The future is scary. But I’ll let you decide whether it’s scary good or scary bad. Check out the video below.
This technology is called “Augmented Reality”. Basically the idea of augmented reality is to fuse a virtual environment with our physical environment. Ok cool you say, so besides feeling like you are in a Sci-Fi movie, what’s the point. Well, the possibilities are endless. One use that speaker, Pattie Mays, pointed out is that augmented reality, when integrated to our lives can provide us with information to make more informed decisions.
More on that later. First, here are 3 trends that I think could develop with augmented reality.
1. Bands playing live without “real” instruments
-no need to worry about some drunk guy spilling beer over your equipment. wait… what equipment?
From the crowd's perspective
2. Rise in world’s happiness level
-feeling down? feel like the whole world is against you? why not turn your frown upside down by turning theirs upside down!
Happy Vision
3. Drop in global obesity rate
–with augmented reality gaming, experience Counterstrike & DOTA as if you are in the game. So what are you waiting for? Get off your bum and start playing!
Augmented reality gaming
Okay back to the video. I’m sure we will agree that “The Sixth Sense” device is pretty cool. I mean, being able to see information about a product just by letting the device detect it. Are you kidding me?! Say goodbye to having to research on a particular product before you buy it. I thought the book example from the video was impressive. The front cover gives you an Amazon review (don’t know how credible that is though, see my previous blogpost “Wisdom Of The Crowd- Individual Stupidity= Collective Intelligence” to see what i mean), turning the page gives you reader comments and even annotations.
However, there was one part that scared me, as in scary bad. It’s the part when you can see a word cloud of a person. I feel uneasy because people can form impressions of you just by your online word cloud. I mean i know that the Internet is a public space and not my private space but you wouldn’t normally google every single person you meet to get a sense of what that person is like right? We all know first impressions are important and I just think this technology just makes it harder to give a good first impression. Well, in any case, we must remember the importance of controlling what we say and do both online and offline. You don’t want people to blog about you in a negative light. Imagine going for a job interview and your boss seeing ‘backstabber” in your word cloud.
All in all, i think the good in augmented reality outweighs the bad. So i pick scary good. What do you pick?
Noel backwards 