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I've read this twice and can't quite understand....why is this Oculus blog post primarily about how great AR is and the challenges of it? I can see the paragrap

by anjc 9y ago

I've read this twice and can't quite understand....why is this Oculus blog post primarily about how great AR is and the challenges of it? I can see the paragraphs about their research but is AR on Oculus' product roadmap?

bildung 9y ago
> why is this Oculus blog post primarily about how great AR is and the challenges of it? It's an ad: "I wrote this because it was the most effective way I could think of to reach out to those exceptional people and get them to consider whether Oculus Research might be the most exciting, fulfilling, interesting place for them to spend the next however many years."
- anjc 9y ago
  Ah good spot, thanks. Might be good for them to spell out their product plans in that case. From an outsider's perspective, places like Microsoft would seem far better suited for AR researchers, given that they've been researching it for at least 15 years and have a product ready to go.
- cocktailpeanuts 9y ago
  It being an ad has nothing to do with whether they're working on AR or not. They have tons of money, they know that AR will be an important battleground, and AR is related to VR. They would be incredibly foolish NOT to at least try to get into AR.
  - aaronaarzelbart 9y ago
    I dispute that AR either is, or will be important. Beyond Pokémon Go of course, which was something of a rarity. I just can't think of compelling use cases, and no one has ever showed one to me that has impressed. Mine craft on your coffee table? I think it's a silly curiosity. I want to get OUT of my lounge room when gaming, not be stuck in it ... MOVE YOUR DIRTY COFFEE CUPS OFF THE TABLE I WANT TO PLAY MINECRAFT ON IT... no one will ever say.
    - hobofan 9y ago
      You mean having all the information you want proactively projected in you field of view, instead of having to take out your phone and search for it doesn't sound appealing to you? I'm probably on the opposite side then. I worry that AR will be so appealing that people will willingly give away their last shred of privacy.
      - aaronaarzelbart 9y ago
        This use case is saying "it's a monitor, up close". Yet another screen doesn't excite me.
        TeMPOraL 9y ago
        It's a monitor, up close, that reacts in real-time to what's in front of you and augments it (hence the name) with additional information. Preferably in a wearable format, so that you can have both your hands free to do the work.
    - aaronaarzelbart 9y ago
      You can vote me down but a better way to disagree would be to explain some of the compelling use cases for AR. And sorry but I don't think workplace safety training makes and entire industry and justification for the technology. One use case? Two? Any? Nothing.
      - oskenso 9y ago
        Some of us that deal with vision problems on a daily basis can find AR to be a useful accessibility feature. I wish more effort would be invested in accesibility like zoom and captioning.
    - pls2halp 9y ago
      I feel like everything that can be done in VR(office environments, motion controlled games, art(tiltbrush is cool), communications) can be done just as well in AR, but with more realism(interacting with known environments) and less motion sickness. In terms of AR only things, I feel like Ingress is the direction AR games will go, with phones as a window into another world, and I've had lots of fun with the measuring apps which came out with arkit(my favourite is called Cubit, if you have an iOS 11 device).
  - anjc 9y ago
    I don't see an overlap between VR and AR, in terms of use-case or technology. I don't get why they'd start competing against Microsoft when they're already being dominated in their own VR niche. It almost looks concerning.
    - sgift 9y ago
      > I don't get why they'd start competing against Microsoft when they're already being dominated in their own VR niche. That's an interesting interpretation which doesn't seem to be backed by reality. That aside: It's a research team. They think AR will overtake VR some time in the future, so they research on it.
      - anjc 9y ago
        > That's an interesting interpretation which doesn't seem to be backed by reality. Vive is massively outselling the Rift. Considering Oculus were first to market (in the sense that the dev kits were openly sold), and considering that they ostensibly have the backing of Facebook, that seems like a bad sign. And given this, it's concerning (to me) that they're now seemingly shifting resources to AR. And as I said before, AR and VR's uses don't overlap. So it isn't like they need to get a foothold in AR to stay relevant.
        haydenlee 9y ago
        Source that Vive is "massively outselling"?
        retromario 9y ago
        It's not. Or at least not anymore. Market shares seem to be equalizing at least according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey: https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-rift-closes-in-on-steam-majority-market-share/ https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-rift-closes-in-on-steam-majo...
        cocktailpeanuts 9y ago
        What does AR and VR usage not overlapping have to do with them not doing research? The technologies DO overlap, so they might as well try to catch two birds with one stone. Oculus doesn't have to make money immediately since they're backed by Facebook, which is a huge leverage. Also even if Vive IS outselling Rift right now, doesn't mean Rift is doomed at all. For now it's enough for them to be in the market and look for opportunities since NONE of the VR companies are turning out to be the next big thing, yet. I'm sure there will come a point when VR will grow extremely fast, but VR itself as an industry is not growing too fast anyway. In this climate it's best to hunker down and do research instead of trying to sell as many devices as possible, so I think they're doing the right thing.

