Peter Diamandis Looks at Augmented Reality Applications and Hardware

September 12, 2019 – In this annotated second part of Peter Diamandis’ look at the current and future state of augmented reality, he introduces the “hot” technology currently out there from applications to devices. It is a rather interesting compilation of the state-of-the-art for augmented reality and a hint of what lies in the near future as this technology becomes more widely adopted by business and household consumers. As always your comments are welcomed.

Americans today spend over nine hours per day looking at screens. That amounts to more than a third of our livelihoods. Because this screen exposure serves as a portal to 90% of the media we consume, it continues to define and constrain how and where we consume content. But soon this may all become obsolete.

With new advancements in hardware and connectivity, augmented reality (AR) is set to replace the two-dimensional interface upon which we have become dependent. Instead, we will see and interact with the world through a digital information layer with AR headsets ultimately immersing us into dynamic stories, learn-everywhere education, and even gamified work tasks.

We got our first taste of AR’s real-world gamification in 2016, when Nintendo released Pokemon Go. Thus began the greatest cartoon character turkey shoot in history. With 5 million daily users, 65 million monthly users, and over $2 billion in revenue, the virtual-overlaid experience remains one for the books.

In the years since similar AR apps have exploded. Once thick and bulky, AR glasses are becoming increasingly lightweight, stylish, and unobtrusive. And over the next 15 years, AR portals will become almost unnoticeable, as hardware rapidly dematerializes.

Companies like Mojo Vision are even rumored to be developing AR contact lenses, slated to offer us heads-up display capabilities — no glasses required.

So let’s look at what else is happening to the technology and its projected growth.

Mobile AR

We have already begun to sample the extraordinary functions of AR through smartphone apps. Snap recently announced it is raising $1 billion in short-term debt to invest in media content, acquisitions, and AR features. Both Apple and Google are racing to deploy mobile phones with requisite infrastructure to support hyper-realistic AR. And in the iOS space, developers are using the ARKit in iPhone software to bring high-definition AR experiences to life to a range of iPhone models. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly emphasized his belief that AR will “change the way we use technology forever.”

While recent rumors reveal the company’s AR glasses project has been discontinued, Apple’s foray in AR is far from over. Just recently, the company announced a large number of job postings for AR and VR experts. And although somewhat speculative, Apple is likely waiting for the consumer market to mature before releasing its first-generation AR glasses, or its pivot to an entirely new line of AR hardware products. For now, however, Apple seems to be promoting extensive hardware advancements showcased by its A12 bionic chip, not to mention the variety of AR apps available in its App Store including:

• IKEA place allows users to try out furniture in the home, experimenting with styles and sizing before ordering online.
• Vuforia Chalk is a novel AR tool that helps customers fix appliances with real-time virtual assistance. As users direct their smartphone cameras towards troublesome appliances, remote tech support workers can draw on consumers’ screens to guide them through repair steps.
• Monster Park brings Jurassic Park dinosaurs into any landscape you desire, immersing you in a modern-day Mesozoic Era.
• Dance Reality guides you through detailed steps and the timing of countless dance styles.
• Civilisations is an app that lets you hold, spin, and view x-rays of ancient artifacts while listening to historical narrations.
• Free Rivers transforms your tabletop into natural landscapes, from the Himalayas to the African Sahara, allowing you to digitally manipulate entire ecosystems to better understand how water flow affects habitats.
• And Thyng lets you create your own AR worlds and objects.

Android users have options just as varied, based on the Android software-compatible ARCore being used by developers. While the recently announced Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 aims to capture enterprise clients, Android smartphone hardware provides remarkable AR experiences for everyday consumers including:

• DoodleLens which brings your doodles to life, transforming paper drawings into 3D animated figures that you can place and manipulate in your physical environment.
• Just a Line allows anyone to create a 3D drawing within their physical surroundings, making space itself an endless canvas.
• Google Translate can now take an image of any foreign street sign, menu, or label and provide instantaneous translation in real time.
• Sky Map, now open-sourced, guides users through the constellations across the night sky.
• Inkhunter allows users to preview any potential tattoo design on their skin.
• And Snapchat’s computer vision-derived filters allows you to see how your appearance will change over time, an app that has reached 90% of 12-to 24-year-olds in the United States since it was launched.

