What are the opportunities offered by augmented reality to businesses, users and the market?

To answer this question, we must consider that modern society is more open and willing to accept technological innovation and that the population has new skills. This calls for new stimuli and makes us all part of an evolution mechanism differing from the past where reality becomes one with the digital world, making everything possible.

That is why Studio Volpi considers essential and distinctive to offer innovative technologies from the top level of development available on the market. Our goal is to achieve the best result possible at any project stage, to make our clients stand out from the crowd and the competition, and to obtain the right impact with their clientson multiple levels.

Augmented reality has unlimited applications in the design sector, yet its evolution is so fast paced that it calls for constant monitoring of other sectors as well. We therefore need to take inspiration from the world that surrounds us, developing and adapting such hints to the different needs of our clients, just like we do at Studio Volpi every day.

The use of devices turns something simple such as choosing a color into a new experience. It all gets easier, faster and closer to reality: the user actually lives the choice, visualizes the options before his own eyes, as augmented reality enables to include digital elements within real-life environments and contextualize what is happening. This helps the user make a more aware choice. 

We witness this in the furniture segment: sitting comfortably on a couch, we can project the new options right in front of us, once again enjoying a time-saving experience. In this case technology does not change only the selection process, but e-commerce as well, just like Amazon, which enables to visualize products with augmented reality. Studio Volpi exploited these benefits in various projects for a client specialized in professional kitchens. Visualization of the arrangement of furniture and appliances within the selected background made the entire decisional process much easier.

Augmented reality applied to the business world creates new opportunities for training and maintenance services. On the one side, companies may exploit technology to train their staff on site: users can use augmented reality devices to request real-time remote support of specialized operators who can guide them through the intervention. Or again, the use of augmented reality goggles makes operators’ job easier and faster as they suggest which technical sheets to use or what are the expiring/out-of-place products, thus becoming an actual database. On the other, companies can make end-users autonomous and able to intervene on items that require small maintenance individually.

Augmented reality has become an essential prototyping tool as well. When budgets are limited and you’re on a short deadline, augmented reality helmets and goggles are key for digital prototyping. Much faster and flexible, it enables to carry out tests and modify projects with greater ease. 

The limit between the virtual world and reality is narrowing, with great benefits for users who can now enjoy a faster and more aware purchase experience. It is advantageous for businesses too which may cut down on costs, change their staff’s training procedures, develop less protypes and simulate the final industrialization. Augmented reality looks at user experience from a different point of view, a challenge Studio Volpi has already undertaken with great enthusiasm.

“Our structure is technology-friendly – says Natalia Laskowska, designer for augmented and virtual reality development at Studio Volpi – and it was very easy for us to include the latest innovations in our design processes. We work with engineering and design on a daily basis and implementing this technology was simply the next step. We needed to customize our department, and this was namely the most effective way to achieve our goal. Today, almost every client asks us to use augmented reality for their projects and often to use these cutting-edge solutions to present new products or ideas at in-house marketing meetings. It has a greater, winning and clear impact and it is very effective from a communication standpoint. That is why it is exploited both in house and outside by companies. The perfect examples – concludes Natalia – are the engineering development of the Chicco Trio System where we used virtual and augmented reality to take on a strict deadline, or the multi-sensorial showroom we designed for Hager which takes the audience and brand experience to the next level, describing in a winning fashion the client’s story, mission and innovative vision”.