Interesting stuff. My own reading of the tea leaves agrees with his. There will come a day when pretty much everybody has magic glasses, enabling them to see all sorts of layers on top of the real world. These layers will come to be nearly as “real” as reality itself, and anybody who doesn’t wear will be missing out on a major part of our social world.
And, this guy claims, all this is going to begin this year, with major new product lines from Apple kicking off a rapid development war.
He also predicts (and again, I agree) that Unity developers will be in high demand, building all that mixed-reality content. It’s not just about games, either — every store, every business is going to want virtual functionality. Things that passers-by can view to learn about or virtually try out products, assistance in fixing things, virtual graffiti, who knows what.
I think it’s going to be bigger than the cell phone revolution. The stuff we build will be out there, in the real world, looking just as solid and stable as the book on my desk. It boggles the mind.
And, hooray for us! We’re poised to get in on that early. And I’m not shy about saying so, because there is going to be more work there than we can possibly do. Even counting all the late-coming posers who will jump in after the winds of change start blowing.
If and when Apple decides to make it happen I’m more than willing to put money on it being done through phone integration similar to Google’s Tango. Don’t expect any headsets or the like from Apple because headsets are functionally one of the least elegant things ever made.
I can confirm I just landed a job from an agency cold call looking for a local unity dev doing mixed reality in a field completely unrelated to gaming.
Unity is already popular in non gaming applications, but it’s about to explode with vr being native and Microsoft strongly supporting hololens in unity.
I think it has to be headsets (glasses), or it’s not really happening at all; nobody’s going to peer through at the virtual world through a little 3° FOV window, when they could have it all around them.
However, unlike the Hololens, I do think Apple is likely to offload all the processing to the phone. They’ll make that headset as light as they possibly can, more like sunglasses than like Hololens (and this helps with battery life, too — something that will become a real issue when people start using these all day). The latest iPhones are ridiculously overpowered for their current uses, but this makes good sense if they’re planning to drive mixed-reality glasses with it.
Congrats! I’m thinking of adding “mixed reality” (or maybe “augmented reality” — not clear which term is going to catch on yet) to the shingle I hang out in front of my (virtual) door, too.
In the last few months I’ve already talked to two companies who want to do AR initiatives and are very excited about it, one of which is a Fortune 500 company. I think it’s going to get more traction than VR has thus far.
People are already peering at things through a little 3º FOV window as we speak. The eyes are already there, which makes the prospect of AR built into phones far more appealing of a prospect. People carry their phones everywhere, landlines are diminishing in sales, phones even replace watches for a lot of people. And, unlike a headset, a phone is a cost you already ate.
I’d say it’s more likely that headsets are the worst thing for the future for the same reason smart watches are barely a thing still after numerous price cuts: they don’t have the raw convenience or accessibility of a phone.
I agree. I’ve had opportunities lately to spend some time with a Vive lately, as well as a Hololens, and the experience is quiet different. I see VR maybe being a big thing (finally, after 30 years of false starts!) for serious gamers, much like game consoles are today. But AR is going to be a thing for everybody, like cell phones are today.
It won’t be an either/or thing — it’ll be, everybody uses AR, and some people also use VR.
That last statement is a bit funny, though. I expect in maybe 5-10 years, we’ll all have our magic glasses on all the time, and the kids will be like, “what, to find something you you had to pull something out of your pocket?!?”
I get what you’re saying though, that AR right now means on the phone. No argument. But if Apple announces a headset this June, well, that’ll change everything in short order.
It’s different from smart watches, because let’s be honest, a smart watch just doesn’t change your world that much. If you get a ton of texts, maybe it’s nice to glance at your wrist rather than pull your phone out, but it doesn’t enable you to do anything different in kind from what you could do before.
But an AR headset opens up a whole new world (or more accurately, a whole new layer on the existing world). That enables all sorts of new applications. We are already used to hearing things (musicians, podcasters, etc.) that aren’t really there; soon we’ll be seeing things that aren’t really there either. Looking at images of them on a 5-inch 2D screen just isn’t close enough to the experience of seeing them in the world, in full 3D, to be a plausible substitute (once the latter becomes widely available).
Anyway… always in motion, is the future. But that’s what I see.
Unless those magic glasses come with a price of $100 with a phone contract renewal, I kinda super doubt that. Phones are ridiculously accessible and don’t come with any of the caveats that any sort of headset tends to, like, for instance, needing glasses already and not being able to stack them without looking like a complete tool.
Mark my words, Apple won’t release a headset. It just doesn’t gel with any of their product philosophies.
Fixed that for you. My youngest nephew isn’t three yet and he’s already using a computer better than many adults.
Agreed, but only because I believe they’ll create glasses instead of a complete headset. The HoloLens isn’t sleek and it isn’t fashionable. Apple will want to create something that people won’t look embarrased to be walking around in or that won’t get in the way.
Speaking of which - google was working on this for a couple years.
Whatever was the reason for google glasses not going further than concept? Why is google glasses not a ‘thing’ right now?
Look up “glasshole”. I don’t think the general public is yet ready to be recorded by any stranger. I think the Google glass is put on ice or they are developing it for the industry like people working in warehouses.
I am getting inquiries from major car companies, railroads, contractors, infrastructure, medical marijuana, new social network startups and educational contacts about consulting how to maximize AR and VR for their industries for training, tracking and advanced industry specific technologies. Gonna have to train the sheepdog and cockatoo to code soon.
It’s also not a consumer device yet. So it’s basically a glorified prototype. Very functional and the next step will be to make it practical. One of the original iPad prototypes as nearly an inch thick:
Alright - thanks for that. LOL
However - isn’t this one of the ‘things’ all this AR/VR wearable device stuff will have to deal with going forward.
Who thinks the all mighty Apple will not make a comfortable (google glass like) device - without all the abilities of a standard cell phone?
This must be something everyone working on ‘the next’ is struggling with. How far is too far for instant record-able live action and content, mixed reality?
Maybe with a google glass ‘like’ device - the world will be littered with scramblers, so the glasshole fear will be reduced. Every public bathroom and tons of other areas around the world would have a micro chip scrambler (or whatever tech) - to keep people from peeping and being creepy - while still allowing for the wearable instant ‘overlay’ of AR into the world.
Whatever it’s, I think Apple is tied financially to iPhone so any new product in the short-term could be some glasses extension to the mobile like Watch.
It’s kind of boring spending so much time looking into the small screen, every hour at day and night. It won’t be replaced but It’s time to jump forward!
:)
