We’ve had a few discussions on virtual reality and it’s current uses, but this week lets talk about augmented reality! We’ve seen the use of AR throughout many works of fiction, and we can now see it on the horizon as a growing technology.
So my question to you all is, what is an everyday use of AR that you would like to see? Is there anything that you think AR can do to enrich your daily life?
Personally, one that I think would be extremely useful is the idea of having a way to integrate navigation / maps into your headset. It would be awesome to be able to set a destination, put your headset on and follow a guide or a line to your destination! It would be a large step up from the old MapQuest days…
A complete disregard for headsets as a concept, honestly. We already have devices that are near perfect for AR with just a little bit of tweaking that everyone already owns: phones. What we really need to see are more widespread versions of initiatives like Google Tango for virtual marker placement.
To be honest, AR is a very general thing, and it does not always have to be a game thing. I try to have a better understand with the AR. So, here is my AR reasoning…
Most of the AR displayer will need to show a unordinary thing from our real life world to be inside a real life background displayer. What feeds the AR purpose is to display the unordinary thing that does not exist inside our real world.
Ex. Displaying the unordinary thing can be displaying a fake object examples inside your real world to test your sense if you want that real product to be yours someday.
Ex. Displaying the unordinary thing can be displaying the statics like a measurement of how big a landscape, how fast are you travelling, or an accurate guidance of a direction. But, I think technically we will never need a virtual reality guidance when we are driving a car inside a landscape. Because, a virtual reality tends to me more like a 3D point of view, while driving a car on a landscape is like going on a 2D map. But, sometimes riding a air pilot will be useful with a virtual reality displayer, because traveling in air is more like traveling in a 3D space.
Ex. Displaying the unordinary thing can be displaying the fictional characters for making a fun game like Pokemon Go.
Personally, I have always been fascinated with the initiative to create virtual blueprints or circuit diagrams that repair personnel could call up when they were working on machinery. There are companies that have been doing something with this for a number of years, but as far as I know none of them have reached the point where Hollywood movies take it to of the glasses view actually resizing itself and lining up to what you’re looking at, nor of you being able to point at things on the actual machine and have information appear for you.
Other than that, most of the augmented reality aspects I’d like to see are probably going to remain science fiction for now. Certainly not in the next decade, possibly not in my lifetime. From what I’ve seen of the VR initiatives, I just don’t think we can put enough affordable computing and display power out with the current technology to make the kind of AR initiatives that would make me sit up and go, “WOW!”
I was just having a discussion with one of my senior tech this morning about this. The younger tech all require GPS to find their way out of the shop it seems, where the older techs still rely on landmarks (i.e. turn left at the donut shop). This article show how GPS overuse can actually deteriorate certain memory functions.
I think virtual reality may come into play in marketing. Want to preview that view from your hotel room, just look here. How about the concert / sporting event you just browsed, here is the view from the seat you have selected. Stuff like that.
I think AR will change the face of warfare (along with about 100 other significant changes).
Just to start I think that AR could have massive benefits to the psychology of warfare. The single biggest struggle for on the ground tactics is instilling a willingness to kill. Killing another human being is the most unnatural thing you could ever subject someone to. If a person was however to fire at a nondescript human form, like this:
That’s all the more time fighting and less time wrestling with the horror of what you’re doing.
Then this could also be used to greatly reduce PTSD.
When someone’s head is blown apart the AR could deliberately censor it from your view.
Then there’s the direct applications.
Imagine a swarm of tiny drones that flood the area then send back the information to a captain who has a computer process the information into 3d maps, mark the locations of hostiles, and potentially suggest the best course of action.
Of course most likely direct combat will be gone within 20 years and we will have moved on to all attack drones, robot snipers, lasers that temporarily blind people, nonlethal microwave pain rays (it’s a thing, look it up), and so on.
But I feel like AR could go a long way to fill the gap before warfare can become completely autonomous.
While some applications could be seen as a luxury, I think there will be some great applications that can come out to work towards a new way we work with different fields. As you said, AR isn’t just game space and I personally see it thriving in different workplaces. A great example of a practical use for AR is what ScopeAR are working on, which is a new way to visualize construction and architecture.
Oh boy, that sounds like an accident waiting to happen. I really dislike the idea of people walking around with a headset on and trying to follow a line on a map.
I would like something that makes me feel like I am walking in the woods while on my treadmill (could be another accident waiting I guess) or maybe on my stationary bike. Or even for meditation, some soothing music, a cool forest, a nice beach with surf.
Could be great for de-stressing, something many of us need in today’s world.
Yeah, probably. I like the idea of AR much better anyway. How about I sit on my bike and the room becomes full of trees and bird sounds! Or maybe again, I can sit in the middle of my floor and it becomes a temple for calm meditation.
Also, playing board games would be awesome with AR and no pieces to lose. I would not have to store games in my house and we have lots of them.
I would also love AR to teach my kids about various subjects, maybe the ability to make the living room turn into a flowing lava field and I can teach them about Hawaiian volcanoes. History, geology, biology, lots of cool ways for me as a homeschooling parent could use AR. Because it is not behind a mask, it is easy for us to interact within this AR world.
Oh, and the map line would be cool with AR. So just ignore my above post.
Using 3d objects as image markers so imagine things like do it yourself mechanic.
Or instruction manuals, think Ikea furniture now you can watch a video of each step in real time, rotate the model, click on each “part” etc
For tourist things I call them “ar experiences” For example I had this idea for the cn tower glass floor, you walk around up there and now ar cracks start to appear you got to runaround and fix them before the whole thing “shatters”. Imagine a projector like the hololamp but that was way more powerful, so you don’t need to use a phone or download an app or be incumberd by big bulky eyewear.
