Apple Users' Mixed Reality Future Teased in Latest ARKit Demo

[Markoth]

Augmented Reality is very different from Virtual Reality. VR is more like a video game, or for things that can be controlled like a video game, where you're looking at something remote (or even imaginary) that has no connection to the room you're currently sitting in. That could be, say, piloting a drone (whether a commercial quality drone for personal or business use, or an armed combat drone for the military, or a heavily instrumented scientific rover/drone on the moon or inside a nuclear reactor, places where it's difficult or dangerous for people to be) - being able to look around from the point of view of the remote vehicle, as though you were really there, would be extremely useful.

AR is all about overlaying information on top of reality. This is arguably both harder to do well (because now the computer has to recognize things in order to attach information to them) and more compelling for many uses. Disregard all the PokemonGO-style creature-in-my-living-room demos for a moment...

Imagine wearing glasses that overlaid useful information on top of reality - you're still there, you're still putting 98% of your attention into the things in front of you, you are very much participating in reality, but now you've got a helper. Some university lecture classes can have 300 students in them - imagine the professor looking out at the class, the first week, and the AR software and glasses (either with an included camera or coordinating with cameras in the room) recognize that a dozen students have their hand up, recognizes their faces, looks them up, and discretely displays their names across their shirts. Makes it easier for the teacher to interact with the students. Maybe it blinks in red the name on the student way to one side whom you've missed calling on for the last 5 questions.

Imagine turn-by-turn directions given the same way, with a discrete line appearing on the ground (that really looks pinned to the ground, aside from the fact that it's glowing) leading you to the place you're trying to find, which also has a big glowing virtual flag floating over its front door in your view. Finding a restaurant in a town you're visiting, this would be helpful. Now imagine the same thing inside a large hospital, helping a new nurse/doctor/tech find their way around, down countless identical-looking hallways and wings and floors, to the right room where they're needed, by the most efficient path. That could occasionally save lives.

In 20 years, everyone will be wearing contact lenses that give an AR overlay on reality all the time (just the way everyone carries around a smartphone today). Maybe most of the time it won't show anything. Or maybe you'll have it set to make every wall of your house appear to be painted a different color of the rainbow (and to always show bunny ears on your boss). That's up to you. But the things Siri(and similar) currently says out loud... in the future that kind of information will be whispered in your ear, or discretely displayed "in front of your eyes". For an interesting look at the ramifications of such AR, check out Vernor Vinge's novel, Rainbows End.

This is one of those technologies where it baffles me how people seem to be unable to understand its usefulness. It hardly even requires out-of-the-box thinking.

 

[oplix]

In the end can someone explain to me what the practical purposes of this technology will be? Besides games, the most obvious ones are first person shooter types, training, military remote applications and entertainment what do these VR technologies do for us?

Isn't actually participating in reality more enjoyable than some virtual thing?

I guess it's kind of like all the "friend" people have via their Facebook pages.

There is none. Everything in the world at this point is strictly driven by marketing analytics.

 

[bjet767]

This is one of those technologies where it baffles me how people seem to be unable to understand its usefulness. It hardly even requires out-of-the-box thinking.

I guess your just special then.

 

[Markoth]

I guess you're just special then.

Nope. I just Try Harder™. Mental effort is not to be underestimated.

 

[bjet767]

Nope. I just Try Harder™

So you used to work for Avis Rent A Car?


Or maybe this?

Love the self indulgence.

 

[thebitstudio]

We also developed something like this.

Connecting VR with iOS ARKit

"Unified Reality" is a unified framework for virtual reality, augmented reality and projection mapping developed by Bit Studio. By connecting virtual, augmented, and physical world together, we introduce a shared experience platform which encourages different approaches of technology to interact with one another.

http://bit.studio/unified-reality/