Research Note

Abstract

July 6, 2021 Although we have been talking about AR/VR for a long time, Huawei’s exhibit highlighted what is already happening today and what’s possible moving forward. As soon as you passed the well-guarded gate at the entrance of Huawei’s booth, the first thing you see is someone playing with, teasing, and feeding wild animals through a 5G-based AR/VR configuration. Another exhibit was showcasing how to shop for clothing and try on the clothes you select with another 5G-based AR/VR setup. The most striking lesson we learned is that neither of the 2 setups required super large throughput, an uplink providing 100 to 200 Mbps was sufficient, nor ultra- low latency, it fluctuated between 10 and 20 ms. Huawei’s AR engine leverages AI to enable multiple tracking types such as broad motion, environment, face, hand, and gestures. In fact, our experience was amazing because the system reacted very quickly. The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown in China appeared extremely clear: retail is now well- established, with applications like virtual try-on and AR product visualization already being leveraged by brands and retailers. And the beginnings of social media AR are already in place, with AR filters and advertising on popular social media platforms. Moving forward, Huawei sees social media, entertainment, education, collaboration, healthcare, and retail as some of the most promising growth areas for AR when leveraging 5G. LightCounting subscribers can access the full text of this research note by logging into their accounts.