Many of us have seen the MIT Sixth Sense wearable projection AR demonstration by Pranav Mistry and Patti Maes, and marvelled. Some of us may even have theorised on the potential impact such systems might have on learning.
What about the aesthetics? Wouldn't it be great to 'wear' your computer, and have it project your content over the top of real world objects? And what about the pragmatics? Wouldn't it be wonderful to have access to as much information you want about any object or person you encounter, at anytime, and in anyplace? Those fantasizing about the prospect of owning an AR wearable may soon experience it for real, in an affordable, mass produced version. Google's Project Glass aims to develop a wearable glasses version of an AR system that links your vision and voice directly to all your social media and web based activities, in real time, and against your real world. Below is a video that demonstrates some of the proposed capabilities for users.
Project Glass will do this by projecting visual information over the top of your normal vision, in a see-through heads up display using a glass visor. This is something the military have been able to do for some time, as a means of enhancing information for helicopter and jet aircraft pilots. The military can afford these expensive AR tools. Up until now, the general public have been unable to gain access due to cost.
That all looks like it is about to change if Google can release a version of its Project Glass AR system that is a) affordable b) aesthetically pleasing so that enough people will invest in a set and c) reliable enough to work in the most challenging conditions (e.g. adverse weather conditions and proofed against idiots). There will be plenty of objections from those who want to keep their online lives distinctly separate from their real lives. Health and safety gnomes will also no doubt warn of the dangers of walking in front of a bus while focusing on your heads up display. There will probably be caveats about eye strain and damage from the non-ionising radiation the AR glasses might be suspected of emitting. Regardless of the objections and warnings such a system might provoke, once Google releases its AR glasses to the public, it may signal the slow but inevitable demise of handheld devices such as the mobile phone, and perhaps even the iPad and other handheld computing.
Image source
Get it in glass by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.
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