Why Augmented Reality needs Apple ?

Probably most of you will think that Apple is so great and fantastic that no one else can do something good for augmented reality. If you think that way, I have 3 words for you:
1. no
2. No
3. NO !

Apple is a great company

No doubt that Apple is one of the biggest company in the world. They achieved so much, that it is hard to count the biggest achievements. They created fantastic products, but also - as every company - some of them were very bad. But the number one of all this, is the power of influence on the masses and this is the true reason why augmented reality needs Apple

Talk and talk and talk and...

Lately almost every day I see headline about how Tim Cook is talking about power of the augmented reality, how it is better than virtual reality, or how the augmented reality is the future and so on and so on. Unfortunately nothing is happening, no action taken. The action that we - all the fans of AR - need so much.

Some can say that we have Pokemon GO. Sure ! But as I wrote here, I don't think that friendly creatures will change anything. Augmented reality needs a true breakthrough. We need something, or maybe I should say someone, that will lead, that will show the way, that will inspire the masses. We need a true influencer.

Look at Google, Microsoft. We are talking here about largest companies in the world. They created Google glasses, HoloLens. Those are two fantastic products and nothing! People don't care about them. Of course I'm not talking here about geeks or AR enthusiasts but about masses that will by such products, people that don't care about low level technology. They want to see the effect.

"How does somebody know what they need if they haven't even seen it?"

Do you remember when Steve Jobs said that ? Those words are still very important. People don't know that they need augmented reality because most of the do not understand it. They can't even imagine how powerful tool it is and what they can achieve with that. So please Apple, please Mr. Cook, do something with this ! Prove the world that Apple is really the greatest company in the world. Stop playing with new colors of iPhone, stop destroying your devices by removing parts, stop making wires to Bluetooth headsets. Please, do the one thing that a long time ago was your trademark. Be innovative again, inspire people, lead them, show them the way, show them what they can achieve having such powerful tool like augmented reality ! Please !

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Varia Vision - new possibilities

When I saw information about this project I truly had to take my jaw from the ground. This is the type of projects that - in my opinion - are the essence of the future augmented reality. Very strong every day usage, helps in popular activities, make them more safe.

About...

What is Varia Vision ? It is a device (augmented reality vision) that can be attached on our sunglasses. Its main goal is to make everything for us easier and safer. Varia Vision bring every important information on the line of our vision, thanks to that we have full access to every important information without the need of looking somewhere else (for example on our handlebar). This might not sound as something very big, but trust me, when you`re in heavy trafic or for the first time in a new place it may save your life or at least time.

A true milestone

Why am I so hyped with that ? Because this the type of projects that will help augmented reality evolve, and become something recognized by masses. This is a device for a true, everyday usage and if you think wider you`ll see that you don't need to be on your bike to use it. I think that it will be a very usefull tool in much more different situations.
The onI hope that in near future we`ll see much more devices like that, I truly do. Garmin showed us that augmetned reality is not only a industry type devices or laboratory experiments. A high five for Garmin !!

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Augmented reality in business

Business, nothing new. We are all connected with this word in some way. What can change in future ? What we can get from implementing augmented reality in business ? Is this only a new fancy "gadget" or maybe it will give something valuable that allow to improve sale and/or product itself ?

Augmented reality = new possibilities

Augmented reality can offer a lot more than only couple of cool visual effect on screen of your smartphone. Why I'm talking about smartphone ? Because - at least for now - augmented reality possibilities will be limited to mobile devices in business (don't worry there will be a exception). Glass type project are still in minority, they need still a lot of work before we see them in on our faces. But that isn't a problem. You can already see people in stores taking pictures of floor panels to rethink everything in home. But what to do to make it better ?

So what new possibilities we can get from augmented reality ? Lets talk about couple of them.

Furniture shops

Did you ever tried to furnish a room ? Do you know how many questions you need to answer if you want to do it properly ? Do you know how many doubts you have when you want to pick something ? How it will look like when I put it near this closet ?

Project like this are the answer:

This is a great usage of augmented reality with mapping over a known picture. You can simply put magazine when you want to put new furniture and check how it will look like. Very handy and useful.

Important thing is that you need an object to map the virtual element. It allows you to move around it and check from different sides. It allows to scale to product so you can really act like you have a new sofa in the room. Putting only images on the screen is a really bad idea and gives to user a poor effect. Example below (don't do it like this ! ):

Augmented reality + factories = improvements

Ok, now lets go to different part of augmented reality. Goggles. What are the problems related with jobs related with manual work in - for example - factory that produces cars ? Two most common are:

    1. Human errors during assemble

    2. Cost related with learning new worker

Both of them can be fixed or at least reduced using augmented reality. Imagine a worker with special goggles that analyze parts in front of the worker and shows what should go where and how it should be connected/assembled. It will strongly reduce count of errors made by human. It will help to increase quality of the product with out increasing the cost of the work. This is the path which business should follow.

Now the second case. If the new worker will also have same glasses, it will allow to reduce time needed from a senior worker. It will increase his time in the job that he should do. And again, with out increasing the costs we increase performance.

There is a lot of augmented reality project related with business and big data. One of my favorite is Daqri. Helmet that their building is a fantastic usage of augmented reality, it has endless potential and possibilities.

Not only Daqri, we also have interesting project from VW:

Marketing

Ok now something easy. How to interest a potential client with our product ? We need to do something cool ! Something that will make him to pay attention on the product. Augmented reality is a fantastic tool for that. Look at this Coca-Cola campaign:



So easy, and so great effect. Augmented reality is a powerful tool that refers to a very important feeling...fun. Lets be honest, we all want to have fun, we all want to spend a good time. If you give a tool that will give fun to client and allow you to focus him on the product, than you`re a winner. If you want to do that think about augmented reality. 



This even don't have to be a strict commercial related with your product, if you can softly mark your brand there, than it is very often more than enough. Look on the possibilities of augmented reality in marketing. I shown only two examples but marketing business has done homework. Usage of this technology is more and more often. And why it is so big success ? Because for common people this is still technology about witch they don't know a lot



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Technology in school is great, but is there a limit ?

According to OECD and theirs latest report there is a limit. Everybody will agree that new technologies are very helpful in education but according to mentioned report, if there is too much of computers and technologies, results of students are getting lower.

New technologies are important

Recently I wrote about role and possibilities related with new technologies - like augmented reality (Technology in education is the future) - in education. As for, education system is one of parts of our lives where we need to think and talk about computers, gadgets, new ideas. Lets be honest, education of young minds is very important for all of us, our future often depends on them.

But we can't substitute all of "old school" elements like books, paper, hand writing with new technologies. I love augmented reality, it gives a lot of new possibilities, but we can't limit kids only to virtual presentations like we can't limit them only to books and lecture. We need to find a point in perfect position between this two, very different options.

System need to evolve

Education system need to evolve like we all do, it need to adapt to current possibilities, current needs and trends. But it also need to remember about basic - not so simple - skills like hand writing or books. Nowadays I often see that young people have no idea what standard, paper encyclopedia is and how to use it. As for me, this is disaster.

New technology is not a threat, it should not be banned from schools, but as the report shown, it should be used with care. The only possible solution is to rethink everything and try to find out how to connect the old part, with the new part.



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