Is AR the next big thing??
Tim Cook seems to think so..
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/tim-cook-ar-war-ducks-healthtech
What do you think? What are the things blocking this new tech and does has anyone have any experience in bringing an AR product to market?
It's gonna be, when the hardware becomes more cheap. Maybe we need like , cheap transparent oled displays? Put that on cars and airplanes and even on smartphones and boom. Everyone will use it. It's mostly the manufacturers decision. Common folk buy whatever is available.
AR has been the next big thing for quite some time. We are not limited by the technology of AR at this point. We are limited by the use cases now. If they can come with strong cases in healthcare and defense tech, it might be a game-changer. Until then it is a gaming technology.
AR/VR is the next big thing since 80s. However, somehow the hardware is always a bit missing something here and there in order to take it off. Nevertheless, AR getting momentum in very niche fields like industrial engineering and simulations. In 2007 we tried AR with a product but the mobile phones were just not powerful to make it reliable. Sometimes simple things like measuring precise angles without complex calibration is just not working well with current low-end AR glasses. I try it in every 2-3 years and while everything is progressing we are still not there. Specialized hardware are working well in specialized environments.
Ditto!
Absolutely agree about hardware. Even with smartphones now I can see issues with refresh rates and flicker etc., which doesn’t help with a tangible immersion. Rumour has it the new series of iPhones and Android phones will have a very high refresh rate which might help with that, also new dedicated chips for AR, but the ultimate prize will be glasses or some other way to augment reality seamlessly
Magic Leap makes for an interesting story, as does Microsoft's HoloLens. AR could be so beneficial for so many applications, beyond gaming. That being said, I sort of feel like AR in 2020 is a bit like VR was in the early 90's...It's just not there yet. I don't know if it ever will be.
For example, until it's easier to use an AR whiteboard in a meeting, people are going to continue to use the real thing. There are a lot of companies out there that haven't even moved into smartboards yet, or don't really use them much if they have them, at least not enough to justify the associated cost. There is something about a tangible feel that technology hasn't been able to fully recreate....yet.
I agree, definitely in its infancy, however I do see a lot of players in this market doing a ton of investment... can’t help but wonder if the right hardware and software is there, could this take off?
I think it definitely could just based on the use-case scenarios I've read and/or thought about. The implications are huge!
So, I've done AR and VR projects for a while, and even tried to sell some VR software. Met some startup AR folks working on AR shopping. It's amazing how good and cheap AR ( and even VR) stacks have gotten. Furniture shoppers, for example, really do increase purchases 200-300% when the furniture store uses Hololens to show different colors of a couch. VR is a normal part of the skyscraper, hospital, and large structure sales process -- because it convinces owners to spend big $ on the skyscraper, and design/build firms close more deals at higher prices when they use it.
And "Cardboard VR Glasses" for smartphones are super cheap. You can do VR house tours cheap and easy now with simple glasses like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019D9F2XS/
360 and 180-3d cameras are cheap -- in the $100 price range now. We should be in an explosion of the tech going from hobby to mainstream.
That being said, while the tech has improved majorly, and certain industries have adopted it on the high end, it's not making a lot of money for most developers. It likely won't, maybe ever. It's just too different/inconvenient vs traditional screens, and even where it's proven to work -- like in furniture, clothes, or building sales, it stays in the high-end boutique stores only. For whatever reason, it's not moving to the kind of scale where small indie shops can make real profits in that industry.
That's a great comment, thanks for your feedback! I agree that the hardware is becoming more accessible like 3D cameras etc., and I also agree that it's a hard sell to get people to put things on their head to interact with the AR... however, because I am getting on now :) I remember a time when people started using ear-pieces connected to phones via bluetooth and would talk on their phone down the street and it looked like they were talking to themselves... really weird and turned people off, but it definetely became the norm... or when people started doing selfies it was kinda strange and almost laughable but then became mainstream... maybe people holding up phones to see a virtual world might not be so far-fetched... not sure :)