Tag Archives: AR

Are we losing our humanity?

Course blogs, , , , , , ,

Augmented Reality: the next step in human evolution? Or merely a trend that will lose credibility after the smoke clears?  Who can say for sure at this point? Although there can be many benefits to AR, I’d like us to remember one of the most potentially damaging effects it could have on us, losing our humanity. And what does ‘humanity’ really mean? As The Free Dictionary puts it, one definition of humanity is, “The quality of being humane; benevolence.” (Some other definitions here and here)

So why am I so worried that we are losing this so-called humanity? Because like many researches and developers out there have already pointed out to us, “We are only a heartbeat away from super-human” qualities, and ” augmented reality will allow us to use the best of robotics to enhance our human senses and function at a higher level” (Hazel Davis article). Everytime a development is made, we risk becoming more and more detached from one another, choosing and augmented reality over what is real. There might even come a day where we become ‘transhuman’, a collective that more closely resembles the Borg from Star Trek than what we look like today.

As Clyde DeSouza writes, having “Augmented Human Memory, Augmented Intelligence, and Quantum Archeology and Immortality” are just three out of the five ways we are becoming ‘transhuman’. Everytime we make a status update, upload files, and shop online, we are “converting a biological function into a digital one. We are digitizing our analog stream-of-consciousness”. We are going from the natural, to the unnatural, and that is a scary thought. Combining technology or implants into ourselves may seem like a good or cool idea, but what would the long term effects be like? And would what we have ever be enough? Just look at how tablets and smartphones have become a sort of commodity to us already, and we are still craving more. Have we not yet reached perfection?

The more technologies that are created, the more we change how we interact with each other, alienating ourselves from our peers.  Like Daniel Tamarian puts it, augmented reality “is like to further expand the gap between pure traditional relations and technology-based ones.” He goes on to speculate whether or not humans will actually have relationships with other humans anymore. Who needs real life friends when you can create your own? And what about creating a romantic character? Where does it stop? How far might we go?

Living Life Through (A Pane of) Glass

Course blogs, , , , , , ,

An interesting example of AR I found was Nokia’s City Lens app. This app uses the phone’s camera to take a live image and overlays points of interest on top of corresponding locations. For example if I was walking down an unfamiliar street and was looking for a good place to eat I could simply take out my phone and fire up the City Lens app and see if there were any restaurants nearby. If there were no restaurants on the immediate street I was on it could point me to restaurants nearby. I would just walk in the general direction the compass was pointing and eventually get closer to the restaurant I was looking for.

In addition to being extremely helpful in helping people navigate AR has many benefits in instructional settings as well. For example a medical student can wear Google glasses and practice his/her surgical skills. The student can see what areas he/she should target and can get tips on how to perform procedures better with the help of visual overlays delivered via AR technologies such as Google glass or Oculus Rift.

However, with its many positives AR technologies have negative aspects as well. First of all the health effects of these technologies are unknown as they are relatively new. Products such as Google glass and Oculus rift sit so close to the eye and demand frequent attention from the user so eye problems such as lazy eye may occur. Second, many of these AR technologies overlay a pane of glass in front of the user whether that be in the form of a smartphone, the prism projector display of Google glass or the head mounted display of the Oculus Rift so essentially when a user is using AR technologies they are living their life through a pane of glass. This begs the question of is it really necessary to augment everything in our lives? In some situations such as medical teaching AR can be a valuable asset but in everyday life such as finding coffee shop or restaurant do we really need this AR technology to help us? Will we never feel the excitement of getting lost again? AR technologies can get in between human relationships literally, with a pane of glass if used improperly. How do you know that someone talking to you is really paying attention? I think these health and etiquette issues associated with AR technologies must be addressed first before products such as Google glass and Oculus Rift can be widely adopted and deployed.

(This Simpsons video presents some of the negative aspects of AR technologies in a funny but true way.)

Augmenting Augmented Reality.

Course blogs, , , , , , , ,

I have found two interesting new projects out of MIT that i think may actually eventually be combined to perform some very interesting things. The first is called inForm, it is a 3D mapping system that can be manipulated through a digital connection using a kinect camera. The Dynamic Shape Display can be utilized to create quick mock ups of engineering products and architectural designs and then physically manipulated in real time. I’m not one hundred percent sure if this can be considered AR, although I do believe that it is a technology that will go hand and hand with AR to great benefit. Imagine the uses this could be put in urban planning. Although the resolution of the shape display still seems rough eventually the physical display could come in very handy for teaching and other uses.

The second project is called Sublimate. This is very similar to inFORM’s dynamic shape display but takes it to the next level by combining it with VR and AR. It has the same aspects of physically moving around sensors to manipulate, in this case, a virtual display in real time. This technology would be very useful in doing archaeology. The ability to manipulate artifacts without doing them harm would be tremendous. Imagine being able, using ground penetrating radar, to create a digital map of a site without destroying it, then being able to physically interact with the digital map. Taking artifacts out, getting as much information from them as you can and being able to share it instantly with others only benefits the field. Or, again with urban planning, the amount of things you can study from traffic flow to building stability is amazing.

It has become very common recently to use virtual reality to help to train surgeons to do their jobs more efficiently and accurately. Combine these two technologies together and an interactive teaching tool that does no harm to people, or animals in a vets case, would be created.

Even gaming I think would benefit from something like this.

These technologies, I think, show the dynamic ways that AR can be used aside from just connecting a view of the world with digital displays. Actually being able to physically manipulate digital information is only a plus in my mind.