Recent News
AR – The Future
Posted in: Featured, General, Uncategorized
Dispatches from Day 2 at ARE2012
Steven Feiner (Columbia University) “Over and Out: Thoughts about the Future”; Jeffrey Powers (Occipital) “Retinal overlays: Should we even bother?”; Anselm Hook (Ookko) “Seeing value with Augmented Reality”
I was introduced to AR through Steve Feiner’s 2002 Scientific American article, “Augmented Reality: A New Way of Seeing.” He’s been in this game for a long time – researching and developing mobile AR for 16 years. And yet, he pointed out, he’s a recent arrival to the scene: altogether, we have 45 years of AR research behind us. AR is NOT new.
We know AR’s past. What does the future hold?
In the near term, it’s “probably not going to be Google Glasses”, with a tiny screen placed in a corner of the user’s field of vision. Feiner underscored that we need full glasses (many of which are already on the market) to cover our wide fields of vision. The longer term? Probably implants. With cameras that are always on. (Remember that part…)
Tracking will likely be collaborative, drawing on a user’s history, mapping it to a database, and then making educated guesses manifested in “interesting information” sent to the user in the space she’s occupying. For example, when you walk down this street on Fridays at 4pm, you’re usually going to the wine store. Want to know the vintages on special today? The database will concurrently be updated with information (images) taken from the user’s glasses.
Users… will be everyone.
As a result, we’ll have always updating street views. Not a couple of years old, but a couple of seconds old.
Ultimately, and this is where it gets scary, or exciting, depending on your perspective (age?), we will have created the ultimate social network. Anyone wearing glasses (which will need cameras) will be recording what’s going on around them, including your activities, regardless of whether or not you’re wearing glasses. And that information will be available to the world.
So forget Facebook. Regardless of how you feel about social networks, you’ll be in one.
- Kevin, are2012
The challenge will be to make these glasses (or implants) beneficial enough that everyone will want to wear them all the time. In the short run lots of people will wear them for the novelty but people may get sick of them and there may be a backlash. I love AR but it has to be useful.
I am very curious to find out what the costs of this technology might be. I do not think ‘everybody’ will be wearing these glasses or getting implants anytime soon.
I agree with you. At this point Project Glass can do little more than transfer still images.
Hands-free is the future for AR but I think it will be at least a decade away. I do not think Project Glass will be this year’s must-have Christmas gift. Of course I’d love to be wrong on this!
I’m not convinced that hands free is the way to go.
People want to have their phone on them at all times. People don’t want to wear glasses unless they have to.
I think a few people will buy them but I really don’t think everyone will be walking around with them on.
I have to wear glasses anyway so if they could do this kind of stuff I’d be way ahead of the game.
I think most people who wear glasses/contacts (I’d guess at least 1/2 of the adult pop’n) would feel the same way as I do.
Assuming the price is right I will DEFINITELY buy a pair.
Our grandparents (and parents) couldn’t imagine a time when everyone is walking around glued to their phones.
The younger generation will embrace this technology.
I think you are right, but I hope you are wrong. Imagine everyone sitting around wearing the glasses at Christmas dinner!
I don’t think the glasses will ever come to market, I think they will skip right to the contact lenses.
I know there have been parodies of the glasses already but I think there are serious safety implications. Will you be able to wear the glasses while driving? Technically they are **hands free**.
Also, funny to imagine all these people walking down the street talking to themselves…
It is hard to imagine this world – with society’s increasing interest in privacy, how will it be possible that we will all be in a social network? What are the implications for kids? Are lawyers funding this research?