The XR Association was founded to promote responsible development and thoughtful advancement of XR that fosters positive societal outcomes. Support for research is essential to the achievement of this mission and is a major priority of the association and its member companies, which include Google, HTC, Microsoft, Meta, and Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Over the years, academics and the research community generally have studied different facets of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and other immersive technologies (collectively “XR”) to aid in its development, provide guidance for its use, and help industry develop best practices and standards to ensure safe adoption by consumers, sector-specific and enterprise users. Yet there is still much to be examined and understood about the potential influences and impact of XR technologies.
To address this challenge, the XR Association is committed to:
- Supporting broad, thoughtful and forthright research inquiries into XR technologies
- Developing relationships with the academic community and other organizations researching XR technologies to increase opportunities for collaboration and support
- Utilizing research to support the development of best practices, standards, and public policy positions relating to XR technologies
- Developing market research about knowledge, use and utility of XR technologies
- Compiling completed research on XR technologies in key areas of interest in order to identify areas for further inquiry and research
- Surfacing and highlighting completed research to the XR ecosystem and beyond
Given the XR Association’s focus on the positive societal outcomes that result from the use of XR technologies, research topics that concern the physical and psychological impacts on users and applications in the areas of health care, education, public safety, manufacturing, accessibility and inclusion, workforce training, and the support of American competitiveness will be prioritized for support.
The XR Association invites all those who are active in research concerning VR, AR, MR and other immersive technologies to be in contact with us at info@xra.org.