The Potential And Pitfalls Of Augmented Reality
Beyond reality into an existence of real world and technology blended into one.
Unless you’re a hermit, you will have noticed a curious phenomenon in recent months: people have been seen in public watching the world through the lens of their smartphone camera, before yelping excitedly as cartoon characters are superimposed onto humdrum surroundings. While the willing participants call this Pokémon Go, wiser and more IT-savvy people refer to it as augmented reality – the projection of a virtual world onto a real one.
What is Augmented Reality?
Augmented reality (AR) has been with us for a while, but it wasn’t that big a deal before Pikachu and his friends began popping up on our desks, carpets and worktops. AR’s name comes from the augmentation of the world around us with computer generated images, and it differs from virtual reality by adding to our surroundings rather than blocking them out. AR can be displayed on mobile devices or viewed on special glasses; bionic contact lenses are in development, while head-mounted digital projectors beam content onto surrounding surfaces.
Into the Future
With Apple’s CEO Tim Cook recently saying augmented reality is “going to be huge”, the potential for this new technology is obvious. It’s easy to see how computer games and smartphone apps could benefit from real-world projections – role-playing games and route guidance would never be the same. However, the possible applications don’t stop there. The military and emergency services could use AR to train more effectively or view blueprints of buildings as they arrive, just as doctors could have a patient’s biometrics superimposed onto their bodies. Retailers might provide product information that can be viewed in AR when a customer interacts with the item, expanding on the technology demonstrated by Layar whereby information about surrounding buildings is called up as app users approach.
Adapting and Incorporating
From the business community’s perspective, anything that provides more information to customers has to be considered beneficial. New opportunities to interact with existing (and potential) clients are invaluable, and early adoption of AR will create far more positive brand connotations than rivals who shun it. The gaming and home entertainment industries are particularly keen to see AR thrive, while the burgeoning adoption of web technology in our vehicles could see it deployed to identify hazards or flag up points of interest.
The Pitfalls
Though augmented reality offers many advantages, its development has involved controversy and failures. High profile casualties included Google Glass, whose bulky frames and vision complaints among users made it the AR equivalent of the 1980s’ Sinclair C5. Today, electric vehicles aren’t uncommon, but Sir Clive Sinclair’s slow, egg-shaped creation was too far ahead of its time to succeed. We may all be wearing AR glasses by 2030, though developers will have to resolve the problem of simultaneous near and far vision being required.
Privacy is another key hurdle, with American laws restricting constant recording and global concerns about how our data is stored and protected. AR relies on precise GPS data to provide accurate results, and it is questionable how many people want their every footstep to be tracked for the purposes of – in many cases – personalized marketing. What if technology advances to a stage where pointing your phone at someone brings up their social media accounts and personal details? At what point does AR become intrusive or potentially harmful, and would the genie ever go back into the bottle?
Despite justified questions about its governance, AR offers huge potential to change the way we interact with our surroundings. Just ask Pikachu – if you can find him.