It seems we're headed towards a future where the phrase, "My vision is
augmented," won't just mean that someone's doing their best JC Denton
impression. And I'm not talking about nanotech either. I'm talking about
augmented reality or AR, that thing that
overlays graphics onto your physical surroundings to make them more
functional in some way. But Lionus, I
mean, the only thing I've ever used AR for is like playing with those little
cards that came with my Nintendo 3DS. Is this thing actually going to take off?
Although the technology is still relatively new and developers are still
working on rolling out applications for it to the masses, more limited examples
of AR have been with us for quite a while. Back in the early 1990s, AR was
mostly used in industrial settings to help with manufacturing processes, but
later became well known in the sports world when fans were introduced to the
yellow line that marks a first down during a football game. that is American
football, excuse me, or much more infamously that glowing hockey puck with
a comet tail that Fox decided was a good idea for some reason. But after the
development of open-source AR code in the late 1990s and the advent of small,
powerful, and highly integrated devices such as smartphones, smart glasses, and
even bionic contact lenses, the AR market, well, it is really opening up
with developers increasingly searching for ways to make your everyday world a
lot more exciting. So, how exactly are they doing this? To no one's surprise,
one way is with games. Now, we've already seen AR smartphone games that
encourage players to interact with the real world, whether it's with like an
included remote control doodad or or Ingress would be a great example of that
as well. But imagine like an AR board or
tabletop game with virtual pieces that you and your opponent control with, you
know, gestures regardless of whether the other player is right next to you or a
thousand parexs away safely out of ARM ripping off range. Or if you're more of
a PC gamer, what about a pair of smart glasses that could connect to your rig
to display something like a 3D map of the area your character's in on your
desk while the action continues on your monitor? And that but speaking of
monitors, I mean, would you even need one anymore? We're already seeing AR
devices such as Microsoft's Hollow Lens that can throw a virtual monitor or TV
screen onto a section of blank wall, no projectors required, and that can create
new ways to design 3D objects. Instead
of being confined to a keyboard and mouse, smart glasses could allow you to
create a 3D model of your project in real size that you can manipulate with
your own hands. I mean, they've done some great demos of this. And when it's
time to leave the house, an AR windshield in your car could show you
directions and street names or assist with breaking and curves. And a pair of
AR glasses could analyze your surroundings and show you things like
pictures of a room in a nearby hotel, reviews of a restaurant you walk past,
the plenty of fish profile of that cute girl over there. And if you want to know
the forecast, it could even alter the sky to show you what your environment
will look like tomorrow when it's sunny. All right. So, how long then before this
stuff actually becomes part of our daily lives? Well, there are some challenges
to overcome. Building massive databases to store information about real world
locations. Well, okay, actually, that's coming along pretty nicely. uh but
developing convenient wearable gadgets that people actually want to wear and
making sure that mobile batteries can handle rendering 3D AR graphics without
dying in 30 minutes without strapping a massive power pack to your face. These
things will probably take a while, but I sure hope that I live to see the day
when you can actually run around in a forest at night playing survival horror
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required. So, that's pretty much it, guys. If you liked the video, do that
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video over on our channel. Super fun channel. Uh, some game. Can't remember
what it is, but we played a game. So, yeah, there's a video about that there.
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