AR is the Next Big Thing
During the past fifteen years, the world has been hypnotized by the smartphone, a limiting device that disconnects people from the world around them. Smartphones have incredible technology that should be implemented into more immersive hardware and software. Augmented Reality (AR) is a new form of computing that will keep us engaged with the world. AR was first introduced to the masses in the popular mobile game Pokémon Go, but its uses extend far beyond catching Pokémon.
The computing power and efficiency of the human brain is more impressive than the greatest supercomputer ever built. In a study conducted by Neuro-Insight, it was found that the part of the brain responsible for memory coding sees almost three times the level of activity when engaging with AR versus non-AR experiences. Immersive tech could even have a substantial effect on our ability to empathize. For example, when people in a study took on the identity of a piece of acidifying coral in virtual reality, they were more likely to care about the environment afterward.
Augment Reality vs. Virtual Reality: It’s not the same thing
Augmented, virtual, and mixed reality can be defined as extended realities (XR). However, they are not the same.
AR is the real world with digital information overlay. The real world remains central, enhanced by virtual objects.
VR is an entirely digital environment that has become mainstream today with the hype of the Metaverse.
MR is AR and VR combined. There is interaction with and manipulation of both the physical and virtual environment.
Quick Note on the Metaverse: WE ALREADY LIVE IN IT!
The Metaverse is making people delirious. It’s way too early for a Ready Player One society. This was a well-executed publicity stunt by Facebook, who re-branded as Meta, to draw attention away from their company’s unfavorable PR. The Metaverse has the same capabilities as a smartphone with a more immersive experience than our 2D screens currently give us. Think of it as a new user interface. The Metaverse is inevitable but was announced years before schedule to draw attention away from the negative press. The VR technology is still in its infancy, unable to meet the expectations of the Metaverse. I implore everyone to stop talking about it.
“The metaverse will be evolutionary, not revolutionary,” says John Egan, chief executive of Paris-based forecasting firm L’Atelier BNP Paribas. “Our productive capacity is going to be significantly enlarged in the same way that computers and mobile phones enabled greater levels of productivity and complexity.”
Society should be ecstatic about Augmented Reality. It will have a more profound impact than smartphones by allowing us to use technology without having our heads buried in a screen. We will interact with tech in ways that were previously not possible. It’s not technology disconnecting us; it’s the hardware that powers it.
Smartphones are Harmful to Health
Looking down at screens all day will be viewed as archaic and foolish. It’s harmful to our eyes and neck. People develop eye strains from excessive blue light exposure and headaches from exorbitant screen time. A phenomenon known as text neck is now pervasive and entrenched in our society.
We have electronics with massive screens, but for the most part, we only need a small portion of the screen at a time. AR will display data as needed directly onto the retina. Apple filed a patent for this called “direct retinal projector.” Since AR is not wholly immersive like smartphones and VR, the eyes are naturally less strained. The information can be displayed anywhere within your field of view, preventing the neck from being in a stressed and unnatural position.
A significant obstacle for AR glasses is making them accessible to the over 4 billion adults worldwide who wear prescription glasses. Luckily, AR glasses will have the technology to double as prescription lenses. It’s achieved using a stack of liquid crystal lenses that can change its optical properties when a current passes through it. This technology could be used to help people with various vision problems.
UI for AR
Augmented Reality is one of those few technologies that require a breakthrough graphical user interface. It’s physically uncomfortable and socially awkward for users to hold their phones at eye level to experience AR. The form factor of our devices is preventing AR from changing the world.
Apple is the expert at inventing new ways to interact with devices. They did it with the mouse on the Macintosh, the trackwheel for the iPod, multi-touch control for the iPhone, and the digital crown for Apple Watch.
Smart glasses that have been on the market, such as Snap Spectacles, Bose Frames, and Google Glass, use swipe gestures on the side of the glasses to control the UI. However, using this method to control AR devices is uncomfortable and causes similar stress on the arm to using a computer with a touch screen.
The Apple ring may be the solution to interacting with AR headsets. In 2015, Apple filed a patent for a self-mixing interferometry (SMI) sensor-based gesture input system. Apple claims that In AR, VR, and MR applications, it’s helpful to track a user’s finger movements and/or identify a user’s gestures. Controlling the AR interface with a ring feels much more natural than swiping on the sides of glasses.
