The Impact of 5G on Virtual and Augmented Reality Development

Recently, President Donald Trump said in a Tweet that he would like to see 5G in the United States as soon as possible. We can see why he and many business leaders are anxious to harness the power of 5G speed, given all the advantages it brings since it allows companies to work smarter and faster. As far as the augmented reality industry is concerned, 5G is absolutely necessary for producing new cutting-edge development. In this article, we will take a look at exactly how 5G will help virtual and augmented reality.

Less Latency  

According to research by ABI, the introduction of 5G speeds will decrease latency by 10X as well as a 100X better network efficiency and traffic capacity than 4G. To put this into perspective, think back to when you had to download a movie, in HD, with regular 3G. This process required several hours to complete. When LTE was introduced, the wait time was cut to just minutes. Now, with the introduction of 5G, this could take seconds. The impact of such a latency reduction is vast on the AR/VR industry because they need high-speed connectivity to function at the very best.

The impact on the user experience will also be huge because, with 5G VR, you can create virtual training environments and other things that require instant response to user actions. Therefore, if you are already enjoying VR, you can expect your experience to become even more immersive and overall pleasant. 

Better Connectivity  

As AR/VR technologies become mainstream, you can expect to start seeing them everywhere, not just in your home. You will be able to take them wherever you go on your mobile device, and it will be in your car and many other places. However, this requires a high level of connectivity that only 5G networks can provide. While 4G speed is excellent, it still cannot unlock everything that mobile devices have to offer. The new speeds, on the other hand, will provide one million connections per square kilometer, which should open the door for countless 5g wireless and VR experiences and the development of augmented and virtual reality software. 

Higher Traffic Capacity  

As we said earlier, 5G will allow users to stay better connected, but for this to happen, the network must be able to accommodate a such number of users. The 100X improvement in network capacity is critical for people to use AR and VR on a daily basis because otherwise, latency will increase, prompting some users to ditch VR and AR altogether. 

Higher Quality Screens  

To enjoy the better screen quality that AR and VR offer, you need the speed and bandwidth that only 5G can provide. Some experts believe that 5G can bring in millimeter waves to resolve the problem with bandwidth. In other words, the signals will be transmitted on a different swath of the spectrum, one that has not been available to mobile devices before. This is why some providers are trying to broadcast on the millimeter waves since they have a higher frequency than radio waves.

The Power of the Cloud  

Today, if you would like to buy and enjoy a VR helmet, you will also need to purchase a powerful PC that is capable of running such a device. This also means that you can enjoy your VR experience in only one location i.e., where the PC is located. Thanks to 5G, power consumption, storage, and processing power will shift away from the PC and into the cloud. Therefore, you will only need a headset to enjoy VR, and it will make the experience itself much cheaper and accessible since you will not need to spend money on a powerful PC. In fact, according to Huawei, the cloud AR/VR market will reach $292 billion.   

The Changes Are Almost Here    

One of the main obstacles on the path of mainstream AR/VR adoption has been costs and network speed in order to accommodate the power and the number of users. The new age of 5G will resolve these issues and allow us to enjoy both AR and VR daily. This is excellent news because AR and VR enable companies to work smarter and more efficiency, but it was just not possible with 4G.  What’s even better is that there are near-term benefits for people to enjoy. Since some mobile providers like Verizon and AT&T have made 5G already available on smartphones, you can already enjoy your favorite AR apps, and they will not slow down because they take up a lot of data.  For example, if you use an AR app every day for 10 minutes, that alone is consuming 50GB every month. With 5G, you will be able to enjoy even really heavy apps without any latency whatsoever.     

When 5G becomes available beyond smartphones, you expect to see more widescale implementations of VR and AR solutions. This is truly an exciting time because all the efforts that went into developing new AR/VR solutions will start paying off since consumers will see how effective and enjoyable these solutions are. They will no longer be just for the early adopters but rather even the skeptics will come around and start using AR and VR gadgets and enjoying experiences. This truly is an exciting time to live in.