5G x VR and Web technology (from the viewpoint of a mobile operator)

This position paper is submitted by Kazumasa Kobayashi of Application Software Development Group, Communication Device Development Department, NTT DOCOMO, INC.

I am an engineer who has been passionate about and working on smartphone application development. I have been involved in the development of Android and iOS applications that leveraged web technology for five years.

1. Background
DOCOMO is committed to research and development of the 5th generation mobile communication system "5G" aiming to start providing services in 2020. As a company (mobile operator) that provides �gcommunication�h, I would like to offer next generation communication that maximizes customer experience value, and I think of VR as an important application along with 4K content distribution and automatic driving etc. In the information-oriented society of the 2020s, it is expected that the way we communicate will evolve from existing �gsharing information�h with letters and images to �gsharing of experiences�h. In the VR space, we believe that the user experience will be improved by experiences beyond real world constraints.

2. Vision
DOCOMO is now building a trial environment for new 5G services in order to realize the "DOCOMO 5G world". One of the new 5G services is sightseeing. DOCOMO eyes the following three values ??to be offered to potential tourists in the 5G environment as follows: 1) Easy to get a new tourist experience with hand-held terminals 2) High-definition overwhelming sightseeing content 3) Favorite place focuses on realization of the three values ??above that you can enjoy from any angle you like. We are aiming at producing the de facto standard of VR-enabled tourism service [1]. Standardization activity of web technologies at W3C is of vital importance to developers providing VR-enabled tourism applications that should be maintained and continually improved in the long run.

3. Technology challenge on the Web
They say that the technical challenge necessary for realizing tourism VR application is �gImmersive communication�h. In the world of immersive communication, it is possible to "interact with the remote person and the surrounding environment," natural interaction so as to forget what is in there.

To realize truly-immersive, we need to make our applications meet the high-level requirement regarding real-time, interactive, device cooperation, rich content. W3C already has the experience of developing (standardizing) the technology necessary for realizing them.

Like WebRTC / QUIC for securing real time property, HTML 5 for interactive, WoT for device linkage, WebVR / WebAssembly for rich content, processing for collecting and distributing large amounts of data, etc. Web technology has already worked as an infrastructure for VR applications deployment. According to one theory, they say that VR-headset users feel Virtual reality sickness when its latency exceeds 20 milliseconds. Especially real-time (ultra-low latency!) is an essential requirement.

In addition, it is important to consider that the governments, local governments, etc. are starting proactively dispatching tourism information themselves as a leading PR agent, so that anyone shall be able to use any standard technology that can be used from any device at any time without depending on a specific company or platform. In other words, it is necessary to satisfy the requirement as a long tail application (" calls for continuous supply over the long term while responding to changes in the times and industry"). We all need web technology there!

In 2017, DOCOMO succeeded in developing panorama VR video distribution technology of 8K 60 fps ahead of the world. We are looking forward to the development and stable standardization activities at W3C to give sightseeing VR applications a more appeal, with the overwhelming immersive feeling.

4. Conclusion
VR immersive communication has the potential to make remote communication even better in both quality and quantity than physical communication. By drawing out the achievements of multiple research fields including multimedia signal processing, computer vision, graphics, network, sensor, display and sound reproduction system, tactile sense, perception modeling and psychophysics, it will bring an immersive experience to users. Tourism application is one of many 5G x VR use cases. DOCOMO will take full advantage of web technologies such as WebVR, WebRTC, QUIC, WoT, etc. and will work on a wide range of services / applications development that promotes the spread of 5G technology. It�fs my great pleasure to be a part of the world�fs Web and 5G activities and be able to contribute to the advancement of Web standardization at W3C through our 5G x VR efforts.