million units in 2027 while AR binocular devices will have the lowest shipments, with 60 million units in 2027.
Components for seamless XR experience
InterDigital’s report finds that a seamless XR experience will depend on various factors such as headsets capable of handling high-resolution, high-framerate, multi-view content and spatial audio, along with a network that can fulfil XR’s requirements for minimal delay and strong dependability.
Among the existing standalone, tethered and mobile-based options for VR devices, the findings show that not every headset has the capacity to accommodate computing functions internally and that most will require split rendering across the network which can often cause imposing delays and hinder the Immersive experience.
The report attributes the growth of the immersivity ecosystem to fundamental enhancements in video compression and delivery protocols, as well as the numerous advantages introduced by standardised approaches.
“XR is a perfect storm of hardware and content requirements that make it a challenge to support: high resolutions and frame rates, interactivity, mobility, and novel data types like haptics and spatial tracking” says Eric Abbruzzese, Research Director with ABI Research. “Increasing efficiency across the XR pipeline from creation through distribution benefits both users and operators.”
The report concluded by suggesting that there is room for advancement across all aspects of XR, with standards continuing to play a crucial role in enabling novel functionalities and ensuring consumer-relevant compatibility.
Gazing ahead, the XR ecosystem will persist in examining fresh network capabilities designed for XR, novel XR accessories, supporting hardware, and solutions facilitating multi-user XR support, user tracking and positioning, among various other possibilities.
