While Augmented Reality (AR) might still be a couple of years off, the imagined possibilities are endless.
Walking down the street and seeing someone you might recognize from years ago, but you are not completely sure where from; with AR, you could be able to use facial recognition and pull up their Facebook or LinkedIn profile instantly and find out what links the two of you potentially have or have had.
Or visiting a foreign country, where you do not speak the language and you plan to visit a local museum with descriptions of paintings not available in English. AR would be able to assist in instantly translating that local language into your own native tongue, allowing you to perform activities in countries that now might be impossible to do appropriately.
Of course AR will also be a major cause for privacy concerns. In the above mentioned example of the recognisable face walking down the street, does that person even want to be able to be tracked like this? How can AR systems make sure that privacy regulations such as the newly introduced General Data Protection Regulation are not being violated? How do people know that they are not secretly filmed? Google Glass ran into the same issues as well and ultimately failed.
Google Glass 2.0 is now focusing on improving the work place in factories. Glass for instance tells workers what kind of bolt is needed or can zoom in on an object to provide more details. Or a quality checker can say “Not OK” while inspecting a unit and it will immediately notify the superiors. A paradigm shift from public to private markets might be what AR needs to establish itself in society.
One thing is clear: AR has the potential to change everything.
Sources:
https://twitter.com/keiichiban/
https://www.fastcompany.com/90167172/leap-motions-virtual-wearables-may-be-the-future-of-computing
https://www.wired.com/story/google-glass-2-is-here/
Very interesting article! I definitely agree with you that AR will have a great impact on our society. In my view, the immersive nature of AR is what it sets apart from other technologies. It allows technology to directly mediate a person’s perception and interaction with the real world. From the perspective of how we might use AR for good, this presents new opportunities. But indeed it also has some security and privacy issues. It is critical that we anticipate and address these questions now, before technology like AR are widely deployed.