The future is here. While we may not be driving flying cars, and our current tech doesn’t look like anything that we saw on the Jetsons, we have a lot of tech that could have only been dreamed about just a few decades ago. While the landscape for tech is changing, there’s a new trend on the rise. If you own a smartphone, chances are you’ve already experienced the tech that we’re going to talk about. AR or Augmented Reality is changing our daily tech. We use it anytime we take a picture that alters our looks with puppy ears or other overlays. While you may not realise just how much we use AR on a daily basis, it is taking over the tech world and changing how our everyday-use devices are made.
What Is AR
AR, as stated earlier, stands for Augmented Reality. What that means is the tech that you use changes or augments everything that you see in real-time. Generally, it works by overlaying an animated or computer-generated image over what you see in front of you through a camera or lens. While the concept isn’t new, it is becoming more seamless as we improve the technology around it.
AR In the Workplace
AR is changing the tech that we use daily at work. We can use AR in place of PowerPoint presentations; this allows us to add in other data that we wouldn’t be able to otherwise and present a concept in a much more coherent way to our coworkers. AR for pilots is in the works as well, so if there is a disaster in the sky, they can still see everything that is needed to guide the plane to safety. AR is even being used to help industrial workers interact and understand the data that helps troubleshoot problems so that machinery works more efficiently. For designers, AR is a great tool to help with complex design. The ability to see a building through a computer-generated image allows the person to understand the design that they’re looking at quickly and on multiple levels. AR also allows customers to see how furniture, paint, or other items may look in their home or office before deciding to buy. While the uses of AR in the workplace are endless, there’s a lot of AR use in the entertainment industry as well.
AR for Entertainment
Augmented Reality is becoming part of our daily life in the gaming world. Apps are being developed to show us new ways to play and it’s driving the future of what we expect out of games. One of the biggest games that you are probably already aware of is Pokemon Go. Players can interact with their pocket monsters to some degree while using Pokémon Go in AR mode. Mobile devices are also now developed with the idea that AR is going to be used. Apple and Samsung have equipped their flagship phones with AR features already built-in. While, for the most part, the built-in AR is for taking selfies, it’s still a cool new way to see yourself and it’s new tech that we haven’t had before outside of an app. Glasses, like Google Glass, have been developed for using AR in the real world with even greater ease. A projector in the frame of the glasses projects a small display onto the glass to help users with navigation, see notifications without looking at their phone and other helpful things. While support for Google Glass has been pulled, there are other devices in the works that augment what we see around us. Either way, AR has become so normal that it has changed the tech that we use daily.
While you may or may not be into Snapchat, you’ve definitely seen AR being used everywhere. It makes the world we live in more interesting and, in some ways, maybe just a bit less real. The future of AR is still uncertain, considering how far it can go. While we may not have glasses that can give us data on everything that we see in real-time as we walk past, it seems that that particular futuristic device may not be far off. For now, AR is here to stay and will continue to help us or distract us in our day to day life.
