What’s next for visualization technology? Barco experts share their views

Gesture-controlled interfaces, multi-touch screens, interactive digital signage, holographic displays, and even AI: is the future shown in sci-fi movies like Star Wars, Star Trek, and The Matrix really where visualization is headed? And what’s Barco’s role in that future? We asked Peru Dharani, our Senior VP Research, and Design and Innovation Engineer Guillaume Segaert.

In every chat we have with Peru, he keeps repeating it: “These are hugely exciting times to be active in technology and visualization.” As the head of BarcoLabs, Peru works closely with a growing group of visioneers, like Guillaume to develop breakthrough solutions. Not technology for the sake of it, but solutions that add value to our customers’ lives.

How does the future of visualization look like?

When looking back on 90 years of Barco visualization , we see a blizzard of new technologies. “Still, the concept of visualization has remained almost untouched,” says Peru. “We keep using projectors and screens to display static information. That is about to change, as we’re entering an interactive era: visualizations are becoming dynamic.

We’re entering an era of interactive visualization: visualizations become dynamic, and we’ll be increasingly engaging with them in ways we might not even realize

Peru Dharani

Senior VP Research at Barco

What does that mean for Barco?

Peru: “We’re looking into the possibilities of transparent displays, for example. They’re the perfect canvas to bring augmented reality images that connect people, beyond the individual AR experiences that exist today. In a next step, we’ll want to move to ubiquitous visualization that crops up anywhere, merging seamlessly with the real world. Humans will engage with it in ways we might not even realize.”

What will be the key advancements in the near future?

The volume of data created, captured, copied, and consumed has been soaring exponentially over the past few years. By 2025, worldwide data will grow to 180 zettabytes (= over a trillion gigabytes), BI platform Statistica predicts . A massive amount of computing power, smart visualization solutions, and intelligent software are needed to collect, store, process, distribute, and retrieve this data.

But that’s not all. The main question is: how can we make optimal use of that data? “If you can’t distill insights from data, it’s just an avalanche of bits and bytes,” says Peru. Barco to the rescue: we have the expertise needed to develop the technology platform that visualizes that data and translates it into knowledge.

Can image quality keep improving?

“At Barco, we keep pushing the boundaries to make images as true-to-life as possible,” Guillaume states. “We’ve been setting the standard for decades in markets like healthcare and simulation , but equally in events and cinemas . Our expertise in image processing , projection , and optics puts us in pole position in this era where image quality rules.” As there is no limit to the need for better image quality, Barco increasingly takes into account new parameters to keep exceeding expectations. Color accuracy, noise behavior, and even perception models all help us predict how an image will be interpreted by the human eye – and how its quality will be perceived.

How is Barco surfing on the AI wave?

There is no future outlook without mentioning AI, these days. Peru believes that we can’t imagine where AI will bring us: “Over 100 years ago, Edison came up with the light bulb. At that time, no one had a clue how much that would change our lives, while today we just take it for granted. With AI, we are in that light bulb moment.”

As the world increasingly embraces AI, so does Barco. More than building these capabilities into our solutions, we’re also working on the high-performance GPUs necessary for managing the massive datasets inherent in AI algorithms.

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Can we make visualization solutions truly sustainable?

The increasingly pressing quest for sustainability has been on Barco’s roadmap for years and we keep sharpening our focus in that field. More than boosting the sustainability of our own operations and that of our solutions, some Barco products – e.g. ClickShare– are also part of the sustainability solution.

Guillaume: “Here too, innovation plays a key role. For now, we’re providing increasingly modular, energy-efficient, and circular solutions. In the future we could come up with more disruptive ways. If we were successful in replacing hundreds of projectors in an immersive space with one single unit, that would have a hugely positive impact throughout the value chain."

Predictions by a visioneer

In our ongoing 'Predictions by a visioneer' series, our visioneers offer a variety of forecasts covering technology, society, and beyond, inviting exploration into future possibilities.