by anjc 9y ago

bildung 9y ago

> why is this Oculus blog post primarily about how great AR is and the challenges of it? It's an ad: "I wrote this because it was the most effective way I could think of to reach out to those exceptional people and get them to consider whether Oculus Research might be the most exciting, fulfilling, interesting place for them to spend the next however many years."

anjc 9y ago
Ah good spot, thanks. Might be good for them to spell out their product plans in that case. From an outsider's perspective, places like Microsoft would seem far better suited for AR researchers, given that they've been researching it for at least 15 years and have a product ready to go.
cocktailpeanuts 9y ago
It being an ad has nothing to do with whether they're working on AR or not. They have tons of money, they know that AR will be an important battleground, and AR is related to VR. They would be incredibly foolish NOT to at least try to get into AR.
- aaronaarzelbart 9y ago
  I dispute that AR either is, or will be important. Beyond Pokémon Go of course, which was something of a rarity. I just can't think of compelling use cases, and no one has ever showed one to me that has impressed. Mine craft on your coffee table? I think it's a silly curiosity. I want to get OUT of my lounge room when gaming, not be stuck in it ... MOVE YOUR DIRTY COFFEE CUPS OFF THE TABLE I WANT TO PLAY MINECRAFT ON IT... no one will ever say.
  - hobofan 9y ago
    You mean having all the information you want proactively projected in you field of view, instead of having to take out your phone and search for it doesn't sound appealing to you? I'm probably on the opposite side then. I worry that AR will be so appealing that people will willingly give away their last shred of privacy.
    - aaronaarzelbart 9y ago
      This use case is saying "it's a monitor, up close". Yet another screen doesn't excite me.
      - TeMPOraL 9y ago
        It's a monitor, up close, that reacts in real-time to what's in front of you and augments it (hence the name) with additional information. Preferably in a wearable format, so that you can have both your hands free to do the work.
  - aaronaarzelbart 9y ago
    You can vote me down but a better way to disagree would be to explain some of the compelling use cases for AR. And sorry but I don't think workplace safety training makes and entire industry and justification for the technology. One use case? Two? Any? Nothing.
    - oskenso 9y ago
      Some of us that deal with vision problems on a daily basis can find AR to be a useful accessibility feature. I wish more effort would be invested in accesibility like zoom and captioning.
  - pls2halp 9y ago
    I feel like everything that can be done in VR(office environments, motion controlled games, art(tiltbrush is cool), communications) can be done just as well in AR, but with more realism(interacting with known environments) and less motion sickness. In terms of AR only things, I feel like Ingress is the direction AR games will go, with phones as a window into another world, and I've had lots of fun with the measuring apps which came out with arkit(my favourite is called Cubit, if you have an iOS 11 device).
- anjc 9y ago
  I don't see an overlap between VR and AR, in terms of use-case or technology. I don't get why they'd start competing against Microsoft when they're already being dominated in their own VR niche. It almost looks concerning.
  - sgift 9y ago
    > I don't get why they'd start competing against Microsoft when they're already being dominated in their own VR niche. That's an interesting interpretation which doesn't seem to be backed by reality. That aside: It's a research team. They think AR will overtake VR some time in the future, so they research on it.
    - anjc 9y ago
      > That's an interesting interpretation which doesn't seem to be backed by reality. Vive is massively outselling the Rift. Considering Oculus were first to market (in the sense that the dev kits were openly sold), and considering that they ostensibly have the backing of Facebook, that seems like a bad sign. And given this, it's concerning (to me) that they're now seemingly shifting resources to AR. And as I said before, AR and VR's uses don't overlap. So it isn't like they need to get a foothold in AR to stay relevant.
      - haydenlee 9y ago
        Source that Vive is "massively outselling"?
        retromario 9y ago
        It's not. Or at least not anymore. Market shares seem to be equalizing at least according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey: https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-rift-closes-in-on-steam-majority-market-share/ https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-rift-closes-in-on-steam-majo...
      - cocktailpeanuts 9y ago
        What does AR and VR usage not overlapping have to do with them not doing research? The technologies DO overlap, so they might as well try to catch two birds with one stone. Oculus doesn't have to make money immediately since they're backed by Facebook, which is a huge leverage. Also even if Vive IS outselling Rift right now, doesn't mean Rift is doomed at all. For now it's enough for them to be in the market and look for opportunities since NONE of the VR companies are turning out to be the next big thing, yet. I'm sure there will come a point when VR will grow extremely fast, but VR itself as an industry is not growing too fast anyway. In this climate it's best to hunker down and do research instead of trying to sell as many devices as possible, so I think they're doing the right thing.