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Imagine a car mechanic remotely helping you to do what's needed to be done. This use case is showcased in one of the videos and it is probably not as complicate

by crsna 12y ago

Imagine a car mechanic remotely helping you to do what's needed to be done. This use case is showcased in one of the videos and it is probably not as complicated as building an AI engine to help a user repair his car. This thing is really crazy!!

sillysaurus3 12y ago
Ah, yeah.. That's a good point. And the bandwidth probably exists to transmit images from the goggles to someone else in near-realtime. Now I'm really excited about this.
taeric 12y ago
This is actually a relatively silly use case for this. A lot of the actual difficult things that a mechanic can do for you usually involve more strength than you have. Or just experience in actually working with things that they can't see. Now, a mechanic using this to "see" things that are actually in control of a remote robot? Pretty cool. Showing you the thing that is right in front of you? Cute, but ultimately silly.
- aetherson 12y ago
  Yeah, I'm just not sure that I buy the idea that there's a big market for an expert coaching you through doing repairs via AR goggles. How exactly does this work? You still need to pay for an expert's time -- in fact, you probably need to pay more for it, because the expert is probably faster to do a thing than to explain the thing to you and then you do it. Also, the expert now needs to be someone with these additional skills of coaching someone through an operation. Tools are still needed -- is there actually a big market for the kind of repairs you can do with the tools that everyone has lying around at home but which is complicated enough to need hand-coaching by an expert? I mean, maybe! Especially if you can locate the expert in some place where labor prices are much lower (so: India). But then you also need the person to buy the AR goggles. And how often does this use case come up? Is this like 3D printers where people try to sell me on the concept that I could pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for something that can make me things that cost less than $20 and which I need three of every year?
  - guelo 12y ago
    At any given time there are probably thousands of car mechanic experts sitting idle
  - ewzimm 12y ago
    You could draw on a much bigger pool than professionals. There are plenty of people who know a skill and don't professionally sell their services but could spare a few minutes occasionally to help someone with a problem. If you combine skill tracking with instant global availability of services, you have a lot of room for development.
  - Rapzid 12y ago
    Training. Emergency assistance. Military applications. Don't trap yourself by thinking that the item needs to be the be-all for the Joneses.
    - chrissyb 12y ago
      Yeah this could make putting Ikea furniture together alot easier.
      - TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
        Like that's every going to happen. Online training though - a whole other thing. Imagine math and physics with interactive 3D visualisations. Or for kids, a virtual version of one of those 30-in-1 electronics teaching kits. And so on. If this works it could be a game changer, and it could also create a whole new app industry. I just hope the technology is non-crappy, and it doesn't get managementised into uselessness.
        aetherson 12y ago
        None of those things require the augmented reality aspect of this: you don't need to place math and physics lessons into your local environment. They'd do just as well with VR, and indeed it doesn't sound to me like they'd do MUCH worse with just a plain old screen. What is it that you're imagining we couldn't do with a tablet that has swipe gestures to rotate the demo around all axes? An electronics teaching kit might not work on a tablet (but would in VR), and note that any kind of really fluid manipulation of a virtual environment is going to involve a whole additional technology that gives precise locations of your hands (at least). The HoloLens allows a few simple gestures, not the ability to handle virtual objects in many degrees of freedom.
- zaroth 12y ago
  But the hologram need not be a person! At least, it won't be once this use case makes sense. The hologram, will be an AI hologram. Just like the light switch installation in TFA, it would be silly to have a human expert show you how to install a switch, or trade out a component in your car, once an AI expert will do.
- renox 12y ago
  I don't think that 'strength' is the issue but better tools and a lot more experience are the core parts: I remember watching one mechanic changing the light in my car: what took me ~15 minutes (I'm not kidding) took him ~30secondes.. And that's like riding a bike: you cannot really tell someone how to do it.. It can still be very interesting in many ways!
- tripzilch 12y ago
  Don't forget actually having the right tools to do the job.
Throwaway90283 12y ago
If there's a market for this, why doesn't it already exist? You could take your smartphone under your car, and video chat with a mechanic anywhere in the world. The mechanic could even draw arrows or highlight areas on your video in real-time as it's looped back to your display.

