New World Order: Augemented Reality

The geeks amoung us remember when in Dragon Ballz, Vegita came to earth for the first time. He had this monocular sunglass-like thing over his left eye with he used to read the 'power level' of Saiyans. He used it to measure Goku's strength was over 9000. This was my introduction to augmented reality - even though it was in a cartoon it still counts. That piece of tech helped Vegita get a better sense of his environment and the actors in it.

Still in its infancy but Augmented Reality (AR) has a big future, me thinks. And not just because its the ultimate expression of what this blog is all about.

If you've been following my blog, you now know how we do this - I'll break down AR, giving you a sense of what it is, the current state of tech, the future possibilities.

Now AR is not quiet main stream but it has been around for quiet some time. AR simply refers 'assisted' reality, where your normal sensory life experience is enhanced by additional audio, visual and haptic information or stimuli - other than that generated by the 'natural real environment'

 The documentary nerds among you will have undoubtedly come across footage of a fighter pilots Heads Up Display (HUD) with the green colored telemetry showing his altitude, row, pitch and even cross hairs.

The well heeled among us would have owned or perhaps just driven cars that project vital parameters like speed, revs, gear engaged onto the wind screen just above the steering wheel in front of the driver.

These are simple forms of AR but they are a window into the possibilities of AR. We can look forward to world loaded with new helpful spatial information, new and more exciting  ways to share information  collaborate at work and play, whole new industries and experiences.

I've linked some videos below that explain this better than I ever can (the possibilities with AR are way too many to cover in one blog post).




Lets take a look at just one use case in some detail; Lets say you're a tourist visiting Zanzibar for the first time - you don't speak Swahili, or know your way around.

You've always been the adventurous type so you slip on your AR glasses as you leave the Airport building and ask them (yes the glasses) 'find me an cheap hotel'. You look west and pop-ups appear in front of eye showing budget hotels, their room rates and consumer ratings in that direction. Look North West and the same thing happens.

As you walk down the narrow streets your glasses whisper real time directions to you and visual pop-ups appear for popular restaurants, curio shops and night spots as you pass them. You can see ratings given by other tourists - your general experience of the destination is greatly enhanced, you get to find all the hidden gems, popular spots and avoid the boring or unsafe places.

This use case greatly illustrates what our expectations of AR are and how it can and will enhance and optimize our experience of every day life. Not just as tourists, but at home, at work at church or the mosque -  the possibilities are endless.


 Now, before your head starts spinning with all the wonderful possibilities its worth remembering as I mentioned non of this is yet available on the market.
Google, Apple, Intel and a relatively unknown company called Magic leap are working furiously on technologies and platforms that will under pin AR.

They have a great vision of what the services will finally look and work like (eg the Google Glass and Magic Leap promo videos  below) but their not quite there yet.

That said, where the technology is at right now hardly seems impressive. Apples , ARkit and Google's ARCore are the only on market available platforms - and their on mobile phones. . . I know, after seeing the possibilities in the two videos above this may sound underwhelming. 

Remember however that the tech will mature pretty fast and when it does the world will never be the same again.

What use cases can you think of for AR? Drop us a comment.