Seeing beyond the war: Russia, agribusiness and immersive technologies

Russia is currently on the news due to the military occupation in Ukraine. Some time ago, more specifically in 2019, the reason for the boom in the reach of Russian news was another: the use of virtual reality glasses on cows, to make them produce more milk. 

What can these two seemingly unconnected situations have in common, apart from being related to Russia? We answer: the use of immersive technologies. 

Therefore, today’s invitation is for a dialogue about what these technological tools are, how they are used, and why they deserve our attention. Care to come along? 

Mapping the terrain: what are immersive technologies?

At the outset, it is important to note that this is the second text, in a series of others on this blog, in which we will deal with extended reality (or simply “XR”). In the background of these productions, we have a research project in which we focus on understanding what these technologies are and what their impacts are, especially concerning privacy and personal data. 

Thus, let’s direct our gaze to “the question that won’t be silent”: what do “immersive technologies” consist of?

Source: Cambridge Dictionary

This term encompasses different types of relatively recent technological resources, through which it is possible to produce an immersive user experience. To make this “dive” possible in a reality produced by machines, these devices or applications use various human sensory pathways, the most common being vision, hearing, smell, and touch. 

Because of the even more realistic and persuasive effects that can be produced with these techniques, these resources have been used for different purposes, which can range from military training to expanding the profit of the agricultural industry. At this point, the common ground between a possible third world war and the overexploitation of dairy cows starts to make more and more sense, given the possibilities for using extended reality technologies. 

And it doesn’t stop there: its use and, consequently, its impacts promise not only to be in the news. Immersive technologies tend to be popularized and inserted into our daily lives, especially considering recent resources that make them cheaper and easier to handle, such as the 5G connection and the initiative of large technology companies, such as the metaverse. 

In this way, we try to imagine a future in which we, ordinary citizens, live with the possibility of a deep dive into a reality that is increasingly approaching science fiction territory. 

From milk to war: what are immersive tools for?

Years ago, in 2016, researchers at the Tech Policy Lab, at the University of Washington School of Law, pointed out to the scientific community the considerable change in the way that humanity could interact with data: there is not a big difference in how a Neolithic painting and a book presents them, they said, after all, there is an external exposure to the user that does not change their perception of physical reality; on the other hand, augmented reality (alongside other immersive technologies, we have pointed out) can blur the distinction between the screen of electronic devices and the concrete environment.

Using this possibility, the transmission of information takes on another level, with even more intimate impacts on the user, so that the influence on human emotions becomes even more incisive. 

Perhaps that’s why the US Army considered using simulators in military training as early as 2014. 

On the other hand, in 2018, a partnership between the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Google, and the agency Don’t Panic London launched the film The Right Choice, in which, through an immersive reality, spectators experience the Syrian urban warfare alongside a family of civilians, with survival as a mission. This episode illustrates a new way of telling stories and is a means to demonstrate the cruelty of war.

Likewise, in 2021, Project Dastaan ​​turned to virtual reality to enable seniors to visit their hometown after more than 70 years, making them relive memories interrupted by war during the British eviction of India and its consequent troubled territorial demarcation.  

Meanwhile, in the United States, a simulator makes it possible for the user to become president of the US and experience the imminence of a Russian nuclear attack, intending to make authorities able to learn to better deal with the pressure and stress of this scenario.

These examples illustrate how immersive technologies have been instrumentalized for years, both to develop the arms industry and to criticize it when there is political and economic interest. 

Although, until then, contact with such technologies was not so popular, the democratization of access to these resources is also driven by economic interests. For example, the possibility of marketing that uses biometric data, especially information passed unconsciously, makes the fine line between predicting and controlling human behavior even more blurred. From another perspective, this fact simultaneously provokes interest in companies that profit from personalized advertising, such as Meta (formerly Facebook) and Google.

In this sense, it is important to emphasize that the possibilities of using immersive tools do not end with themes related to war or agriculture. Education, driver training, games, and other forms of entertainment, among many other examples, make the possibilities for use inexhaustible.

In this way, the possible purposes of using immersive technologies are vast at first glance, but, on closer analysis, they become surprisingly more complex, especially when considering the socioeconomic vectors involved in the exploitation of these resources. Therefore, it is not up to this text to exhaust them, but it is important to point out that this is a topic to “keep an eye on”.

Seeing the now through the lens of tomorrow

As seen, mixed reality is a fact in our present and appears to be an imminent resource in our daily lives.

Novelties such as the famous Pokémon Go or “wearable” mobile devices, which function as transport glasses for such immersion, such as Google Glass and Microsoft HoloLens, currently demonstrate the possibilities of a promising future for immersive reality, such as already signaled by Victor Vieira, in the first text of this series on extended reality.  

However, more than talking about the future and thinking about the various possibilities that await us, it is important, at this moment, to think about the challenges posed by these technologies, among which we emphasize the protection of sensitive personal data (especially biometrics) and the limits on consent to use this data for advertising purposes, both topics related to the world of law.

Legal solutions for these new nuances of the right to the protection of personal data require a change from the traditional paradigm, and promise to make legal practitioners leave their comfort zone, moving towards specific and innovative legislation, capable of dealing with the sensitivity of this theme, which are still being developed. 

The future has already begun and requires responsibility 

Considering this scenario that is installed nowadays, it is possible to conclude that the tools that produce mixed realities have different formats and can be used for different purposes. From another perspective, they impose new technical challenges, practical and social, in addition to carrying great potential. 

That said, we will continue to produce texts on this blog, besides scientific products, to share the results obtained in the ongoing research on the relationship between immersive technologies and the protection of personal data. Therefore, we invite you to follow the series of blog posts on this topic and follow the Institute for Research on Internet and Society (IRIS) on social networks.

Thus, we continue “with an eye” on the tomorrow that we are building today.