Leading Headsets

There is an increasing number of AR headsets in the market. A few of them are pushing the envelope to allow wide field-of-view (FOV) immersion for enterprise applications. The following list highlights key features:

(1) Highest Resolution

DreamGlass: Connected to a PC or Android-based smartphone, DreamWorld’s headset offers 2.5K resolution in each lens, beating out Full HD resolution screens but in AR. Resolution improvements minimize pixel size, reducing the “screen door effect,” whereby pixel boundaries disrupt the image like a screen’s mesh. Offering unprecedented levels of hand-and-head-tracking precision, the headset even features 6 degrees of freedom (i.e. axes of directional rotation). With a flexible software development kit (SDK) supported by Unity and Android, the device is highly accessible to developers, making it a ready candidate for countless immersive experiences. Currently, at $619 USD the DreamGlass and comparable technology is continuing to fall in price.

(2) Best for Enterprise

Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 is a major upgrade that includes an 8-megapixel camera, detachable lens, vastly increased battery life, faster connection, and ultra-high-performance Snapdragon XR1 CPU. Already, the Glass has been sold to over 100 businesses, including GE, agricultural machinery manufacturer AGCO, and health record company Dignity Health. Using the Glass, GE has increased productivity by 25%, and DHL has improved its supply chain efficiency by 15%. While currently only available for business customers, the new-and-improved Google Glass at $999 USD is expected to decrease in price as production costs plummet.

(3) Democratized AR

Vuzix Blade resembles chunky Oakley sunglasses. These smart glasses are extraordinarily portable, with a built-in Android OS as well as both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Designed for everyday consumer use at a price point of $700 USD, these glasses are slowly chipping away at smartphone functionality. For easy control of an intuitive interface, a touchpad on the device’s temples allows consumers to display everything from social media platforms and user messages to “light AR” experiences. Meanwhile, an 8 Megapixel HD camera makes you no longer need your smartphone camera so that you can remain immersed in the AR experience while digitally capturing it at the same time. The glasses include built-in Alexa capabilities and vibration alerts which extends the  wearers’ experience beyond pure visual stimulation.

(4) Widest FOV

Microsoft HoloLens 2 is the conpany’s newest headset providing an industry-leading FOV of  43° x 29°. That’s more  than double the 2016-released version. FOV enlargement is not the only improvement. The headset’s center of gravity now rests on the top of the head rather than the typical front-loading of other headset models. In addition tiny cameras on the nose bridge verify a user’s identity by scanning the wearer’s eyes and customizing the display based on distance between the pupils. Once accompanied by emotion-deducing AIs which are now under development, this tracking feature could evolve to intuitively predict a user’s desires and emotions. Geared with a Qualcomm 850 mobile processor and Microsoft’s own AI built-in engine, the Hololens appears to have limitless potential.

(5) Most Comfortable

Magic Leap One weighs 360 grams (less than 0.8 pounds) and provides one of the most lightweight headset experiences available today. Its 40° x 30° FOV is barely eclipsed by Microsoft’s HoloLens 2. A small “Lightpack” attachment connected by cable to the goggles can be placed in a wearer’s pocket to enhance the AR experience with a handheld controller containing a touchpad, haptic feedback, and 6 degrees of freedom motion sensing. Meanwhile, light sensors make the digital renderings even more realistic reflecting physical light into the viewer’s space. Magic Leap even features a virtual human called “Mica,” that provides AI-drivesn responses to the wearer’s emotions through eye-tracking detection.

Final Thoughts

As headsets plummet in price and size, AR will become ubiquitous in the next decade. Once we have mastered headsets and smart glasses, AR-enabled contact lenses will make our virtually enhanced world second nature. And ultimately, brain-control-interfaces (BCIs) will directly communicate with our neural signals to provide an instantaneous, seamlessly intuitive connection, merging minds with limitless troves of knowledge, and never-before-possible experiences. While only approaching the knee of the curve, these pioneering mobile apps and novel headset technologies as described above will begin a fundamental transformation of our lives.