You’ve heard of virtual reality and the computer-generated fake worlds you can create an interact with, well have you heard about what’s in store for us with augmented reality?
What the hell is augmented reality (AR) I hear you say? Glad you asked.
Okay let’s start with a definition of what augmented reality is – This is a definition from Lexico.com
A technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.
So, what that means is you’ll be able to wear some technology that will overlay some digital information over what you’re looking at. For example, imagine wearing a pair of glasses that can display your text messages and emails etc on the lenses while you’re walking down the street. This is roughly how that’s going to work; You would link your phone via an augmented reality app to the device you’re wearing (your glasses) and boom augmented reality right in front of your eyes.
Is this real, is augmented reality coming? You betcha, check this out…
Apple’s long-awaited AR glasses, which are expected to have holographic displays in their lenses. Apple has targeted 2020 for the release of its AR headset, an attempt to succeed where Google Glass failed years ago. The glasses are expected to synchronize with a wearer’s iPhone to display things such as texts, emails, maps, and games over the user’s field of vision. The company has considered including an App Store with the headset, as it does on Apple TV streaming devices and the Apple Watch. It’s hiring experts in graphics and game development to establish the glasses as the leader in a new product category and, if all goes perfectly, an eventual successor to the iPhone.
Article source – bloomberg.com
This is just a gif image from Giphy.com and probably not what Apple’s AR glasses are going to look like – But this is what we’re talking about!
It seems that 5G really is going to change the way we view our world and with the speed that computer technology and communication technology is changing things, in the next few years our world, in terms of the way we communicate and how we access information is going to be radically different. Here are 12 more amazing and scary predictions for the future that the experts think will happen.
And if Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Snap and Samsung pull off their planned new tech launches in the next couple of years maybe those 12 predictions need to be taken a bit more seriously.
This is amazing stuff and with the rate things are changing can you imagine what the technology our grandchildren are going to have access to?
But…
My less than tech-savvy, basic brain can see a couple of real-reality problems. Imagine you’re driving down the road during rush hour, it’s bumper to bumper, in stop-start traffic that means you’ve got a concentrate hard, and a text message pops up in front of your eyeballs. Isn’t that dangerous, and potentially illegal?
And we see kids these days with earbuds in their ears walking down the road with their eyes glued to their phones, completely oblivious to where they are or what’s around them, just stepping out in front of cars because they’re distracted by a new Snapchat or Instagram image.
Hopefully, you’ll be able to turn AR on and off. And if so, why not just look at your phone?
And as the Bloomberg article suggested, there’s no real hook yet that is going to make the new AR glasses the “must-have” gadget to buy for next Christmas.
What these AR tech guys are proposing is incredible but I think it’s in its infancy and I think there are more than a few wrinkles to iron out. I’m sure they’ll come and this new tech will improve quickly to make them practical, but right now I don’t see the point. And like all technology, give it a few years and AR eyeglasses will be like the first IBM personal computers from 1981, old now, and amusing when you look back.
