Reality, only better: The promise of augmented reality
Reality, only better
The promise of augmented reality
from The Economist
SF predicts the future and influences the technologists. Mobile phones are real-life versions of the hand-held communicators in “Star Trek”
If companies like Microsoft, Google, Magic Leap and Meta have their way, the next thing to leap from fiction to fact will be AR
AR will take three-quarters of the $108 billion a year which Digi-Capital predicts will be spent by 2021 on VR and AR combined
Now, as computers have shrunk and become powerful enough, it has become possible to give people the same experience as their daily lives
Last year, the world was briefly entranced by an AR smartphone game called Pokémon Go. Apps such as Snapchat are another example.
Google’s Translate app employs automatic translation and a smartphone’s camera to show an image with text interpreted into other languages
Snapchat and Translate rely on machine-vision algorithms. Snapchat is designed to detect faces. Translate looks for text in the world
Google and Lenovo unveiled a Tango-enabled phone which can model a house, an office or any other space upon which it can draw things
An app for Tango, “Measure”, overlays a virtual tape measure on a phone’s screen. “Woorld” lets users fill their rooms with virtual objects
Tango is impressive but is still in its early stages. AR may not take off until smartphones can be abandoned in favour of smart spectacles
Such glasses do exist. So far, though, they have made a bigger impact on the workplace than in the home
Boeing is using AR glasses to give workers in its factories step-by-step instructions. The result is faster work with fewer mistakes
Google’s “Glass” did not go well. The idea of it was to create a wearable smartphone, all the while leaving his hands free for other tasks
Google stopped making Glass in 2015 on privacy grounds, although it is working on a new version aimed at businesses instead of individuals.
RideOn, an Israeli company, will start selling AR ski goggles which turn skiing into a video game by showing users routes
Unlike Google’s Glass, Microsoft’s HoloLens can draw 3D images that appear to exist in the real world
It is like a Tango-enabled smartphone whose cameras scan the world around it and generate such a flood of information
Unlike VR headsets, HoloLens is a self-contained computer that needs no accessories
By overlaying its images onto the real world, the HoloLens headset turns reality into a computer monitor
The first demonstrations of the HoloLens involved games. More recent apps have focused on business and training like an anatomy practice
HoloLens can be used collaboratively, as well. A guide can see what the HoloLens user sees and put circles around objects of interest
Aecom is already using the HoloLens to help design very complicated modern buildings
In 2016 Aecom designed buildings with complex roofs which they couldn’t check on a 2D screen. But HoloLens let them all review it together
The HoloLens is far from perfect. It is bulky, unfashionable and expensive. The view is too small, and the gesture-tracking system is clunky
One rival of Microsoft is Meta whose AR headsets will have a much wider field of view and recognize more hand gestures than HoloLens
Magic Leap has attracted $1.4 billion in investment from Google and Ali Baba. The demos it has released show images clearer than HoloLens
AR is still at an early stage, especially as a consumer technology. Market forecasts of AR might be too exaggerated as well as ones of VR
Even among techies, enthusiasm for VR seems limited. A survey by Steam found that just 0.38% of its customers owned a VR headset in December
Consumer versions of AR should be adapted for peoples’ phones. But a phone’s screen is small, fiddly and tedious to use for AR apps
Mark Zuckerberg thinks VR and AR headsets will be like normal-looking glasses. Samsung and Apple are exploring the idea of AR contact lenses
None of the present approaches to AR seems to change the world as iPhone did. But those behind them hope that a combination of them will
