Tag Archives: Augmented Reality

Will Augmented Reality Games Become a Trend?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUQscPr8nM8

Those of you that are old enough to remember Laser Tag probably had an awesome childhood. Well, at least, if you got to play things like Laser Tag. Laser Tag is still around, of course, and there are other types of team competition sports like Nerf Gun Wars and Escape Rooms. The video above has been going around about an Augmented Reality group competition game in Japan. The video is intriguing, but the game itself is a bit hit and miss (of course, so were the commercials for Laser Tag). I would assume that, like Laser Tag, these Augmented Reality games need to be experienced to fully understand. But I like the idea – hope I get to try one some day myself. So here is hoping this becomes the next trend in group gaming. On the education side, it very possible to imagine someone creating educational games like this. Or creating online versions of these games for people to play with each other at a distance. I have been reading Daemon and Freedom™ by Daniel Squarez the past few months based on a recommendation from Amy Collier. Freedom™ especially adds a a layer of augmented reality into Suarez’s dystopian future that points to the ways that this kind of tech could be useful in real life (well, when not being used by an evil program to destroy humanity, that is). I highly recommend reading those books. Augmented Reality is expensive right now, of course, but will we see something like this take augmented reality mainstream? We shall see.

Will the Future of Augmented Reality be AR Contact Lens Connected to Your iPhone?

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The headline pretty much says it all: “Apple to meet with augmented reality contact lens firm EPGL, discuss possible iOS support.” Articles like this are a sign that innovations are going mainstream. Or at least attempting – many still don’t make it there. The biggest problem with augmented reality is that you have to hold a phone in front of you to experience it, turning your body into a wandering, distracted safety hazard (see Pokemon Go). or you have to buy an expensive pair of AR glasses like Google Glass (or not anymore – oppps). But would AR contact lens be more or less distracting? Probably depends on the design of the user interface. Or maybe they are just a temporary step towards having computers implanted in our heads? See the first few minutes of the H+ video above for what that would be like, and then the rest of the video see how scary it could become.

Virtual Reality + Augmented Reality = Merged Reality

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Intel has been showing off Project Alloy, a self-contained headset that combines augmented reality with virtual reality. My first thought was “isn’t anything that isn’t virtual reality just augmented reality by default?” Well, the answer seems to be yes and no. It seems that alloy will use built in cameras to bring real life objects and people into the virtual world. The demonstration video above doesn’t wow as much as offer promise (especially in the commercial at the end), but ultimately I could see these kinds of projects solving the isolating problems that virtual reality could cause. Also, it is interesting that they are designing a self-contained headset that does not rely on an external computer. Which is probably why there is such low quality in the demonstration video when real objects come into view. At least you can finally see your hands in VR. To me, this seems more like what Virtual Reality should be – a virtual simulation that can bring your real body and those around you into the simulation. Saying it is merged with augmented reality is a bit of a stretch for some, i am sure. But probably an important distinction to make.

Pokemon GO is the xMOOC of Augmented Reality

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So by now you probably know what Pokemon GO is. If not, then you probably don’t care. For the sake of the one or two that might not know, Pokemon GO is an augmented reality game. Augmented Reality is a concept that has been around for a while (believe it or not, it’s history goes back to at least 1901), but has been gaining momentum in recent years as due on mobile devices. The basic idea is exactly what it sounds like: adding a layer of something to reality around us. Video gamers in the 80s probably remember a video game called M.A.C.H. 3 – a game that put a computer graphic jet fighter on top of real flight footage. Now take this into current times where you can create that real footage in real time with your mobile phone, while also adding computer graphics in real time. This is the current field of augmented reality, while projects like Microsoft Hololens are taking it in other directions. Augmented reality apps do everything from layering map directions on the road in front of you to letting you fight off alien invasions from your back yard. In other words, Pokemon GO is not really anything new. Pokemon GO just found a way to connect existing ideas with an addictive popular idea that got a massive number of people suddenly interested in it. In many ways, Pokemon GO is the xMOOC of the augmented reality world. And just like xMOOCs, we are already hearing about how Pokemon GO will revolutionize education (of course it won’t) or how we need Pokemon GO to get learners active, engaged, communal, etc (even though we already have many things that do that in education already). See also my blog post “Pokemon Go and the Gimmickification of Education.” Additionally, the sudden mass popularity of Pokemon Go has created problems with data, personal injuries, and even criminal attacks. No one really takes the time to think through potential misuse of technology anymore… except for, of course, those that want to misuse it. If you love Pokemon GO (it is a pretty cool game designed to get people active after all), don’t let that distract you from other interesting uses of augmented reality that have been around for a while. If you hate Pokemon GO, don’t let that turn you off to other, better uses of augmented reality.