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How Virtual Reality will Transform Healthcare 3

How Platform-as-a-Service can be a shot in the arm for Virtual Reality

From democratizing VR to solving common pain points, there are several advantages 

Inputs from KrishnaKumar Soundararaj, DESIGNATION, TechLadder.

The recent interest in virtual reality has translated into many interesting product and service ideas. This interest could be seen at the bellwether Consumer Electronics Show 2023, as well as the latest Y-Combinator batches.

While the advantages and possibilities of virtual reality (something my colleague Deiva is writing about in this series) are well-known, it is also worth noting that VR is quite tough! The hardware and software investments, the specialist talent, the testing and user adoption are all hurdles to cross. Surely, just like mobile apps before it, the industry will mature offering everyone economies of scale and shared ideas.

It’s to that end that I’d like to talk about Platform-as-a-Service for Virtual Reality.

But first, what is PaaS?

Simply put, it’s a specialist cloud computing environment that delivers hardware and software tools over the internet. This makes it easier to develop, test and scale internet-based ideas. PaaS is all around us – from the ubiquitous YouTube, to specialist B2B services from AWS.

So, what could PaaS for VR mean?

While ideas for virtual reality are varied, several of their requirements during the development phase are common. For instance, environment modeling is a prerequisite whether one is developing an immersive FPS game or a B2B training solution. Metrics too, stem from the same kinds of user behaviors. If some of these basics are abstracted, it will democratize VR solution creation. In other words, a PaaS can provide a no-code/low-code way to translate ideas into (virtual!) reality easily.

PaaS has several more benefits for those developing VR solutions

  1. It provides a standard: One of the reasons the internet is so pervasive is because its techy-sounding protocol, TCP/IP, allows different networks to speak to each other easily. Imagine if different manufacturers / ISPs used different inoperable standards! In fact, Mark Zuckerberg himself said that the success of the metaverse will depend on the interoperability of various metaverses. A PaaS ensures standardization to a good degree, which brings with it its own benefits of references, benchmarks, modularity, and so on.                                                                                                                                        
  2. Functional toolsets for niche use cases: Did you know there are streaming solutions specific to online concerts or conferences? Each of these are optimized and customized for that use case, rather than one giant one-size-fits-all solution. Such is the case with PaaS as well. For example, our solution Brahmarsive is a PaaS for VR specific to education. It has several features that would be very useful for educators and instructors, such as {NEED 1-2 SPECIFIC EXAMPLES HERE}. Similarly, a PaaS that is made for gaming would have features that would be common across games. As the industry matures, one can expect increasingly niche platforms, and more powerful “starting kits”!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
  3. Taking care of common requirements like payment gateways: This needs no explanation. It’s akin to how Shopify has made the life of entrepreneurs easier – not just by providing an interface, but by integrating payments, shipping, and even online advertising onto its platform.

 

The common thread, you will see, is to remove barriers in the way of bringing an idea to life.

What industries stand to benefit from PaaS for VR?

You name it! Currently, we believe the advantages of VR can extend to any industry (again, keep an eye out for our #NallasOnVR series). From our perspective, we think our solution Brahmarsive can help education in several industries: Healthcare, commerce (virtual shops), insurance (training an agent in niche situations such as the oil and gas industry), gaming and finally, education itself!

Virtual Reality heralds a brave new world. The next few years are going to be exciting as we will see new ideas, apps and experiences come our way – for business and pleasure. As we have seen many times before, the “picks and shovels” underlying any technological shift are going to be as important, and we hope to play a small role in that ourselves!

You can explore Brahmarsive and its benefits for education and skilling here.

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