Alphabet Soup – 5 terms you need to know
The pace of technology continues to move at warp speed. There are some terms that were once only discussed by IT teams and are now more common among businesses users and consumers. In my reading and research, I find there are terms that have multiple or unclear meanings in different contexts.
5 Terms you need to know
RPA – Robotic Process automation
RPA is a form of business process automation that uses technology to define a set of instructions for a software ‘bot’ to perform. RPA tools enable software bots to perform many tasks, quickly without error. RPA automates repetitive tasks that were previously handled by humans across systems and applications. RPA can handle data receiving, data processing, data collection, data correction and data creation. One example is automating the manual work of processing accounts receivables and payables. Another is sending triggered responses like emails or SMS based on defined criteria.
AR – Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality allows the superposition of digital elements into the real-world environment. An example is scanning a QR code in a catalog and viewing a digital representation of a piece of furniture in your current room with a smart phone. The real world, your room, is augmented with the digital experience of the piece of furniture. The ability to overlay digital objects onto the physical world is revolutionizing many industries such as gaming, education, healthcare, and manufacturing.
MR – Mixed Reality
Mixed reality is a technology that allows not only the superposition of digital elements into the real-world environment, but also their interaction. In the MR experience, the user can see and interact with both the digital elements and the physical ones. There are many business use cases for MR including immersive training and simulation experiences at scale.
VR – Virtual Reality
VR is a fully digital immersive experience. A digital device like a headset is used to experience a digital world with visual and auditory sensations. The physical world is blocked out during the experience. The experience feels ‘real’ – like you are on an actual rollercoaster, racing down a mountain, or swimming with sharks. VR is expanding far beyond gaming and entertainment into business applications for training, prototyping for manufacturing, and reducing design time for new products.
XR– Extended reality
Extended reality is the umbrella term that includes all AR/VR/MR. As newer realities emerge that alter reality by adding digital elements to the real-world environment. XR will continue to describe the realities that blur the line between the physical and the digital world.
So in the words of one of my favorite comedians, Trevor Noah, If you don’t know, now you know about 5 terms you will hear or read about that may impact your organization.
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