Information. To be able to access facts and data at an extreme speed is what our modern reality is all about. Efficiency is measured in the littlest detail, and the minutest change can bring huge gains in that efficiency and our perception of it. Thus our perception of how quickly we can come to information about our world around us is something that can be extremely useful when properly utilized. That is to say, to eliminate the trivialities behind it, and to make it simple and effective for people to get the data they want at the quickest speed possible. This is where the world of augmented reality now lies.
Being so new, it is hard to truly evaluate the situation since it can go in so many directions; and that’s why AR is on the cusp of one direction or another.
There is a tendency, as of now, to lose sight of the fundamental goal of AR, which is to augment our world. Instead we currently find another piece of technology to distract us from it—to decrease our perception of it.
I think the best use of such technology would be to present data upfront to the user with almost no interaction from them. For example, imagine the power of a vehicle equipped with a HUD that could display information on the street or city you’re driving in. Imagine it being able to list places of interest nearby. And, when you get to a business, for example, it would provide information of all sorts on it. Perhaps this isn’t what is now considered to be AR, but it’s more in line with the sort of proactive providing of data that is becoming prevalent nowadays.
Even in the form of an app can this concept be extremely useful. Using the previous example, one might hold up a phone’s camera and the app would be able to tell, there and then, the information on the place of interest. Whether that be location, sales, products, or anything else of that matter, it would all be useful in someway without the user having to dig through several apps or screens of information, while not knowing what to search for specifically. Let the app or device do the work and let the user focus on what they want. This, of course, requires excellent sources of data, as well as engineering, but we are not in short supply of such.
Imagine there being ways to help hearing-impaired individuals with further augmented vision that would alert them to sounds around them. These are the types of circumstances where AR would be a benefit. But it must be universal in order for it to take effect and make a difference. It cannot pander to the technologically inclined or else it will be a joke in and of itself. I believe this to be the failure of Google Glass, so far. An advanced technology was presented in a half-hearted way that people thought ridiculous, and it made them unwilling to try it. In addition, there were no benefits to the device for the incredibly high price. Making simple phone calls, reading messages, or recording video were not at all compelling enough to replace one’s phone. In a way, it just wasn’t ambitious enough. This is potentially very powerful technology that should have some imagination to it.
Perhaps this is the detrimental state of our current technology, or rather, our use of such technology. And this seems an awful lot like the IoT fiasco: it is more a product of marketing than of genuine usefulness. If that is so, we will see AR fail time and again—and certainly it will remain in the realm of triviality; relegated to pointless apps and devices that serve no real purpose and are not the least innovative.
This is a shame because there are ways to make this technology highly useful but, again, it requires some imaginative thinking to truly exploit it; a marketing team will never get further than what has already been created. We need thinkers on the same plane as science-fiction writers. Where are the designs and ideas like that of Star Trek? What a perfect place to start; so much of it is untapped. And yet, a lot of that technology is currently in our hands. We are so far advanced and so far behind, that is the great contradiction of our modern reality. So what else was there to expect from a brand new concept such as augmented reality than to have many contradictions in itself? The short-sightedness of the current utilization of it will vanish with time. That I am sure of. We will see much greater ideas come to fruition, and the unctuous marketing-speak of advertising will give way to devices and applications that are sure to enhance our lives.
Most of all, the integration into our current paradigms—not to mention, our lives—is there, but it just needs to be realized. Furthermore, AR must provide real value to people, it must truly augment our lives. Through genuine help and ease-of-use will this come to pass. Unfortunately, mere distractions have won out for the time being, no matter how small the user base may seem. This is what makes it superfluous, at the moment. If none of these things can be done then AR is dead upon arrival; it will need to be thrown away and forgotten, and better ideas will come from it.
Code and Coda 