What is X Reality?

The different "Realities"

There is only one reality, as in, one true reality, and that is Actual Reality. We never had to include the word "Actual" to describe it or put an emphasis on it, until technologically created or technologically enhanced realities began to emerge and manifest. However, all technologically created or enhanced realities. exist, within the actual reality, though, they may enhance or mediate the experience of it.

The Technologically Created or Mediated Realities (Already Known)

Firstly, you have Virtual Reality or VR for short, which, in its simplest definition, is a simulated environment or world, in digital, virtual space. It creates a simulation that looks, sounds or perhaps even feels like it is there, but it isn't. It is imaginary, but artificially rendered. to the senses, by a software.

Secondly, you have Augmented Reality or AR for short, which, in its simplest definition, is a computer-mediated or tech-mediated perception of the Actual Reality in the immediate surroundings, such as where you see things that are not there, or the view of things that are there are enhanced, or filtered or diminished, for example.

Then, thirdly, you have Mixed Reality or MR for short, in which VR and AR combine at the simplest, to blend the simulated with the actual, where perception or experience of a person transcends the digital and physical.

Whether it is VR, AR or MR, the experience of it is visual, auditory or multi-sensory, addressing up to all 5 senses possibly, at a time. Predominantly though, VR, AR and MR have been about sensory perception, with "perception" being the most important word in the description. What happens though when you move beyond perception? That is where X Reality comes about.

What is X Reality then?

X Reality, otherwise known as Cross-Reality and XR for short, is where we move beyond just simulation and augmentation for sensory perception, to go from Virtual to Actual and vice-versa. And it extends to deeper biological experiences as well as synchronization, beyond the surface sensory.

Unlike VR, AR and MR, while encompassing all three, XR is not just another tech created or tech mediated reality. It transcends that role. It is much bigger.

XR encompasses VR, AR, MR and more. It takes parts of or the combination of the three tech created or tech mediated realities, along with other technological functions, outputs or tools, such as the Brain Computer Interface (BCI), Neurotech, IoT and Robotics, to deliver actual action and results.

XR, is the achievement of that threshold, where what an individual's mind can conceive, technology can produce or execute.

XR is the new way of interfacing and interacting with technology, wholly and completely. You will no longer access the internet by tapping on or looking at a screen. XR is the new interface for computing and communication. It is not here yet, but it is coming. And it is coming very rapidly.

Artistic Illustrations

With XR, musically untrained and unskilled person imagines music in his or her mind, relays it into the virtual space, records it and then sells it, through the virtual space, for others to buy it, with actual currency transacted in the virtual world, to listen to it with their ears, which otherwise, the creator, would never have been able to compose, play or record. Imaginary music, becomes actual music, through a combination of Virtual Reality and other technologies. From thought, to virtual, to real world and real life.

With XR, a storyteller, acts out multiple different characters, as he or she imagines them, through brain-controlled humanoid virtual robots, in virtual simulation, that are holographically projected into physical environments, while seeing, sensing and perceiving through them remotely, to tell a story, without other human actors having to buy into the characters, while the audience finds itself in the midst of the story playing out all around.

With XR, someone who is unable to draw or paint, imagines a picture, projects it in virtual simulation, stores the memory of that imagined picture and a robotic arm actually paints it out on a physical canvas.

Lowering the Bar

Entire features films could be created in virtual space, just by imagination of one single individual, in less than a day, or even in just a couple of hours. While it does not mean every actor goes out of work, because value may still be seen in how he or she can bring a personality to a character, for those filmmakers who could afford the fees, it does mean a lowering of the bar. And that applies to advertising too. And much else.

Why does it matter?

The artistic illustrations presented herein aside, to deliver a sense of what one should expect of it, XR means a complete reinvention of communication, and even work.

Besides traversing physical reality and digital reality, XR is about transcending geographical boundaries, where countless connected objects, whether physical or virtual, become the surrogates for our perception, experience and action.

