Page 159 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2020

Industry-driven digital transformation

experiment which tested the variation in user content to the other solutions. Developing VR and MR solutions
between farmers utilizing non-immersive VR and a textual- typically takes longer than developing AR solutions and
based cattle diseases diagnosis method [30] further supports requires more specialized equipment for the end user to fully
the adoption of immersive technologies for farm benefit from the immersive experience. 47.05% of the
management. Participants of the study indicated that the studies used immersive technologies on a mobile platform,
usage of the VR method could assist them to govern their and 47.05% equally used a desktop platform. 5.8% used
farmers efficiently and teach them about various cattle neither desktop nor mobile platforms. Mobile and desktop
illnesses. platforms seem equally popular amongst the research we
analyzed. The use of a mobile device in a farm setting allows
2.2.6 Farm Marketing the farmworkers to be mobile and carry the solution with
them across large areas. The portability is favored in several
Shaleendra et al. [31] present a simulation for a studies, specifically those focused on crop and animal
computerized IoT-based greenhouse (AR-Glasshouse), tracking. About 18% of the research uses immersive
which allows IoT vendors to distinctively advertise the technologies as a form of training. Furthermore, only 11.8%
necessity for a computerized greenhouse system to of the solutions in the research are deployed in real life.
agriculturists, using a mobile AR visualization application. 88.2% of the systems mentioned in the research were just
This application helps to visualize the importance of IoT used as prototypes. Using immersive technologies to
systems to people with inadequate practical first-hand improve agricultural productivity is promising but their
experience of working with a computerized greenhouse. adoption is hindered by limited large-scale implementation.
Comprehension of technology-based improvement or Various evaluation methods were used in the studies we
utilization in enhancing greenhouses is rare amongst farmers analyzed. Qualitative evaluation using questionnaires was
and therefore hinders the process of marketing. Another the most popular, being used in 35.5% of the literature.
example of immersive technology being used for marketing Further, 17.6% of the studies did not mention any or use
in agriculture is a wine estate VR mobile application evaluation in the application developed. Qualitative
developed by authors in [19] to market a wine estate to its methods' popularity in evaluating the effectiveness of the
customers, sellers, and investors. Authors in [37] also present solution can be attributed to the researchers’ wanting to gain
a study on wine tasting experiences in light of marketing more understanding of the impact of this technology. Based
needs. on the analysis, we also note that most of the studies, up to
88%, were conducted outside of Africa. This suggests that
3. OVERVIEW OF SELECTED ARTICLES there is a need for more immersive interactive applications
in agriculture to be developed in Africa. The minimal
This study carefully selected relevant articles that promote research being done in Africa can be attributed to limited
our objective, using certain inclusion and exclusion criteria. awareness and training infrastructure in the continent.
Articles selected for the analysis satisfied the following Exploring immersive technologies, especially for a sector
criteria: (i) studies related to the research questions; (ii) which the continent depends on is worth investigating in
studies mostly published in the last 5 years; (iii) studies that more detail.
can be found in scholarly databases; and (iv) articles must
use some type of immersive technology.

We initially started with 70 papers which were sourced from
typing in keywords from the research questions into the
Google search engine. From the 70 papers, guided by the
highlighted criteria, we narrowed them down to 22 papers.
From the 22 papers, we narrowed the number of papers down
to 17 after reading through the papers and realizing they have
similar applications and/or did not possess enough content
for our analysis.

4. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This work selected papers relating to the three (3) core areas
of immersive technologies in agriculture as shown in Table
1 and Table 2. A total of 17 papers were analyzed and each
paper used or considered at least one type of immersive
technology in agriculture. 53% used AR, 41% used VR and
only 6% used MR. From this analysis, we see that AR has
been explored the most, closely followed by VR. MR has
been the least explored immersive technology in agriculture,
according to the papers we analyzed. The popularity of AR
could be due to its affordability and simplicity in comparison

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