by crsna 12y ago

sillysaurus3 12y ago

Ah, yeah.. That's a good point. And the bandwidth probably exists to transmit images from the goggles to someone else in near-realtime. Now I'm really excited about this.

taeric 12y ago

This is actually a relatively silly use case for this. A lot of the actual difficult things that a mechanic can do for you usually involve more strength than you have. Or just experience in actually working with things that they can't see. Now, a mechanic using this to "see" things that are actually in control of a remote robot? Pretty cool. Showing you the thing that is right in front of you? Cute, but ultimately silly.

aetherson 12y ago
Yeah, I'm just not sure that I buy the idea that there's a big market for an expert coaching you through doing repairs via AR goggles. How exactly does this work? You still need to pay for an expert's time -- in fact, you probably need to pay more for it, because the expert is probably faster to do a thing than to explain the thing to you and then you do it. Also, the expert now needs to be someone with these additional skills of coaching someone through an operation. Tools are still needed -- is there actually a big market for the kind of repairs you can do with the tools that everyone has lying around at home but which is complicated enough to need hand-coaching by an expert? I mean, maybe! Especially if you can locate the expert in some place where labor prices are much lower (so: India). But then you also need the person to buy the AR goggles. And how often does this use case come up? Is this like 3D printers where people try to sell me on the concept that I could pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for something that can make me things that cost less than $20 and which I need three of every year?
- guelo 12y ago
  At any given time there are probably thousands of car mechanic experts sitting idle
- ewzimm 12y ago
  You could draw on a much bigger pool than professionals. There are plenty of people who know a skill and don't professionally sell their services but could spare a few minutes occasionally to help someone with a problem. If you combine skill tracking with instant global availability of services, you have a lot of room for development.
- Rapzid 12y ago
  Training. Emergency assistance. Military applications. Don't trap yourself by thinking that the item needs to be the be-all for the Joneses.
  - chrissyb 12y ago
    Yeah this could make putting Ikea furniture together alot easier.
    - TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
      Like that's every going to happen. Online training though - a whole other thing. Imagine math and physics with interactive 3D visualisations. Or for kids, a virtual version of one of those 30-in-1 electronics teaching kits. And so on. If this works it could be a game changer, and it could also create a whole new app industry. I just hope the technology is non-crappy, and it doesn't get managementised into uselessness.
      - aetherson 12y ago
        None of those things require the augmented reality aspect of this: you don't need to place math and physics lessons into your local environment. They'd do just as well with VR, and indeed it doesn't sound to me like they'd do MUCH worse with just a plain old screen. What is it that you're imagining we couldn't do with a tablet that has swipe gestures to rotate the demo around all axes? An electronics teaching kit might not work on a tablet (but would in VR), and note that any kind of really fluid manipulation of a virtual environment is going to involve a whole additional technology that gives precise locations of your hands (at least). The HoloLens allows a few simple gestures, not the ability to handle virtual objects in many degrees of freedom.
zaroth 12y ago
But the hologram need not be a person! At least, it won't be once this use case makes sense. The hologram, will be an AI hologram. Just like the light switch installation in TFA, it would be silly to have a human expert show you how to install a switch, or trade out a component in your car, once an AI expert will do.
renox 12y ago
I don't think that 'strength' is the issue but better tools and a lot more experience are the core parts: I remember watching one mechanic changing the light in my car: what took me ~15 minutes (I'm not kidding) took him ~30secondes.. And that's like riding a bike: you cannot really tell someone how to do it.. It can still be very interesting in many ways!
tripzilch 12y ago
Don't forget actually having the right tools to do the job.

Throwaway90283 12y ago

If there's a market for this, why doesn't it already exist? You could take your smartphone under your car, and video chat with a mechanic anywhere in the world. The mechanic could even draw arrows or highlight areas on your video in real-time as it's looped back to your display.