And undersea probe or a space probe, great distances away, becomes an object we can connect with, to get a 360 degree vivid view of the environment at those distances and places others dangerous and difficult to reach. More practically, XR means life-like experience of 5 senses, through remote machines half-way around the world, in multiple locations, for teleworking. Alternatively, a hundred people, from a hundred different countries, can work together side-by-side, at the same time, in the same office, that does not physically exist in the real world, to produce real print outs, transactions and physical production results.

XR means telepathic communication. XR means bilocation. XR means living and working through surrogate machines, whether humanoid, non-humanoid, virtual humanoid or virtual formless. XR means not just a change of our interaction with machines, but also each other.

Why does it matter now?

It is a complete and significant evolution of the human experience, beyond perception. That means significant shifts for society, education and business.

While the realization of some of the illustrations presented herein may be more distant, just as the early remnants of the Internet of Things (IoT) have come to see commercialisation in the mid-2010s, the various tech mediated realities will converge with various other technologies to bring about the early commercial manifestations of X Reality by the mid-2020s, which in business perspective, is not a long time considering at the time of this being written, 2017 is at an end.

And no technological evolution happens instantly. It is always gradual, appearing parts and phases. It is no different with X Reality, a term first used in 2016, that has been rapidly spreading and evolving in meaning. In fact, the "X" implies a limitlessness to the evolution and extension to XR. It is reflective of the constantly developing and converging technologies to shape human experience in and of reality.

The key components to facilitate XR already seeing commercialization in the 2010s; IoT hardware, VR headsets, haptic tech wearables and BCI devices. Robots are also becoming more common.

What we achieve technologically today, influences XR tomorrow. The impact of XR tomorrow however, also decides the relevance, validity and lifecycle of what we are working on today.

The Disruptive Potential

The disruptive impacts will be massive. Look at your laptop and its components. Look at your tablet. Look at your smartphone as it appears right now. All of it, will be disrupted, not by XR itself, but the technology needed for its manifestation, from Headmounted-Display sets to Brain Computer Interface to Holographics. The progress of a wide variety of technologies are catalyzed by wants, desires and needs for XR.

With XR, you do not look at content on a screen. You see content projected around you, either in physical reality, virtual reality or both. With XR, you do not need to know or understand the functions or software and applications. You just use them, by telling them what you want them to do and they manifest results to your satisfaction.

Besides hardware, business processes will also see massive disruption. When the human experience and condition changes, so does consumer behavior. When consumer behavior changes, marketing changes. Reality is, all businesses, are about marketing. When consumer behavior changes, it means effectively a change in what you can sell, at what price you can sell it, how you can sell it and where you can sell it.

Take for example, the relatively new Marketing subject of Neuromarketing, which seeks to understand the decision making process of a buyer, and then to intervene either by tailoring the marketing effort to that process or by intervening in it with a play on influencing factors. Neuromarketing depends on our interaction with our machines and devices, primarily, to access and utilize the internet. When with XR, our very means of interfacing with machines and utilizing the internet evolves, then the processes of Neuromarketing an how it is applied, will have to evolve. For such a new field or sub-field, with disruption coming as rapidly as XR, there are major adaption implications.

Think the possibility of cutting a deal over a physical coffee table in actual reality, and then completing the transaction with the act of handing over the cash amount in a virtual environment, and the money in real world, is instantly transferred from one bank account to another. Everything talked and thought about pertaining to Payment Innovation over the past decade till date, effectively becomes obsolete.

In Conclusion

XR is not next in the sequence of VR, AR and MR. It in summary, encompasses them. It does not simply enhance the experience of Actual Reality, but rather taps on a mass-convergence of a multitude of technologies to enables human beings in the Actual Reality, to do what otherwise is not possible.

Harish Shah is Singapore's first local born Professional Futurist and a Management Strategy Consultant. He runs Stratserv Consultancy. His areas of consulting and Keynote Topics include EmTech, Industry 4.0, HR, Digital Transformation, Product Development, Marketing, Strategic Foresight, Systems Thinking and Organisational Future Proofing.