Facebook and Apple Toward Augmented Reality
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Will visors replace the smartphone in the near future?
The question is a fair one, considering the fact that visor technology is evolving at a rapid pace, to say the least.
It is even more so if you turn your gaze toward those giants who generally anticipate what is to come: and indeed Facebook and Apple are not letting new opportunities related to these new technologies pass them by.
One thing, however, is worth pointing out: so far there are indeed many prominent companies that have tried to dive into creating visors, but in most cases with poor results .
So much so that even the pioneering Google Glass, launched as late as 2014 and infamous for being one of the Mountain View giant’s most resounding flops, did not make it.
Today we know that we owe google at least one mitigating factor: the time was simply not ripe.
So far in fact the only devices holding up the market seem to be Microsoft’s Holeons and Oculus’ wide range of devices.
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Apple and Facebook Toward Augmented Reality (AR)
We can safely say that a little bit of all the companies in and around Silicon Valley continue to bet on this technology without any second thoughts.
But the names of the latest two companies to announce their entry into the world of augmented reality(Ar) are further confirmation of the ongoing trend-Apple and Facebook.
Indeed, both have recently announced their plans to bring about a world in which physical and digital are permanently merged into each other.
Apple’s First Signature Augmented Reality Visor
Just hours after the official announcement regarding the new iOS 15 and new operating systems for 2021, Apple released a note to investors confirming that Apple would now be close to launching its first augmented reality visor that will provide a “see-through” AR experience.
According to rumors, the now-famous Apple Glass will be as powerful (with 8k screens) as it is expensive (the presumed figure is around three thousand dollars).
The launch seems expected within the next year (2022), but it is difficult to make firm predictions given that the aforementioned visor has been repeatedly announced in the past without actually ever seeing the light of day.
Plans For Ar/VR Development According To Facebook
At home facebook the plans certainly appear more detailed. Meanwhile, it is already known that the Italian company Luxotica will directly produce the design of the visor.
Then, by virtue of the ultimate goal, which is precisely to bring to market a product that can overlay a digital layer on top of the physical world, there is the very recent announcement regarding a wrist-mounted and visor-connected device.
The device will apparently intercept signals sent from the brain to the muscles in the hands, and then translate them into the digital world.
Facebook reads our minds
Apparently so. Imagine that the command to remove an advertisement that has appeared before our eyes is a quick hand gesture from right to left: the device attached to our wrist would understand that the brain is sending that signal to our hand and would react accordingly, making the ad disappear at the very moment we perform the gesture (or even without needing to perform it).
This means that Facebook’s (and other Silicon Valley entities’) knowledge of everything about us will become increasingly in-depth and detailed, potentially making all of our behaviors predictable. Our device in AR, for example, might alert us to the possibility of getting a coffee if at the right time we are passing in the vicinity of one of the cafes we sometimes frequent. While if we are in the vicinity of a bookstore it might alert us to the release of a book of our interest.
A future in augmented reality
In light of these impending changes, we can try to imagine our typical day in the near future. We will wear our augmented reality viewers as soon as we wake up displaying notifications, emails and reminders directly in front of our eyes. We will leave the house and head to the place where we have an appointment thanks to the directions of the built-in gps, which will perhaps project them directly onto the asphalt beneath our feet.
If we pass someone we are in contact with on a social network, we might see a digital label that tells us the name and details of the person who has just passed us by. Advertising posters scattered around the city could be digitized and personalized, thus showing only ads considered to be of interest to us. Instead, stores to which we have given the appropriate consent will be able to send us new offers as soon as we are nearby.
In short, we have just described a world in which digital reality is now definitely fused into physical reality and is a further step toward the complete integration of technology into the human body, the social, psychological ecultural implications of which we probably cannot even imagine now.
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