"The future is already here - it's just not very evenly distributed." --William Gibson
Science fiction has postulated and imagined what "augmented reality" would be like. Well - wonder no more: It's here...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704739504576067780550250202.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_Below_Video
So what is it? And what does it mean to you and me?
Everything-
Let's jump straight to the end of the article and the most immediately profitable application. Because like any new technology, there is always the need to find a viable way to make money.
Otherwise - development just doesn't happen.
MEDICINE: Specifically remote monitoring.
Imagine you have a slightly sick relative who --in a perfect world-- would have around the clock home care or professional nursing staff at beck and call.
But due to strained budgets due to high labour costs, reality often dictates finding less costly solutions.
Until now - about the only option was to "leave em to their own devices" and hope for the best. Soon - you will be able to remotely monitor almost anything. Right on your mobile phone.
Whether they're upright? Heart rate? Asthma? etc... You name it - it can be monitored and you can be alerted if anything falls out of its normal range.
And that's not all. Even if you're healthy - apps could let you get a virtual check up with your mobile. Soon, we will enter the era of mobile/remote medicine. It won't totally eliminate the need to go to the hospital - just most of it.
Wouldn't you pay for that? I know i would.
But there are also sexier and juicier applications: Games are another avenue for development. And yet, it is other applications which promise to change our lives much more profoundly - and faster:
REAL ESTATE
Imagine being able to point your phone at a building and know who has property for rent or sale, for how much and who to contact? How about a virtual tour? A floor plan?
Have your own home and furniture's photos loaded? Hmmm... Wanna see how your stuff would look in that house or apartment?
I'd pay for that. How bout you?
SHOPPING
Or when you go shopping: There was recently a trial by Tissot Watches in London. Using Augmented Reality, customers were able to try on watches --virturally-- without entering the shop and enduring the high pressure sales...
Guess what - sales shot up 83%.
Oh, and sales probably shot up, because people could find the RIGHT watch so much faster and with less hassle...
EDUCATION
The possibilities are endless and mind boggling.
Welcome to the era of virtual teachers. One-on-One interaction. Customized education to fit your pace, learning style, dominant intelligence and idiosyncratic strengths and weaknesses.
If Einsteins brain was apparently noted for its rich connections, in future this will not be uncommon anymore.
Truly accelerated learning. That is fun and relevant.
The emphasis on memorization will fade into oblivion to be replaced by students producing results. Real world results.
And out of this, I see a revolutionary new model of education emerging which turns the current dead factory era method on its head. And oh - it can't come soon enough....
I see this technology as so fundamentally becoming a part of our lives that in 10 years we will wonder how we ever lived with out it. Kinda like the internet and mobile phones have become today.
Because as i read about this, I am simultaneously pulled in two directions at once: On the one hand, I can only begin to imagine the impact such technologies as this will have on our lives.
How it will change the way we do business, live and play...?
But I also wonder, with the rapidity and ubiquity of change technology is bringing in its tsunami - How will I explain to the younglings in 10 years how we used to live Pre-Mobile phone or Pre-Internet....??
It will seem to them as distant and faded as it is for me to watch jerky black and white film clips of the early 1900s: WWI, the fall of empires and the Roaring 20's....
A time when most people lived on farms, not cities, electricity and phones were still not common for most. Ditto running water and indoor toilets.
What a difference a hundred years makes!
Science fiction has postulated and imagined what "augmented reality" would be like. Well - wonder no more: It's here...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704739504576067780550250202.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_Below_Video
So what is it? And what does it mean to you and me?
Everything-
Let's jump straight to the end of the article and the most immediately profitable application. Because like any new technology, there is always the need to find a viable way to make money.
Otherwise - development just doesn't happen.
MEDICINE: Specifically remote monitoring.
Imagine you have a slightly sick relative who --in a perfect world-- would have around the clock home care or professional nursing staff at beck and call.
But due to strained budgets due to high labour costs, reality often dictates finding less costly solutions.
Until now - about the only option was to "leave em to their own devices" and hope for the best. Soon - you will be able to remotely monitor almost anything. Right on your mobile phone.
Whether they're upright? Heart rate? Asthma? etc... You name it - it can be monitored and you can be alerted if anything falls out of its normal range.
And that's not all. Even if you're healthy - apps could let you get a virtual check up with your mobile. Soon, we will enter the era of mobile/remote medicine. It won't totally eliminate the need to go to the hospital - just most of it.
Wouldn't you pay for that? I know i would.
But there are also sexier and juicier applications: Games are another avenue for development. And yet, it is other applications which promise to change our lives much more profoundly - and faster:
REAL ESTATE
Imagine being able to point your phone at a building and know who has property for rent or sale, for how much and who to contact? How about a virtual tour? A floor plan?
Have your own home and furniture's photos loaded? Hmmm... Wanna see how your stuff would look in that house or apartment?
I'd pay for that. How bout you?
SHOPPING
Or when you go shopping: There was recently a trial by Tissot Watches in London. Using Augmented Reality, customers were able to try on watches --virturally-- without entering the shop and enduring the high pressure sales...
Guess what - sales shot up 83%.
Oh, and sales probably shot up, because people could find the RIGHT watch so much faster and with less hassle...
EDUCATION
The possibilities are endless and mind boggling.
Welcome to the era of virtual teachers. One-on-One interaction. Customized education to fit your pace, learning style, dominant intelligence and idiosyncratic strengths and weaknesses.
If Einsteins brain was apparently noted for its rich connections, in future this will not be uncommon anymore.
Truly accelerated learning. That is fun and relevant.
The emphasis on memorization will fade into oblivion to be replaced by students producing results. Real world results.
And out of this, I see a revolutionary new model of education emerging which turns the current dead factory era method on its head. And oh - it can't come soon enough....
I see this technology as so fundamentally becoming a part of our lives that in 10 years we will wonder how we ever lived with out it. Kinda like the internet and mobile phones have become today.
Because as i read about this, I am simultaneously pulled in two directions at once: On the one hand, I can only begin to imagine the impact such technologies as this will have on our lives.
How it will change the way we do business, live and play...?
But I also wonder, with the rapidity and ubiquity of change technology is bringing in its tsunami - How will I explain to the younglings in 10 years how we used to live Pre-Mobile phone or Pre-Internet....??
It will seem to them as distant and faded as it is for me to watch jerky black and white film clips of the early 1900s: WWI, the fall of empires and the Roaring 20's....
A time when most people lived on farms, not cities, electricity and phones were still not common for most. Ditto running water and indoor toilets.
What a difference a hundred years makes!
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