At this point in time, I do not believe there are many people who haven’t at least heard of Facebook’s re-branding into metaverse. This bold move, which was talked about by Mark Zuckerberg at a livestreamed virtual and augmented reality conference, has seen much critisism and endorsement. It also didn’t fail to bring topics like virtual and augmented reality into the main-stream. After all, one of the biggest companies on earth openly re-branding to support those technologies cannot go unnoticed.
A couple of weeks ago we talked about the power of VR (Virtual Reality), so let’s focus on its less intrusive cousin, AR (Augmented Reality)
What is Augmented Reality (AR)?
Augmented Reality, just like the name suggests is used to change the reality, we, as humans perceive. In the simplest of terms, it is a technology used to add to the experiences we share in our normal, day-to-day life.
If you want to delve deeper, it is a technology that uses cameras in specialized devices (like glasses), or ones we already own (like smartphones) to add visual, auditorial, or other type of sensation on top of what we already see and feel. For example, showing way-points in real-time to locations you wish to go to, right before your eyes, displaying additional information without having to look at your phone, or, in a dystopian vision, bombarding you with ads.
What Augmented Reality do we already use?
Some of you might be unaware, but Augmented Reality technology is already out there and has been for quite a while. The most infamous case of which is Google Glasses. This piece of tech was used to display GPS, phone calls and other simple, yet useful applications and was way ahead of its time. So much, in fact, that the technology needed for its success wasn’t available quite yet. The ambitious project that aimed at bringing AR into reality and getting it noticed has proven too much even for the giant that is Google.
Another use can be found inside the very software of your phone. If you own one of the newer Smartphones you probably saw that they have an app that allows you to measure objects in real life by using your camera. That’s Augmented Reality in the works. By comparing the surroundings and the surfices around you, your phone can measure the lenght of an object and display a helpful ruler to aid you, all without having to look for a single tool in your tool-box.
Future Of AR
While it is impossible to determine what exactly the future holds for such a wonderful piece of technology, I can say pretty confidently that AR can become both an essential piece for our daily life and the biggest annoyance at the same time.
Displaying all the information we need without even looking away is great. The convenience of having your entire smartphone in front of your eyes is through the roof, but it also comes at a price. Facebook already started putting ads into their Oculus Quest (Virtual Reality headset) and one can only imagine how annoying it would be to stroll down the park with constant chatter about products blasting directly into your eyes and ears. If something like this would become reality, one would also need to ponder the dangers of advertising that is that aggressive, during, for example driving.
I believe that whoever the pioneer of AR will be is going to have the power to decide how we, as the populus perceive this tech, and with Facebook being in the lead right now, I do not see the future very fondly.
Sources:
https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/why-facebook-is-now-called-meta#:~:text=Why%20did%20this%20all%20happen,create%20and%20support%20the%20metaverse.
https://www.ft.com/content/29762a96-419f-41b2-9e96-fa7423abb125
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/augmented-reality.asp#:~:text=Augmented%20reality%20(AR)%20is%20an,and%20business%20applications%20in%20particular.