Tag Archive for: reality

Why augmented reality is expected to be four times bigger than virtual reality

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Virtual reality (VR) has gained a lot of attention in both the technology and mainstream consumer markets over the past few years, and rightfully so. It’s a jarring experience not only for the user who gets fully immersed into the move or video game they view through the device, but also to anybody who happens to see somebody with an Oculus Rift strapped to their face. That latter aspect is a big part of the reason why one analyst expects the less-invasive augmented reality (AR) to be the more successful of the two.

Augmented reality has taken a back seat in the emerging tech world in the last few years, and suffered a particularly big setback when Google withdrew its Glass headsets from consumer markets in January. The world’s first big introduction to AR fell flat, earning a negative reputation (at best) among everybody except those who wore them.

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Network World Colin Neagle

Virtual reality headsets are coming to airlines

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Australian airline Qantas recently announced a partnership with Samsung to provide the latter’s Gear VR virtual reality headsets to its passengers.

The company says the headsets will provide unique content, like its airplanes during takeoff and landing or a 3D view of Sydney, and promises to eventually become a source for in-flight movies. For the time being – specifically, a three-month trial – the VR headsets will only be made available to first-class passengers (of course), and to those waiting for departure in the first-class lounges at the airports in Sydney and Melbourne.

Although the content that most people would watch during a flight – namely TVs and movies – is still limited for the Gear VR, the device has received largely positive reviews across the board. Particularly when it comes to watching movies, this Gizmodo review touted the Oculus Cinema app, which gives the user the feeling that he or she is sitting in a theater while a movie plays on a screen ahead of them. You can even look around at the other parts of the theater, like the empty seats next to you, which sounds almost as entertaining as watching the movie on the virtual screen.

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Network World Colin Neagle

Researchers pair augmented reality, connected car to kill the traffic light

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One of the potential ripple effects of the connected, and even driverless, car is the future of the traditional traffic light. The consensus seems to be that it doesn’t have a very hopeful one.

Full adoption of the fully driverless car – say, everyone in America travels in cars that drive themselves in every situation – would make the old-school traffic light obsolete. Part of what makes these cars’ autonomous is their ability to communicate with one another so they don’t collide. In this scenario, driverless cars should theoretically be able to pass seamlessly through crowded intersections one-at-a-time without stopping to wait, saving both time and energy in the process.

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Network World Colin Neagle

Augmented reality makes for a transparent car

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For a while now, augmented reality has appeared to be on the verge of a breakthrough into the real world, with prototypes and experiments showing massive potential for very specific use cases. Adding to that list is a new example that shows an impressive safety application for drivers.

A recent IEEE Spectrum report details a system that uses augmented reality to create the illusion of a transparent car, allowing drivers to see people and objects in the road that might be lingering in blind spots.

Created by professors Susumo Tachi and Masahiko Inami and PhD candidate Yuji Uema at the Graduate School of Media Design at Keio Univeristy in Japan, the system involves cameras fitted on the outside of the car that feed video to projectors located on the inside. The video is projected onto a system of mirrors, which display the live feed from the outside of the car onto the interior of the seats and doors to provide a view of the space directly on the other side. So when drivers look backward while driving in reverse, for example, it would appear as if the entire rear of the car is one giant windshield, showing all objects or people behind the rear bumper.

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Network World Colin Neagle