Getting to Know Augmented Reality
What is the first thing you think of when I say, ‘Augmented Reality’?
If it is a virtual headset, then your answer would be close, but not exactly on point. The concept of virtual reality (VR) is where the real world is completely replaced by a digital one. Whereas augmented reality (AR) is the layering of the real world with computerized elements, for example, Google Glass.
With that in mind, AR and VR are still based on a similar purpose. To improve the user experience with enhanced digital imagery.
As VR is the better known of the two digital realities, AR is not as commonly recognized. Nonetheless, it does not mean that the latter is simply to be labelled as a gimmick. AR is used in most of the industries today, from military applications for MRO purposes, to entertainment and gaming platforms, to education and interior planning. AR provides a unique and different format to presenting data.
Coined only in 1990 by Tom Caudell, a Boeing researcher, AR can be traced back even further to the late 1960s when Ivan Sutherland, a Harvard professor and known pioneer in computer graphics, formed a team with 3 of his students to create the first head-mounted display (HMD) called ‘The Sword of Damocles’. Since then, AR has come a long way with it being applied in NASA X-38 spacecraft for overlay mapping and navigation in 1999, to 2009 when Esquire Magazine was the first to publish AR in print media, to the announcement in 2016 by Microsoft about their wearable AR technology, HoloLens.
With that being said, there are 5 main types of Augmented Reality
1. Projection Based AR
This form of AR projects digital objects onto a real-world scenario, where the user can visually manipulate the said object on the screen. For example, IKEA Place is an AR app that allows you to place and view digital furniture in your home or office space from your phone screen. With this IKEA is taking advantage of how AR can be used to encourage user spending with visual aid, creating a more appealing digital platform for customers to view their products.
2. Recognition Based AR
The best example of this form of AR is social media filters. By using face recognition-based software, social media companies like Snapchat are able to popularize this concept by adding a digital layer of imagery and face warping to create an engaging interactive platform.
However, as this form of AR uses marker-based detection, it is not limited to only face recognition but is more commonly used to scan barcodes, texts, and other images to give a different respective output.
3. Location Based AR
By using marker less-based detection and your phones GPS, compass, and sensor data, the AR-based application can detect your position to provide relevant information on your location. For example, it can be used in a museum as a digital guide or more famously, in the nostalgic mobile game, Pokémon Go. As such, it is an ideal example on how geotargeting is being used to encourage and retain user interaction.
4. Outlining AR
Most commonly known to be used in cars to help a driver navigate into the parking spot, it outlines the direction in which the vehicle should go. By scanning and identifying the surrounding area and showing you the best method for completion, this form of AR is mostly used in the manufacturing industry or relating to the content of creating or undertaking a given task.
In 2013, Volkswagen released an application called MARTA (Mobile Augmented Reality Technical Assistance) which provided technicians a visual guide on repair instructions by using AR based recognition detection technology.
5. Superimposition Based AR
Superimposition uses object recognition to overlap a digital image entirely or partly on a real-world object. An example of this would be how some medical application can overlap an x-ray reading onto the patients’ ligament.
Similarly, EchoPixel’s True 3D is a surgical planning tool for physicians that uses mixed reality (MR) software to improve the preparation for the procedure.
In conclusion, it has been just over half a century since the concept of AR was founded and it is clear that it holds a lot of promise.
The lesser-known AR Vision detection is under progress as technology is still being developed to allow for bio-tech lenses. But as for the recent future, there is potential growth within the sports sector between Microsoft and the NFL with the HoloLens being applied to fantasy football. Further, AR combined with IoT based solutions also holds numerous possibilities that companies and UX designers could unlock to create more effective and efficient solutions to modern day situations and problems.
