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I have a hunch that the Next Big Thing (TM) will be augmented reality: though the technology is currently in its infancy, when compelling AR glasses are finally

I have a hunch that the Next Big Thing (TM) will be augmented reality: though the technology is currently in its infancy, when compelling AR glasses are finally released (Apple is rumored to be released theirs in 2020) I think that it will have a massive impact. AR frameworks are a dime a dozen, but if you're an Apple person look into ARKit + Swift.

hwoolery 7y ago
I agree -- on top of this, I think machine learning will play an important role. The power of machine learning + AR creates some interesting possibilities. You can check out our website for some examples https://www.2020cv.com https://www.2020cv.com
windsurfer 7y ago
What value does augmented reality add to anything?
- elcomet 7y ago
  I'm thinking of assisting drivers. Projecting stuff into the road to guide the driver, or warn him when there are dangerous objects.
  - yodon 7y ago
    I'm not sure the thing people have been doing perfectly well for 100 years without AR glasses that billions of dollars are being invested in making people not need to do at all is the place to launch your AR dream company
    - CamperBob2 7y ago
      For values of "Doing perfectly well" that encompass "Killing 30,000 people a year."
  - windsurfer 7y ago
    I like the idea of using it for safety. Is that something currently being done, or still in the experimental stages?
- rapsey 7y ago
  If you don't need a monitor, you don't need the computer as we know it today. Combine it with a brain computer interface and you throw away the keyboard and mouse as well. Subsequently you also throw away all the OS'es as we know them. AR/VR is a toy today. In the future our computers and mobile phones might look as arcane as an eniac.
  - somatic 7y ago
    I recommend Hegel with Neuralink: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ppGlEiQXrRI https://youtube.com/watch?v=ppGlEiQXrRI Unless the computer is itself capable of anticipating and satisfying your desires — which, I grant, is possible, but, I would argue, incredibly, incredibly dystopian — you will need to consciously articulate your thoughts in such a way that the computer serves your will. That conscious articulation is the bottleneck. Not the keyboard, not the mouse, and certainly not the typing speed. This is, of course, assuming that the computer remains the servant rather than becoming the master.
    - rapsey 7y ago
      If it needs to be a learnable skill like typing, that is just as revolutionary. The interface does not have to be that deep. Just enough to input words and movements. Hell it could be voice commands.
    - KhoomeiK 7y ago
      Not if the BCI is trained on data produced by users in a natural thinking state.
    - darepublic 7y ago
      I am thinking of the keyboardless typing with wrist bands as an intermediary step. I agree controlling conscious thought is difficult, but you could just key in commands with small impulses of the wrists and it would still be quite a bit more convenient than pulling out the phone
- somatic 7y ago
  Adtech. Hence Facebook/Oculus.
- antupis 7y ago
  Think about car mechanics seeing what do next if you want to open this specific motor or electrician seeing where cables are in the wall. Or physicians seeing specific information about patients eg how fast is he is breathing, what patient temperature is etc.
- auiya 7y ago
  Ask the porn industry in 1-2 years.
- zip1234 7y ago
  Visualizing any change to the exterior of a building or new construction project in the actual location that it will be.
  - onemoresoop 7y ago
    And how many people would need that on a daily basis? This sounds to be a useful but somewhat niche area
    - zip1234 7y ago
      There are 1.2 millions houses built in the US every year. I could see the applications pretty vast actually. Another possible idea is for landscaping. Often times a tree will be planted that ends up too big or too small for the space. With an app that can show a tree in the space at various stages in it's life, it could really help in landscape design.
ghaff 7y ago
One of the big wildcards for widespread consumer use is the social aspect. We can envision what AR might look like in everyday life. What's far less clear to me is the degree to which people will accept AR glasses that are constantly using video and audio to deliver information to the wearer will be accepted. If I know that person I just met has inconspicuously scanned me and looked up all kinds of information that are now being displayed, am I OK with that?
- anon111028 7y ago
  What if last week that person you were introduced to, and gave your name to(or didn't) happened to look you up and do some research. It wasn't handed to them through glasses immediately, but essentially it's the same thing. I would bet it probably has already happened to many of us and we didn't even realize. ever have someone come up to you and say "Oh your the person who x" just a thought on your last sentence
- Arubis 7y ago
  A little tangential, but I hope the answer to this is a resounding "no", and that adoption is sufficient to make a lot of people really uncomfortable. Perhaps this is naive of me, but I still believe that a great contributor to tolerance of our society for massive dragnet surveillance is that it isn't very visible.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    Not tangential at all. On the one hand, I can see AR that's extremely powerful and useful given wearable hardware, sophisticated software, image recognition, connectivity, etc. On the other hand, that would clearly be a step beyond today's smartphones to, as you suggest, potentially always on video and audio that's constantly communicating with and being analyzed by databases. By contrast, VR seems to me to be a niche.
- SimbaOnSteroids 7y ago
  I think AR almost has to be Apple, not from a tech perspective, but from "this tech is very creepy, invasive, and visibly so" angle. Apple may be the only company that is simultaneously big enough to make the tech happen and charismatic enough to get us to let down our guard to it. Although that latter one is rapidly diminishing.
mrdoops 7y ago
Agreed. With 7nm fresh off the presses and 5nm on the way we're should start seeing some efficient SoC's to do the 3D mapping AR needs. Even if glasses aren't ready to be the primary interface - phones with the hardware to accurately map and overlay the world still has a lot of promise.
KhoomeiK 7y ago
Big agree. Smartphones have more or less flatlined in the last couple years and the only viable next step seems to be AR. Snap Inc and a lot of smaller players in the market know this, and their pivot to AR is arguably what has caused their resurgence in the past few months.
shafyy 7y ago
I run a VR startup so I'm biased, but: AR and VR. Different side of the same coin. But first (next 5-10 years) VR will be more mainstream, because it's easier to solve from a technological point of view.
- enos_feedler 7y ago
  In what sense are they different sides of the same coin? I see AR as very practical and VR not so much. I look at everyone walking down the street trying to simultaneous look down at their phone and do other things (walk, drive, etc) and see a huge TAM for AR. Meanwhile, in 1993 I went to the local fairground in my small town and experienced VR-enabled multiplayer game of Doom. It had much lower fidelity than VR today, but if the market really wanted it, there would have been a constant pull for their technology to improve. Instead it's just been fits and starts for the past 26 years since I experienced that demo. Big tech has pumped huge money into VR the last 5 years and the uptake is just not happening.
  - shafyy 7y ago
    > In what sense are they different sides of the same coin? One should look at AR and VR as a spectrum. Eventually, you'll be able to mix and match with the same headset. > Instead it's just been fits and starts for the past 26 years since I experienced that demo. Big tech has pumped huge money into VR the last 5 years and the uptake is just not happening. This is incorrect. The Oculus Quest is super successful measured on any conceivable metric, outperforming (sales and retention-wise) any other headset that came before it. One key barrier to adoption of VR (or any consumer tech) is convenience. The Quest is the first headset that makes it convenient to use VR, as you don't need a PC, no external trackers, but you still get the same level of immersiveness. There are other areas that need improvement until it speak to a bigger TAM (such as improved resolution, more software, better performance, better ergonomics) - but those are all problems that have a more or less clear path of solution. In 10 years, everyone will be working in VR headsets, not laptops.

hwoolery 7y ago

I agree -- on top of this, I think machine learning will play an important role. The power of machine learning + AR creates some interesting possibilities. You can check out our website for some examples https://www.2020cv.com https://www.2020cv.com

windsurfer 7y ago

What value does augmented reality add to anything?

elcomet 7y ago
I'm thinking of assisting drivers. Projecting stuff into the road to guide the driver, or warn him when there are dangerous objects.
- yodon 7y ago
  I'm not sure the thing people have been doing perfectly well for 100 years without AR glasses that billions of dollars are being invested in making people not need to do at all is the place to launch your AR dream company
  - CamperBob2 7y ago
    For values of "Doing perfectly well" that encompass "Killing 30,000 people a year."
- windsurfer 7y ago
  I like the idea of using it for safety. Is that something currently being done, or still in the experimental stages?
rapsey 7y ago
If you don't need a monitor, you don't need the computer as we know it today. Combine it with a brain computer interface and you throw away the keyboard and mouse as well. Subsequently you also throw away all the OS'es as we know them. AR/VR is a toy today. In the future our computers and mobile phones might look as arcane as an eniac.
- somatic 7y ago
  I recommend Hegel with Neuralink: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ppGlEiQXrRI https://youtube.com/watch?v=ppGlEiQXrRI Unless the computer is itself capable of anticipating and satisfying your desires — which, I grant, is possible, but, I would argue, incredibly, incredibly dystopian — you will need to consciously articulate your thoughts in such a way that the computer serves your will. That conscious articulation is the bottleneck. Not the keyboard, not the mouse, and certainly not the typing speed. This is, of course, assuming that the computer remains the servant rather than becoming the master.
  - rapsey 7y ago
    If it needs to be a learnable skill like typing, that is just as revolutionary. The interface does not have to be that deep. Just enough to input words and movements. Hell it could be voice commands.
  - KhoomeiK 7y ago
    Not if the BCI is trained on data produced by users in a natural thinking state.
  - darepublic 7y ago
    I am thinking of the keyboardless typing with wrist bands as an intermediary step. I agree controlling conscious thought is difficult, but you could just key in commands with small impulses of the wrists and it would still be quite a bit more convenient than pulling out the phone
somatic 7y ago
Adtech. Hence Facebook/Oculus.
antupis 7y ago
Think about car mechanics seeing what do next if you want to open this specific motor or electrician seeing where cables are in the wall. Or physicians seeing specific information about patients eg how fast is he is breathing, what patient temperature is etc.
auiya 7y ago
Ask the porn industry in 1-2 years.
zip1234 7y ago
Visualizing any change to the exterior of a building or new construction project in the actual location that it will be.
- onemoresoop 7y ago
  And how many people would need that on a daily basis? This sounds to be a useful but somewhat niche area
  - zip1234 7y ago
    There are 1.2 millions houses built in the US every year. I could see the applications pretty vast actually. Another possible idea is for landscaping. Often times a tree will be planted that ends up too big or too small for the space. With an app that can show a tree in the space at various stages in it's life, it could really help in landscape design.

ghaff 7y ago

One of the big wildcards for widespread consumer use is the social aspect. We can envision what AR might look like in everyday life. What's far less clear to me is the degree to which people will accept AR glasses that are constantly using video and audio to deliver information to the wearer will be accepted. If I know that person I just met has inconspicuously scanned me and looked up all kinds of information that are now being displayed, am I OK with that?

anon111028 7y ago
What if last week that person you were introduced to, and gave your name to(or didn't) happened to look you up and do some research. It wasn't handed to them through glasses immediately, but essentially it's the same thing. I would bet it probably has already happened to many of us and we didn't even realize. ever have someone come up to you and say "Oh your the person who x" just a thought on your last sentence
Arubis 7y ago
A little tangential, but I hope the answer to this is a resounding "no", and that adoption is sufficient to make a lot of people really uncomfortable. Perhaps this is naive of me, but I still believe that a great contributor to tolerance of our society for massive dragnet surveillance is that it isn't very visible.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Not tangential at all. On the one hand, I can see AR that's extremely powerful and useful given wearable hardware, sophisticated software, image recognition, connectivity, etc. On the other hand, that would clearly be a step beyond today's smartphones to, as you suggest, potentially always on video and audio that's constantly communicating with and being analyzed by databases. By contrast, VR seems to me to be a niche.
SimbaOnSteroids 7y ago
I think AR almost has to be Apple, not from a tech perspective, but from "this tech is very creepy, invasive, and visibly so" angle. Apple may be the only company that is simultaneously big enough to make the tech happen and charismatic enough to get us to let down our guard to it. Although that latter one is rapidly diminishing.

mrdoops 7y ago

Agreed. With 7nm fresh off the presses and 5nm on the way we're should start seeing some efficient SoC's to do the 3D mapping AR needs. Even if glasses aren't ready to be the primary interface - phones with the hardware to accurately map and overlay the world still has a lot of promise.

KhoomeiK 7y ago

Big agree. Smartphones have more or less flatlined in the last couple years and the only viable next step seems to be AR. Snap Inc and a lot of smaller players in the market know this, and their pivot to AR is arguably what has caused their resurgence in the past few months.

shafyy 7y ago

I run a VR startup so I'm biased, but: AR and VR. Different side of the same coin. But first (next 5-10 years) VR will be more mainstream, because it's easier to solve from a technological point of view.

enos_feedler 7y ago
In what sense are they different sides of the same coin? I see AR as very practical and VR not so much. I look at everyone walking down the street trying to simultaneous look down at their phone and do other things (walk, drive, etc) and see a huge TAM for AR. Meanwhile, in 1993 I went to the local fairground in my small town and experienced VR-enabled multiplayer game of Doom. It had much lower fidelity than VR today, but if the market really wanted it, there would have been a constant pull for their technology to improve. Instead it's just been fits and starts for the past 26 years since I experienced that demo. Big tech has pumped huge money into VR the last 5 years and the uptake is just not happening.
- shafyy 7y ago
  > In what sense are they different sides of the same coin? One should look at AR and VR as a spectrum. Eventually, you'll be able to mix and match with the same headset. > Instead it's just been fits and starts for the past 26 years since I experienced that demo. Big tech has pumped huge money into VR the last 5 years and the uptake is just not happening. This is incorrect. The Oculus Quest is super successful measured on any conceivable metric, outperforming (sales and retention-wise) any other headset that came before it. One key barrier to adoption of VR (or any consumer tech) is convenience. The Quest is the first headset that makes it convenient to use VR, as you don't need a PC, no external trackers, but you still get the same level of immersiveness. There are other areas that need improvement until it speak to a bigger TAM (such as improved resolution, more software, better performance, better ergonomics) - but those are all problems that have a more or less clear path of solution. In 10 years, everyone will be working in VR headsets, not laptops.