10 Ways AI Has the Potential to Elevate VR

Ever since Ivan Sutherland and Bob Sproull introduced VR to the world in 1968 through their infamous “Sword of Damocles” demo, people have been drawn to VR’s immersive and escapist potential.

We’ve also seen renditions of this vision in fiction such as Black Mirror, Sword Art Online, the 3 Body Problem, and Ready Player One. But despite every step towards these visions offered by science fiction, VR has failed to deliver it due to natural limitations in the underlying technology.

Though these challenges persist, one technology has emerged over the past year to offer a potential and force multiplier for VR. That technology is AI. But how exactly does it apply to VR? Here are 10 ways AI could elevate and integrate with VR – some underway and some imaginative – as both technologies evolve.

1. Personalization

More than 70 percent of consumers expect companies to provide them with personalized
experiences. VR would feel more real if it catered to individual needs and personalized experiences. This is where AI shines, and could empower VR environments by making them more tailored to each consumer by analyzing their behavior, preferences, and interaction patterns. For instance, imagine VR gaming environments where AI algorithms continuously monitor player actions, learning their gameplay style, preferred challenges, and even physiological responses such as heart rate and adrenaline levels. With this data, the AI can dynamically adjust difficulty levels, storyline, and environmental elements in real time, providing a uniquely personalized gaming experience. Besides just creating personalized environments, AI can also tailor to your individual needs and suggest relative products and services to buy in a virtual world.

2. AI-driven Content Generation

The most important elements of a virtual world, like the real world, are the content it contains like environment, objects, characters, infrastructure, etc. Generating and optimizing all this content requires ample work, developers, and computation power. This is where generative AI can have an impact through cost-effective content creation, more dynamic and interactive experiences, enhanced realism, and a much more efficient content generation process.

3. Enhanced Natural Language Processing

Natural language processing (NLP) is one of the core elements of a virtual world. Without it, you can’t naturally communicate with virtual characters. An example of this would be ChatGPT, which uses NLP to communicate with humans in natural language dialogues. Similarly, AI-powered NLP is crucial for people to interact with virtual characters. Using voice commands, users can navigate virtual worlds, making them more immersive and intuitive.

4. Gesture and Pose Recognition

In order to make virtual worlds more real and immersive, it’s important to interact with characters and objects with hand movements. This requires hand and body tracking, which can be supported and made more precise by AI-powered computer vision.

5. Object Recognition and Tracking

Virtual environments are not only filled with characters but objects like buildings, cars, doors, et cetera. These virtual objects need accurate object tracking and recognition so that the characters can interact with them – a process that could be streamlined and enhanced with the help of AI.

6. Adaptive Learning and Dynamic Storytelling

Personalization based on content generation and individual needs is not enough. AI brings in a new level of tailored experience in VR by enhancing dynamic storytelling. This means that by adaptive learning behavior, AI can modify virtual content, difficulty levels, and game storylines based on past interaction and skill level. This makes things not only personalized, but could enhance learning, retention rates, and enjoyment.

7. Emotion and Mood Recognition

Analyzing users’ past interactions and preferences is one thing, but being able to detect their emotional state and mood is something entirely futuristic. AI has the potential to predict your mood in a VR environment by analyzing facial expressions, heartbeat, and other psychological signals. The outcome of this tracking is to better personalize your experience dynamically.

8. Predictive Analytics

Based on analyzing your past interactions, present choices, emotional state, et cetera. AI could be able to predict your next action or decision. By utilizing predictive modeling, AI could also create more immersive, natural, and realistic VR environments.

9. Immersive Audio Processing

Humans can innately tell if a sound is coming from behind, above, sideways, or from somewhere else. However, achieving these three-dimensional soundscapes in VR is a bit tricky. But with the help of AI, realistic audio immersion in virtual environments reaches its maximum potential. That adds authenticity and depth to virtual reality environments.

10. Real-time Rendering Optimization

Another AI capability in the technology’s intersection with VR is to dynamically render virtual environments. Visual adjustments can be made based on what your device can handle and how strong your internet connection is. So, even if you’re using a less powerful device, you still get an experience that’s optimized accordingly.

In conclusion, AI serves as the catalyst propelling VR into realms once confined to science fiction. Through personalized experiences, dynamic storytelling, and precise interaction, AI has the potential to transform VR environments into immersive worlds personalized for individual users. This will be a moving target as AI continues to evolve in step with VR. Together, these technologies unlock each other.

UnbornTech is a tech blog that focuses on AI. The publication contributed this article to AR Insider due to its intersection with spatial computing