Feb 14, 20222 min read

AR Glasses... Our view of the world is about to change.

At Tropos AR we strongly believe that AR Glasses will revolutionise the way in which we interact with the Internet, digital entertainment and our productivity tools. The biggest leap will however occur where digital enhances our real-life experiences. Even though Glass might not have been the commercial success Google might have hoped for when it launched to the public in 2014, it did give us a glimpse into the future. As an interesting sidenote, Google learned some valuable lessons when it comes to applying AI to photo and video in order to optimise results when using limited hardware. Even though Google are no longer promoting Glass products to the general public, they still are offering the Enterprise 2 Edition to a multitude of business customers. Currently, many manufacturers are investing heavily and pushing the boundaries in order to create ever-improving AR headsets and glasses. Many of the big tech companies are allocating immense resources in their AR departments. We should however immediately make a distinction between 2D and 3D augmented reality.

Most 2D AR applications will aim to add some type of numeric data, charts or visualisations in your field of view. It is easy to imagine how useful this can be to runners, cyclists, skiers, snowboarders and even swimmers. Swimmers? Well indeed, company Form has developed smart swim goggles that show you the metrics you need at any given time.

While athletes above water can obviously also benefit from biometric data, while navigation data is equally relevant. The Raptor glasses by Everysight are a fine example of what is already available right now.

Solos smart glasses offer a slightly different approach nevertheless equally useful for many sport aficionados.

Another interesting 2D application is the creation of an extra virtual PC screen in your field of view or having extra information “at hand” while manually working with machines for example. Even though 2D AR definitely is fascinating in itself, things get a little crazy, in a good way, once we dig deeper into the possibilities and opportunities offered by immersive 3D augmented reality. Magic Leap 1 by Magic Leap and Hololens 2 by Microsoft are probably the most cutting edge devices out there currently but due to their respective price tags these are still rather niche and mainly limited to professional use.

A multitude of manufacturers such as MAD Gaze, Nreal and Snapchat are however trying to break into the consumer space. They are systematically moving society towards a tipping point where you no longer need to take your smartphone out of your pocket in order to use your apps or the internet. The possibilities obviously go much further than just mimicking what we used to experience on a flat screen.

Once the entire world becomes your virtual canvas, the opportunities are limitless.

But that is the subject for some future posts.

AR Glasses... Our view of the world is about to change.

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