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Report / Study | Foilseachán

Extended reality: opportunities, success stories and challenges in health and education

The report presents a glimpse into the opportunities and challenges the health and education sectors face in relation to the use of extended reality technologies.

woman in virtual reality helmet

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The study describes the state-of-the art and provide an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing research results linked to the use of XR in health and education. It also identifies research fields where relevant data is still missing. The study investigates how XR can help in the daily life of vulnerable groups, such as children and persons with disabilities, as well as the challenges that they face when using these technologies.

Moreover, the study includes success stories on how XR benefits the education and health sectors at European level, as well as success stories in the engineering, manufacturing and logistics domains. Finally, it makes a market study of XR applications available in Europe, highlighting their societal and economic impact and identifying barriers for larger deployment or take-up. 

The study provides recommendations both in terms of policy intervention, potential research and innovation areas at EU level, aiming at fully exploiting the opportunities and benefits that XR technologies can offer to individuals and European businesses, in particular those active in the health and education sectors, and to the society at large.

The study (ref: study N°: VIGIE 2021/0505) was commissioned by the Commission to better document the potential, societal benefits, and impact of extended reality (XR) to foster a wider take-up of XR in Europe.