Future of AR - A morning in a life of Regina, year 2020

07:00AM         I woke up this morning a little tired so I decided, before starting to prepare breakfast, to take a look at what’s going on “live” in Europe. Right now is the month of May and everything is light and animated already, people are walking around by a piazza, a child just dropped his gellato, and started crying. I feel like walking to him and hugging the tearful kid, as well as getting him a balloon that is sold by the bookstore corner. That’s when I remember I am at home, my daughter has to go to school and she has to really socialize; it has been a week since she has asked me if she can stay home schooling taking AR classes; she needs to play with her classmates, she needs fresh air… that girl is just sometimes very stubborn. 

08:00AM         It is time to have breakfast! First I checked the availability of the food by just looking at the refrigerator, since I can virtually see inside without opening the door. And then I checked the weekly diet program prepared for my family’s health; and I picked the dish to cook. I don't need to know about the recipe and cooking procedure because I can just follow the instruction on my vision. I opened and took the dairy product package out, and I could check the calories, other dietary factors and expiry date just by looking at the package.

09:00AM         Just as I finished taking my AR Pilates class, I see my husband telling me that he has a meeting in the dining room, so we should avoid the area for an hour so they all can freely join him. It’s fine with me, since I was actually planning to go out, yesterday by using my glasses I could get so much done at work, that I have time for myself this morning. Before getting out I decide to ‘live’ the news and this is what I find:

 “Google glass has become a commoditized device, Google shares have dropped 1.34% since “@ugmentedLife” has announced that they have signed an agreement to work together with Bascon Palmer in order to make the implants with a hundred percent success to be attached to the human eye. Competitors such as Microsoft and Apple, have not been able to cope with the accelerated pace that “@ugmentedLife” has been growing, although they are now focusing more on education and travel, but they have been struggling since the Latin American Union Parliament approved to charge taxes to tourism companies every time a person visits their countries through AR instead of paying physical visits. Actual Tourism, one out of fifteen people nowadays make real travels, so industries such as hotels have needed to shift their operations offering AR rooms, to make their clients have the real experience of staying the night in their augmented reality rooms.

Also privacy regulations have been harshly penalizing each time technology customers have tried to go beyond another person’s privacy or break codes of a Nation’s intelligence system. To issue augmented reality use permits has become more strict and groups such as “Pro Real Life” have been pushing government and society to make reforms that promote the Augmented Reality detachment, this strong ARPhobic NGO is being supported by powerful leaders who are willing to take AR industry down to make things go “back to reality”.”

10:00AM         As I stop ‘living’ the news, I am grateful that now I can unplug myself but I don’t feel as bad as the news paint AR. I think about my neighbor, how since her car accident she can’t move, but thanks to her AR glasses she can go to work and last week she was very excited telling me how she had been able to attend her son’s college graduation. Without AR her life wouldn’t be the same, also global warming effects have decreased due to less gas emissions caused by air and ground transportation.

Now I decide to listen to music so I stare at my Bose music player and order it to play music just by saying "Play the music, Tchaikovsky, violin concerto D major." and it plays... simple. I can control almost every electronic device and gadget by just watching and ordering with voice. Before, with just voice recognition I can't easily do that because there are so many devices around me. but with AR added, with the help of other technologies such as image/video recognition and machine to machine communication, you can select the machine and give orders deliberately.

Ending remark:

1. AR ultimately will affect nearly every phase of life. Even prematured Google glasses can be used in wide range of life: food, health, travel, entertainment, living, education, information delivery and communication, military, etc. Please check the link for top 10 prominent use of Google glasses:

http://readwrite.com/2013/03/07/10-compelling-ways-people-plan-to-use-google-glass

2. It will evolve from a simple wearing device to more attachable, but together with other supporting technologies such as voice / image recognition, flexible display, RFID, bluetooth, and thin battery, it will be widely accepted to the public, such as contact lenses or other types of wearable devices. Some day in the long future, it will be eventually transplanted to the human body.

3. It will significantly improve the convenience for people because it reduces one layer of  many layers which lie in the information flow between human beings and machines. People no longer need to carry mobile phones, tablets, or PCs. They don't need to compare the digital images of those devices with the real view.  The multiple screens and any input devices will be replaced with single AR view and voice recognition technology.

4. At the end of  the day, It is not about just adding an additional layer into the real world. In other words, It is not just about visual augmentation, it is an augmentation of communication between you and other objects. (think about the example of the AH-64, apache helicopter) It enables visual tagging. You can identify an object and communicate with it. Think about all the interactions you make with machines now: Car, laptop, portable devices, watches, sign board, refrigerators, washing machines, lights... those machines require large amounts of manual interaction if you are to control them. But with such a fantastic AR device, you can simply do whatever you want by just watching it and commanding with your voice, just like when you are asking something to your friends. You don’t need a control panel or mouse anymore. Also it will drastically change the design of all the machines and gadgets. The design will return to retro style since you don’t need a digital  auxiliary parts anymore, which will also drive down the cost and price of those devices.

5. But we should be cautious of the side effects. Not to mention the boiling criticism about the privacy issues caused by Google glasses, we saw many times how simple video games influenced vulnerable  people to confuse virtual and real life and committed serious social problems. What will happen if it becomes really difficult to tell between the real-life and digital? Growing popularity on AR games such as “Ingress” by Google might cause a tremendous side effects such as addiction problems, because some gamers might take it too serious because of reality factors infused in the game.

6. In the end it will lead the human being to the era when people will regard those additional layer as natural and essential. Think about 20 years ago when internet was first introduced.  Was internet or network essential at that time?

7. Think about popular Japanese animation "Ghost in the shell" or movie "Matrix".  Those are the prophecy of doom and gloom, rather than bright future... There will be a time when you cannot really tell the real information from the digital ones, even though that may not come in our lifetime. Which means this technology can also be a horrible menace to human beings...

Thank you for reading, stay tuned with augmentacious!
Team Ogres.