Sound
AR glasses will use a technique similar to the Bose Frames Open Ear Audio technology to transmit sound. Bose Frames are glasses without AR capabilities but can play sound without headphones with minimal sound leakage. Unlike traditional headphones such as Airpods that block and cover your ears, making it difficult to hear your music and surroundings at the same time, even when in transparency mode, Open Audio tech pioneered by Bose sends sound waves through the air for a more organic listening experience. The technology minimizes what others can hear nearby while providing rich audio without anything in-ear. It took over three years in R&D and two more in product development to deliver this breakthrough in wireless audio engineering.
Navigation
The roads will become safer as people use AR glasses for getting to their destination. Certain cars already have AR with a heads-up display that projects the speed and other functions in front of the steering wheel. However, this feature is typically limited to luxury vehicles.
It’s not safe or efficient to take your eyes off the road to receive the next set of directions. With AR-enabled glasses, this software can reach the masses. The idea of having all your notifications appear in front of your eyes while driving sounds hazardous. Still, when you consider that everyone is already using their phone and driving, it’s a safer alternative.
Even when self-driving cars take over the roads, this will be useful for walking directions. Staring at maps on your phone while wandering the streets takes you out of the moment, makes you look less alert, and is not the best way to navigate. Apple has AR walking directions on its maps app, but it requires holding your phone up and scanning the surrounding area. This is clearly a feature designed to be used on their upcoming AR glasses.
AR will be great for airplane pilots who can see all their instrument controls in front of their eyes—being able to spot air traffic quickly.
While skiing, navigating the mountain requires you to either take out your phone or bring out the map. With AR, the map can be in front of the skiers' eyes, without the hassle of searching for a piece of paper or using a phone in the bitter cold.
Seeing Things the Eyes Cannot View
One of the most powerful tools of AR is having things visualized that the human eye cannot see. The capability of visualizing the signal strength of Wi-Fi or cellular data. Need better Wi-Fi? Scan the room with your eyes for the best signal.
Even with a tracking device such as an Airtag or Tile, it can be laborious to locate lost items. AR will alleviate the headache of wandering aimlessly with your phone, trying to listen for a quiet ring tone, or getting within range of your item. If you lose your house keys or can’t find where your car is parked, instead of using your phone to navigate to the item, you can see where they’re located in the digital world right in front of your eyes and seamlessly navigate to the object or item.
These Features Are NOT Meant for Phones
As mentioned earlier, with the Apple Maps AR walking directions feature, it’s so clear tech companies have been designing features like these for smart glasses, not smartphones.
For years, Google Translate has had a feature that instantly translates languages by aiming the camera at any text. Using this on a phone works, but it’s unnatural and disconnects people from their surroundings. While on the phone, one may be distracted by notifications or other applications. Translating any text with glasses will eliminate the language barrier when traveling abroad and keep people living in the present moment.
The power to capture and process texts with AR glasses will transform how we browse the internet. Apple recently released a live text feature built into the camera app that can recognize any text allowing users to copy and interact with the text directly from the camera app. The camera can also recognize objects and search for them on the internet. This foreshadows Apple’s bigger plans of using this technology on a pair of AR glasses. In several years, you’ll be able to use your glasses to search for objects instead of having to describe them with words in a Google search. The future of browsing the web is visual search.
Interaction with AR
Interacting with AR will be a more pleasant experience than using a smartphone. Creating the user interface will take excellent engineering. As Snap Founder and CEO Evan Spiegel said, “You have to invent a whole new way of interacting with computing when it’s volumetric and integrated with the space around you.”
Sports
Sports and technology have become intertwined as teams recognize how tech can substantially boost performance. AR will make the relationship between sports and tech even stronger.
NFL
A brief history of technology in the NFL. In 1965, the Baltimore Colts lost their starting quarterback to an injury. The second-string QB didn’t know any of the plays, so they designed a playbook that he could wear on his wrist. In 1994, the NFL allowed the use of a radio helmet to allow for communication from the sidelines to the quarterback. In the 2030s, the NFL will approve AR headsets for all players. NFL players will have the playbook in front of their eyes and could even have the ability to follow an exact route, track the projected location of the football, or for the QB to be alerted when a defensive tackle is getting close to him.
NFL players are constantly gathered around tablets on the sideline to review plays during games. Instead of gathering around a tablet, those videos can be tossed into the digital world, and players and coaches can interact with a much larger display with more advanced capabilities.
The Microsoft Halolens will likely power these headsets since it’s unlikely the NFL would want to use a consumer AR headset not optimized for the sport.
