Last week we looked into augmented reality or AR. In AR, a user could point their phone camera onto a scene and look at their screen and see not just what the camera saw, but also also other things which are not in the real world, but that the phone created and added in, creating a new enhanced, augmented world.
However experiencing this amazing technology took a lot of work from the user. The user had to take out a phone, start an application, point the phone at something, and then, finally see an augmented image. While people will do this once or twice to see something novel, it is unlikely they will do this on a regular basis. Hence to date, augmented reality has remained a fad!
All that is about to change – enter smartglasses. Smartglasses look like a bulky pair of glasses. However in reality, they are literally computers worn like a pair of glasses. These glasses have a really powerful computer, battery and sensors built right into the frame. More importantly, the glasses also have small transparent computer screens placed right in front of the wearers eyes, and a small camera. This is transformational as it makes augmented reality truly seamless. As you look around at the world through the transparent screen on the smartglass, it can overlay information on objects you are looking at.
The opportunities for this technology are limitless. You could sit in a room with no TV and have your smartglasses make a big widescreen TV appear right in front of you. As you walk towards the station, information about service disruptions could appear right in front of your eyes, hovering in space.
On a Car mechanics could have repair instructions appear overlaid on the engine including fully animated instructions on exactly what needs to be done to perform the repair.
A number of technology giants are working on this technology, including Microsoft with their Hololens and Google with Google glass and MagicLeap. However significant problems still need to be overcome before this technology gains widespread adoption as the glasses tend to be big and bulky and it is an open question whether people will wear these 24X7 as they do regular glasses. It is likely that the initial applications of the technology will be in the space of computer games or in industrial or professional settings. Either ways, we have an exciting future ahead of us!
Nikhil's Musings 