The impact of connectivity on digital and real-world experiences
June 2022
Eric Blomquist, Strategy Execution Director at Ericsson, talks about digital life beyond the screen.
Just as the Internet democratized access to technology and information, limitless connectivity and extended reality will democratize access to experiences, opening new horizons, providing more options, and revolutionizing our freedom of choice.
Why?
Innovations that bring technology and creativity closer together will soon enable more immersive and personalized experiences, transforming real-world and virtual experiences alike, while delivering ever greater inclusion, collaboration, sharing, and co-creation.
How?
Networks will become ever more capable, global, and dynamic, with the capacity to handle trillions of inputs, from small embedded sensors to larger devices that enable multi-sensory, immersive communication.
The takeaway
Next-gen networks will enable new experiences whose unprecedented levels of immersion, interaction, and personalization will attract new and more diverse audiences and communities
Networks will also act as catalysts for sharing, collaboration, and co-creation and in doing so accelerate the exploration of the full potential of connectivity regardless of location
To meet ever more demanding user and spectator expectations, digital experiences, solutions and services will become increasingly intuitive
At Ericsson, we’re developing both enhanced experiences and the networks that power them, to facilitate cross-industry collaboration
Hybrid experiences will significantly increase audience size and be a key enabler of increased monetization
The power of experiences should not be underestimated. Often, we forget the details of what happened at an event, but still remember how we felt. The way experiences are shared has evolved, too. As the pace of innovation accelerates and geographic boundaries crumble, the possible impacts of connectivity on digital and real-world experiences are huge.
While the internet democratized knowledge and information, extended reality will democratize experiences, by introducing alternative dimensions, regardless of location, using innovative, immersive devices. To function, these devices require new and improved network connectivity that will help data to flow around the world, allowing us to receive it in the form of sights, sounds, and touch (and perhaps, in the not-too-distant future, smells and tastes as well).
These innovations will introduce immersive and personalized elements to experiences, giving everyone the freedom of choice. At Ericsson, we’re excited by the opportunity to develop both the experiences themselves and the networks that power them. As such, we’re encouraging and facilitating co-creation between an increasingly diverse set of contributors. And there are already signs of magic happening.
The US sports industry will reach $83.1 billion by 2023
Experience Type |
Event |
Location and partners |
---|---|---|
Music | Remote collaboration | Reina Sofia Music School, Madrid, (Orange, Ericsson) |
Sport | Immersive Soccer Fan Experience | Germany (VF and SKY) and Qatar (Ooredoo) |
Live performance | Dream global remote experience | Royal Shakespeare Company, UK Research & Innovation |
Augumented Journey | Green Planet | London, EE/BT |
Live Show via Hologram | Holographic show (musician at a distant locations) | Claro Brazil, Allianz Parque |
Remote Jamming | Collaboration of performers | UCBoulder, USA |
Best Seat experience at Sports (360 stream) | Stockcar car race in Sao Paulo | Claro Brazil, Interlagos racetrack |
Bringing the experiences to life
As the full potential of improved connectivity is realized, creative and technical teams will go beyond the current limitations.
For instance, 5G will evolve to 6G, and as it does, devices will become lighter, more comfortable, and more stylish. To achieve this transition, networks will evolve to:
- Transfer the processing from the device to the network
- Increase the available capacity and coverage to allow for more high-fidelity services
- Reduce the power consumption of the devices
- Be more intelligent, so that they better utilize the application and service information to optimize network performance and quality
- Accommodate the different demands of the services, and ensure an optimal, reliable, and resilient experience
With 6G, the next level of services will be realized, including:
Improved transmission technology: 5G and 6G will conquer new spectrum bands, probably as high as 100 GHz and beyond, to support higher data rates in the range of hundreds of Gbps. These data rates will enable true interactive services. To mitigate any issues around this, neighboring base stations will better coordinate their transmissions, either to avoid interference or to jointly serve a user in an optimum way.
Spatial awareness, positioning, and sensing enhancements: As the networks move toward 6G, they will be able to sense their surroundings using radar-like capabilities. By sharing highly detailed 3D maps through the communication network, virtual and physical worlds can combine seamlessly. This requires the gathering, processing, and sharing of huge amounts of data, in real time, that only 6G can handle, alongside the extremely low latency required to allow the feeling that there is no recognizable difference between one’s actions in the two worlds.
Intelligent, adaptive, and configurable network and compute platforms: The performance of the applications that make an experience come to life will also be optimized with end-to-end (E2E) guarantees by building on existing capabilities integrated with deterministic compute capabilities that host and manage the critical tasks of real-time applications.
Fluid computing allows applications to be deployed seamlessly and dynamically across the network platform with integrated pervasive compute resources. Applications can thus have access to compute and data services that always appear to be local, despite dynamic network changes or user/data mobility events. It will also be possible to maximize the use of the available resources.
Wearables working together: Rather than being a screen interface, devices should capture and deliver sensory data about how you move, what you see, what you touch, and more. Local clusters of wearable devices that share data with each other, such as smart gloves, haptic suits, a watch, a pair of smart glasses or contact lenses, will all be coordinated by the main acting immersive device.
Context-aware communication services (applications that rely on current and previous user profiles and context) will allow more personal and adaptive capabilities so that a group can collectively feel part of a combined experience.
Secure, private, and trustworthy systems: When users interact digitally with other users but also with pure virtual environments, it is important that the experience is safe to use, reliable, and does not compromise privacy.
The ability to withstand, detect, respond to, and recover from attacks and unintentional disturbances is fundamental in designing and building mobile networks to provide this confidence and will be even more critical by 2030.
To stretch this discussion a little further, there are many that think eSports could become a standard feature of the Olympic games and will be the biggest sports attraction, bypassing global giants like the Super Bowl and the football World Cup. When this happens, it will become critical to be able to assure fair competition and prevent cheating.
In these fully digital settings, the opportunities for cheating could be deemed to be more attractive and/or accessible, with others offering shortcuts or modifications. To achieve this there will be a fine balance of privacy and conspicuous surveillance. Magnus Björkman from Tension believes that these types of dilemmas will grow, especially while eSports become a hobby for the masses.
Fundamental technologies to achieve these required properties are confidential computing, authentication and identity management, cryptographic algorithms and security protocols, security software, the use of AI for security (and security for AI), and security assurance.
When it comes to revolutionizing experiences, you might have assumed that the primary barrier was always technical. In reality, people need to be taken on a journey too. Users need support to embrace the change that’s coming and to adopt new habits, while creators need to imagine beyond their lived experiences.
STEAM—the practice of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics—has recognized the importance of combined expertise to encourage creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. This collaborative approach is essential to continue to enhance our everyday experiences using technology.
Contributors