MLB
Baseball is a game that revolves around stats and analytics. The sport is struggling with attracting younger fans due to the game's slow pace. One action that slows down the game is mound visits that typically occur when the manager wants to give the pitcher a scouting report on the upcoming batter. With AR glasses, pitchers would see all the stats and scouting information in front of their eyes, and the coaching staff could send notes to their headset in real-time.
Augmented Reality will make sports more analytical, exciting and significantly speed up the pace of games. The IT department is becoming just as important as the scouts.
Healthcare
AR will impact medicine for the better. It will be implemented into the primary care clinic, emergency room, operating room, dental office, and everywhere in between. In June 2020, neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore performed the first augmented reality surgery. A doctor used it to help place six screws during spinal surgery. It allowed them to project images from CT scans and X-rays onto the body to see them both simultaneously. With the images lined up, it’s like the surgeons have X-ray vision. The alternative is to place it by “freehand,” which is faster but less precise.
In medical school, AR can be used to interact with 3D models of the human anatomy or practice procedures.
Medicine is always slow to adopt technology, but once AR is implemented, it will make our healthcare system exponentially better.
Advertising
The marketing landscape will see drastic changes over the coming years. Some brands have already used AR advertising in the form of Snapchat lenses, which have had much success. AR enables companies to project their products in front of people allowing them to see what they look like in a real-world setting.
Traditional billboard advertising will become irrelevant when you can create digital billboards that change according to the user's profile. Advertising campaigns outside of the house can become more targeted and accurate.
Searching for Real Estate:
Augmented Reality offers massive potential for the Real Estate market. AR opens the door to brand new marketing opportunities utilizing location-based services to advertise properties. Buyers will have better visualization by being provided with an AR experience using 3D models while looking for real estate to get an instant feel of how the property will look. This gives buyers the chance to try out different interior designs all from sitting at home.
With location-based AR, users could look at the buildings and homes surrounding them and see available properties that meet their search criteria.
Tutorials
Interactive tutorials have the potential to reinvent tutorials. Imagine learning guitar, but instead of just watching a video, AR shows you where to place your fingers on the guitar itself while displaying the music notes right in front of your eyes.
Learning how to cook will become easier. Instead of reading instructions online or watching a video, you can now see exactly where to chop the vegetables and have all the ingredients and recipe instructions in front of your eyes. This eliminates having to scroll through an electronic device and keeps you living in the moment. Learning how to change a tire? AR can show exactly what to do on the tire. The possibilities are endless.
Education
Augmented Reality has been proven to motivate students to engage, interact, and learn subject matters. AR will modernize education by introducing creative ways to learn.
It allows teachers to project concepts to life in the classroom, like a swirling tornado or a dinosaur fossil. Hands-on learning will look very different. For example, dissecting animals can be done without harming any animals. Through AR, students could view the interior and evolution of every species.
Museums will become an immersive experience by displaying interactive content next to each item. For example, 3D renders of artists next to their work who narrate their art.
Augmented Reality will benefit low-income students who can now interact with digital versions of materials that they otherwise couldn’t afford.
AR and E-commerce:
AR will transform the online shopping experience. I wrote about this in great detail when talking about Snap's plans on integrating augmented reality into e-commerce. I call the convergence of AR and shopping: E-commerce 2.0. Other companies like Amazon, Disney, IKEA, Meta, Pinterest, Walmart, and many more have silently been acquiring businesses that specialize in AR to help them integrate it onto their platforms. You can read more about this here.
VR to Happen Before AR
The arrival of VR will occur before AR because it’s relatively less complex. VR will be a great tool, but it won’t be as prevalent in our lives as augmented reality. Bringing AR to market will take longer since the technology needs to mature, and there will need to be a considerable increase in the production of ultra-wideband chips. This is the technology AR will utilize since Bluetooth cannot handle the sheer amounts of data required for augmented reality.
Where to Invest
Augmented reality is the reason I have so much belief in Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Snap. They are the leaders in AR who have been working on this technology for nearly a decade. Writing about how augmented reality will change the world is like writing about how the smartphone changed the world. This could be thousands of pages. Apple CEO Tim Cook said it best, “AR is one of these very few profound technologies that we will look back on one day and say, how did we live without it.”
Wearing Glasses will Only Be Temporary.
The glasses will be a gentle introduction to AR before we become fully integrated with the technology. Apple will release AR contact lenses sometime in the 2030s ushering in the era of invisible computing. The contact lens will not have independent computing power, most likely relying on an Apple Watch for power. Eventually, we will become one with the machine.