Alternative realities have dominated fact and fiction throughout history. From the use of augmented and virtual reality in air combat training to sci-fi stories and crystal ball gazing novels, these alternate realities have often helped humanity function better or cope with the hard truths of the real world.
Stepping into the future, we see Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies becoming commonplace in our daily lives. The combined market for AR and VR headsets is expected to grow tenfold from 2021 to 2028, and in the future yet to come, AR could potentially replace that one gadget that our lives depend on so much — our smartphones.
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Admittedly, the future of the Internet – and the way it envelops our lives – will not be smooth sailing. But the startling overuse of postal words (such as metaverse) reflects the growing intrigue surrounding immersive experiences. Staring at screens no longer compels us as before, but now we want to let go and see the environment through an extension of reality. Technologies such as AR and VR can satisfy this desire to either expand our existing reality or escape to a more comforting one.
Why AR (and not VR) is the best smartphone replacement
Although both AR and VR manipulate our vision and psyche in similar ways, virtual reality experiences are much more immersive and take us into a whole new realm. This exposure can be exciting at first, but over time it can become alienating as it separates us from the real world. In addition, because VR experiences completely shut off our actual reality, confusing our senses, they can cause nausea if used for long periods of time.
Meanwhile, augmented reality bridges the disconnect between reality and seamless VR experience. As the name suggests, augmented reality only augments our experience with the real world through additional information that may not be readily available. This enriches our imagination without taking us away from the reality in which we exist and live.
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We can already use our smartphones or tablets to survey the environment. For example, we can point smartphone cameras at food menus or road signs in foreign languages to translate them using apps like Google Lens. We can also learn about the surrounding buildings and streets or get turn-by-turn navigation using Google Maps or Apple Maps.
While VR may be just as fun, useful or immersive as AR, the latter seems to be the more promising successor to our smartphones. Below are some more reasons that support this argument.
Practicality of use
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AR headsets are lightweight and easy to handle because they just add some aspects to the real world instead of having to create a whole new virtual realm. Second, the quality of the graphics from the AR headset is not particularly tied to the screen resolution because we still see the real world in its full glory. Because the display on an AR headset has to display and process fewer elements, it can rely on less demanding hardware (or even a smartphone) for its processing needs. Therefore, most AR headsets are available as a pair of glasses.
In fact, companies like Oppo and Qualcomm have projected AR headsets as extensions of smartphones. While that seems true for the coming years, positioning AR headsets in our lives instead of smartphones seems like a more natural course of evolution — even if that’s still a few years away.
Familiarity
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In the US alone, nearly 200 million people wear vision-correcting glasses, according to the Vision Council of America, while global usage is over two billion. These statistics prove that mankind has a close relationship with glasses – and has for several centuries.
In general, people tend to gravitate towards products they are familiar with, and this familiarity with the glasses can potentially be a significant driving force for adoption of AR glasses. In comparison, VR remains relatively exclusive to enthusiasts and professionals who use it to play games, experience the multiverse, or learn. As of 2020, the number of AR users is reported to be almost 1.5 times that of VR, and the gap is expected to widen in the coming years.
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One of the most significant contributors to the use of AR — even without dedicated AR glasses — are filters on social media apps like Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, etc. As we approach a future with deeper AR penetration, we can expect our social network interactions be significantly enriched by the use of AR.
Wouldn’t it be exciting to hear someone’s name in a social setting just once and not forget it because your AR glasses remember it and flash it in front of your eyes without the other person even knowing? That’s what the evolution from smartphones to AR glasses could make possible.
Your daily environment, enhanced
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In addition to the growth of technologies such as AR and VR, we can expect machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to advance in the coming years. Assuming AI doesn’t become sentient and conquer the world, computer vision is only expected to improve in the near future. With these advances, the likelihood of artificial intelligence analyzing the world on our behalf as we look at it through our AR glasses is extremely high.
As Nvidia notes, computer vision — also known as video intelligence — can be used to identify objects, faces, gestures, poses, and general optical flow. Along with cloud computing, computer vision can become widely available and reasonably economical for companies to implement on their AR glasses.
Just imagine being able to witness the world like Iron Man! With AR glasses becoming a part of our lives, humanity will achieve a superpower that phones may never be able to replicate.
Big tech’s growing interest in AR
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Evidence suggests that almost everything Apple touches becomes hot as gold. Apple’s AR headset is rumored to arrive in “late 2024,” but the interest in the technology could potentially set the entire smartphone industry on a whole new path. According to celebrated Apple analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, Apple even plans to replace the iPhone with AR glasses in the next ten years. This seems very likely given the development of technology.
Even before Apple, we’re seeing less mainstream brands like Oppo demonstrate use cases for AR glasses as smartphone extensions. Just replace the smartphone with cloud processing and we should have a standalone AR headset tailored to tether you to a walled garden.
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At the same time, Meta’s AR glasses could hit the shelves a few months before Apple. Considering that the company has a very successful portfolio of Oculus VR headsets, its success with augmented reality and metaverse experiences is almost guaranteed.
And while Google Glass and Microsoft HoloLens may be early adopters, the companies’ expertise in computer vision will empower them to offer AR experiences integrated with the world’s most widely used operating systems — Android and Windows.
Problems AR glasses won’t solve
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AR will likely dominate our social and personal lives in the future, but the problems associated with today’s smartphones could also carry over to future technologies. People might expect and experience the same “dopamine rush” that phones are said to produce. Zoning out, or selectively blocking certain aspects of reality, could become more accessible, while retreating from a convincingly objective reality could become more complex than simply pressing the power button on our smartphones.
At the same time, there are significant challenges facing engineers developing time-tested AR glasses. Mapping and calibrating AR to be accurate can require extensive sensor infrastructure and superfast wireless networks. The best way to solve this problem will be to establish a pervasive machine-to-machine (M2M) network where every machine or device communicates with every other device. Not only that, every physical object, building, and perhaps even natural elements in the world will have to be supplemented with sensors. In this way, each device will broadcast its own information instead of AR glasses having to detect and identify objects in their environment. That in itself will be a huge task. Meanwhile, security and privacy concerns open up another can of worms that we don’t have time to dive into.
Ultimately, removing bias in AI will be one of the significant challenges that engineers will have to tackle. Unlike humans, computers do not inherently know or experience emotions. Teaching them judgment and, more importantly, respect for human values will be a difficult task.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn