4 ms·

what are the killer apps for this? maybe someone more bullish can summarize who this customer is?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dmix 4y ago
Their main value prop is any sophisticated work requiring extensive pre-planning in group settings or in a physical environment like surgeries, architecture, and work training. There’s tons of complex jobs like this in the military, healthcare, high end niche manufacturing, etc. There’s also the sales aspect where you help customers visualize products like a car demo to executives. The barrier seems to be customization and staffing the implementation. You could generalize some things like certain specialized surgeries and create platforms across other fields. But most might require a mix of 3d, coders, and designers/art directors. So we could see the equivalent of video production studios or web design shops for AR. Then these same shops will find patterns and develop products to generalize them.
- Pulcinella 4y ago
  Honestly I don’t think B2B/B2Gov is all that much more of a viable path for AR than B2C is. It’s certainly not the magic key to success that I’ve seen some point to (usually as “ohh yeah the helmet/goggles/headset is ugly, nerdy, and anti-fashionable, but we will just sell to business and the military who will require their employees to use it.”) AR is really going to need a killer app to take off (or at least light the way and show other’s what is possible.) I hope when Apple announces their AR glasses they have some really, really good apps and demos to show off along with solid development tools; what I don’t want to see is Tim Cook showing off some MOBA game no one has ever heard of and ending with “…and we can’t wait to see what you do with it.” Edit: For example, Daqri was one (but far from the only) AR companies that thought B2B was the way. They went out of business in 2019. https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/12/another-high-flying-heavily-funded-ar-headset-startup-is-shutting-down/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/12/another-high-flying-heavil...
- jelling 4y ago
  I managed a team building for Google Glass. These high complexity labor use cases were the promise then as now. But the quiet part is that it’s to de-skill these positions as much as possible. Problem is that in the meanwhile they want highly skilled people to put up with basically nanny-ware strapped to their face.
- tootie 4y ago
  I still just don't see what Magic leap is going to do in that space. If you just need to overlay real world visuals with metadata, you can do it with a consumer grade smart phone for the past 5 years. If you want immersive, then you want VR. The niches that require goggles are tiny.
  - germinalphrase 4y ago
    AR won’t matter until shared experiences and body mods are real and in daylight.
- inerte 4y ago
  Architecture is a reality right now, I've seen architects presenting their projects on a VR headset with clients walking outside and inside their projects. It's actually super cool, and a few thousand dollars investment (you're building the model anyway) seems to be worthy for the extra wow factor.
braingenious 4y ago
The Lawnmower Man (1992) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0104692 https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0104692
mr_toad 4y ago
Remember that holographic chess scene from Star Wars? I want that, only with games like Total War, or Sim City. Not sure I’m willing to pay several thousand dollars for it though.
- JKCalhoun 4y ago
  And I don't want anything on my head or face.
- trzy 4y ago
  You want Tilt5 then.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  The biggest problem I see is that there is no control scheme available for now to match that. Even if the glasses delivered 100% on that promise, you'd still have to use a mouse and keyboard to play Total War or Sim City in any reasonable way. Not to mention, the vast majority of games try to pull you into their world, and make it seem large or even unending. AR directly works against both goals: you are integrating the game into familiar surroundings, and the game space becomes severely limited. Sure, there is some space for things like Pokemon Go or other "bring the magic/tech/? into your daily life", but this is a very limited setting. From this point of view, I believe gaming with AR is never going to take off (though there could well be space for a handful of extremely popular games, like Minecraft or Pokemon Go), and VR is far more promising in this space. I also think that neither VR nor AR will make any serious impact unless and until some new control scheme is invented that can actually feel different than sitting in front of a screen (but with the screen hanging from your head).
  - whywhywhywhy 4y ago
    Have you tried Oculus type controllers? They pretty excellent in that it gives you full 3D manipulation and scales well from broad strokes to detail work.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

dmix 4y ago

Their main value prop is any sophisticated work requiring extensive pre-planning in group settings or in a physical environment like surgeries, architecture, and work training. There’s tons of complex jobs like this in the military, healthcare, high end niche manufacturing, etc. There’s also the sales aspect where you help customers visualize products like a car demo to executives. The barrier seems to be customization and staffing the implementation. You could generalize some things like certain specialized surgeries and create platforms across other fields. But most might require a mix of 3d, coders, and designers/art directors. So we could see the equivalent of video production studios or web design shops for AR. Then these same shops will find patterns and develop products to generalize them.

Pulcinella 4y ago
Honestly I don’t think B2B/B2Gov is all that much more of a viable path for AR than B2C is. It’s certainly not the magic key to success that I’ve seen some point to (usually as “ohh yeah the helmet/goggles/headset is ugly, nerdy, and anti-fashionable, but we will just sell to business and the military who will require their employees to use it.”) AR is really going to need a killer app to take off (or at least light the way and show other’s what is possible.) I hope when Apple announces their AR glasses they have some really, really good apps and demos to show off along with solid development tools; what I don’t want to see is Tim Cook showing off some MOBA game no one has ever heard of and ending with “…and we can’t wait to see what you do with it.” Edit: For example, Daqri was one (but far from the only) AR companies that thought B2B was the way. They went out of business in 2019. https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/12/another-high-flying-heavily-funded-ar-headset-startup-is-shutting-down/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/12/another-high-flying-heavil...
jelling 4y ago
I managed a team building for Google Glass. These high complexity labor use cases were the promise then as now. But the quiet part is that it’s to de-skill these positions as much as possible. Problem is that in the meanwhile they want highly skilled people to put up with basically nanny-ware strapped to their face.
tootie 4y ago
I still just don't see what Magic leap is going to do in that space. If you just need to overlay real world visuals with metadata, you can do it with a consumer grade smart phone for the past 5 years. If you want immersive, then you want VR. The niches that require goggles are tiny.
- germinalphrase 4y ago
  AR won’t matter until shared experiences and body mods are real and in daylight.
inerte 4y ago
Architecture is a reality right now, I've seen architects presenting their projects on a VR headset with clients walking outside and inside their projects. It's actually super cool, and a few thousand dollars investment (you're building the model anyway) seems to be worthy for the extra wow factor.

braingenious 4y ago

The Lawnmower Man (1992) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0104692 https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0104692

mr_toad 4y ago

Remember that holographic chess scene from Star Wars? I want that, only with games like Total War, or Sim City. Not sure I’m willing to pay several thousand dollars for it though.

JKCalhoun 4y ago
And I don't want anything on my head or face.
trzy 4y ago
You want Tilt5 then.
tsimionescu 4y ago
The biggest problem I see is that there is no control scheme available for now to match that. Even if the glasses delivered 100% on that promise, you'd still have to use a mouse and keyboard to play Total War or Sim City in any reasonable way. Not to mention, the vast majority of games try to pull you into their world, and make it seem large or even unending. AR directly works against both goals: you are integrating the game into familiar surroundings, and the game space becomes severely limited. Sure, there is some space for things like Pokemon Go or other "bring the magic/tech/? into your daily life", but this is a very limited setting. From this point of view, I believe gaming with AR is never going to take off (though there could well be space for a handful of extremely popular games, like Minecraft or Pokemon Go), and VR is far more promising in this space. I also think that neither VR nor AR will make any serious impact unless and until some new control scheme is invented that can actually feel different than sitting in front of a screen (but with the screen hanging from your head).
- whywhywhywhy 4y ago
  Have you tried Oculus type controllers? They pretty excellent in that it gives you full 3D manipulation and scales well from broad strokes to detail work.