AUGMENTED REALITY: BUSINESS AND EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES IN KENYA

Abstract

Advancements in technology in the world today have created new ways of doing things and interacting with the

physical world around us. In business, companies have embraced these technologies to satisfy their interests,

create competitive advantage and develop new revenue streams. A company may be interested in user satisfac

tion, improving sales, improving efficiency in delivery but more so for a competitive advantage over competi

tors creating barriers for new entrants to their market space. Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging Human

Computer Interaction technology that combines or overlays computer generated virtual objects and other

feedback with real world scenes. Unlike VR, which replaces the physical world, AR enhances physical reality

by integrating virtual objects into the physical world. The virtual object becomes, in a sense, an equal part of

the natural environment. AR enables a user to add virtual information on top of real-world environment with the

help of devices that support this technology which then help the user perform better in the tasks through interac

tion with this enhanced environment. This literature review gives an overview of key areas of potential adoption

of AR in Kenya. Thus, in business and education. AR as a technology is worth investing money and time for its

potential in business in this time and era. According to Ahonen (Farber, 2013), AR is expected to be adopted by

a billion users by 2020, which implies that there is a big potential in augmented reality in the near future.