Our Immersion Into Augmented Reality
“Feeding our senses a stimuli that is so similar to what we see in reality, that we interpret it as reality. In all other mediums your consciousness is interpreting a medium... But in VR there is no gap. You aren’t internalizing it. You are internal in it. It’s a quantum leap in mediums because the medium is disappearing.”
— Chris Milk
We’re already toying with it and, without a shred of a doubt, we’re closer to finding ourselves fully immersed in AR than we may actually think.
Augmented reality is basically here — though it’s being exercised in more commercial applications than anything. And some could argue that it’s been around for quite a while in a consumer application setting as well — Pokemon Go having had been one of the the first widespread instances while Snapchat is supplementing our selfies with virtual features that tantalize our imaginations on a daily basis.
But how far are we from actually and unequivocally augmenting our reality — to the point that we begin to see less of the real world and more of a computer-generated existence?
To the point where we have virtual assistants keeping pace with us as we walk down our streets, or a permanent interface guiding us through everyday life? How long until we’re in a position whereby we don’t switch it on and off, equip or unequip it, take it on or put it away?
Sure, face-dawned gear like Hololens and Magic Leap is neat and nifty but what about our full immersion into this concept, whereby we begin to depend on it as a new norm of seeing, analyzing and interacting with the world around us?
“VR is a way to escape the real world into something more fantastic. It has the potential to be the most social technology of all time.” — Palmer Luckey
As I’ve written previously, it seems a law of nature for everything — all matter and all organisms — to inevitably expand and bifurcate, take up more space and fill more voids. This conquest of dimensionality demands that we perpetually expand outwards, inwards, and in every way possible — tangibly, intangibly, physically and cybernetically, on all frequencies and in all capacities. And so, philosophically and pragmatically speaking, why not take advantage of our own eyesight as a means of deepening our interaction with the world? Layers upon layers and new dimensions of information can be implemented into our fields of vision alone.
Our phones already have the capability. We can augment star systems and celestial bodies into the viewfinders of our devices so that when we look up at the night sky, we can see and know more; we can point our phone at any distant star in our sky and see a computer-generated model close-up, detailing all of it’s features for us. Of course and as mentioned, there’s the likes of Snapchat and Lego Studio, which let us have fun with supplementing our interface through which we see the world as it is.
The ever-evolving world of cars and drivers is the next piece of the puzzle, with Mercedes, BMW, and LandRover looking to circumvent obstructions through the superimposition of alternative camera angles, supplementing navigational directives over live camera views, or implementing laser holography projection onto a windshield to create these new dimensions of information conveyance.
The home will also enter a new era of customization, as furnishing, painting and remodeling will allow homeowners a vivid glimpse into all potential modifications. As of now, we already have Ikea Place and the Dulux Visualizer — two pioneered stepping stones that are working to bring us to a full-blown immersion into the homes we’re constructing in virtual reality first.
Cosmetics (Sephora Visual), health (Accuvein), apparel (Watchbox) — it’s entering every field and slowly creeping up on us from all angles. Unintentionally negative connotations aside, we may or may not be apprehensive about the potential for abuse by maniacal marketing campaigns or subtle advertising endeavors.
So how long will it be until we consider ourselves fully immersed? Once all our windshields project information to us? Once we have contact lenses or neural implants that act as the new interface through which we connect?
Time and a healthy mode of retrospection will be able to tell for sure but, until then, we’re in for an interesting ride as we go deeper and as new developments become all the more apparent.
And while this essay itself may have been a frustrating way to ask more questions rather than shed any light on possible answers, an upcoming post will look to hypothesize some possible instances of AR/VR. For the time being, however, it may simply be necessary to stop for a moment and realize our position before allowing the currents to take us deeper.
“There’s decades of innovations ahead. We’re at the very beginning, where it’s just at the stage where we can bring in consumers [but] there’s so much further to go from there.”
— Brendan Iribe
Sources:
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/augmented-reality-is-coming-to-your-car/
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/10/25/dulux-puts-augmented-reality-app-heart-e-commerce-plans