Augmented Reality: Past, Present and Future
A recent article on wareable.com walks us through the past, present, and future of Augmented Reality. Featuring images from a variety of providers, the article starts by making a distinction among Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality.
There’s information about the history of AR dating back to the 1960s, and research that took off in the 1990s. Ori Inbar, organizer of the Augmented World Expo, AWE, is quoted as saying that AR has taken off since enterprises took notice and invested. There’s a brief history of all the major players in head-mounted displays and smart glasses, as well as the elusive Wmagic leap,” which has generated $1.4 billion from investors to date.
While gamifying Augmented Reality may have failed in the past, Augmented Reality gaming has now taken off with the advent of Pokémon Go, which has moved the conversation forward. The article concludes by suggesting what is next for Augmented Reality: that it requires lighter, untethered devices than VR to fit seamlessly with day-to-day interactions. Applications for consumers are happening now, but the real drive is within the enterprise. The future for consumer Augmented Reality may be mobile, however, as we are seeing in the enterprise, head-mounted displays are the future. Meta believes that Augmented Reality will replace the screen altogether, and there is some discussion about the search for a new interface. The article mentions some interesting use cases for education, such as teaching anatomy, chemistry with reactions, and models of the solar system, by using Augmented Reality for a collaborative learning experience. The article concludes by suggesting that the deciding factor will be keeping hardware accessible and affordable.