Augmented Reality: Better World or Distraction?
William Stewart McIntyre
Abstract- With bigger data, an internet of things, cloud
computing, smart phone apps and wearable technology -
our reality has not only changed but will continue to change
at an increasing pace. Will this augmentation make a better
reality or merely be a distraction and diminish what is
really here?
Index TermsAugmented Reality, Smartphones, Big
Data, Internet of Things.
I. INTRODUCTION
Grubert, Langlotz, Zollmann, & Regenbrecht, (2015) write
that Augmented Reality is a technique that enables users to
interact with their physical environment through the overlay of
digital information.
My journey into the Augmented Reality (AR) began late in
2014 with a computer game called Ingress, developed by
Niantic Labs, then a division of Google Inc. This game
encouraged me to get out to parks and landmarks to capture
them for my team. A simple concept using a smart phone,
location based markers placed on Google Maps and the digital
overlay of a portal. Massive amounts of data are collected
about almost every interaction from millions of players across
the world (Chatelain, 2015).
This game is an example how far IT applications have moved
from traditional accounting systems, personal computers or
even the connected world of the internet. Each of these system
developments has seen a change in the way people work and
communicate with each other and society in general (see Figure
1).
This paper will examine the technologies that are enabling the
rapid adoption AR, some of the current applications using AR
and question the impact AR is having on society.
II. GROWTH IN AR ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
To augment reality or to overlay a digital image onto a real
world object requires fast computing power with large amounts
of storage, sensors and a display device. These requirements
are being fulfilled through the availability of Cloud computing,
Big Data and Analytics, the proliferation of sensors from the
Internet of Things (IoT) and display devices such as smart
phones and Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. The requirements
listed are becoming cheaper, therefore more accessible and
more capable.
Cloud computing costs have reduced significantly. Over a
W. S. McIntyre is with Charles Sturt University NSW Australia (e-mail:
william_mcintyre@yahoo.com).
ISBN: 978-0-9803267-8-9
four year time frame Amazon Web Services (AWS) have
reduced costs and increased service offerings making scalable
computing more readily available (Mor, 2015). AWS services
along with offerings from Microsoft, Google and others provide
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) along with many of the tools
that would have traditionally been developed. IaaS makes it
easy for applications to be developed and implemented, with
Platform as a Service (PaaS) providing many of the common
items needed for an application, such as an Operating System,
Web Services, DNS, storage, Queue processing, Databases and
many more (Amazon Web Services, 2016).
The Internet of Things (IoT) along with the larger future
vision referred to as the Internet of Everything (IoE) is adding
more and more devices that can be used as sensors or markers
by an AR application. These sensors can determine context such
as location or other specific information associated with that
device. Intel estimates that the number of connected devices
will soar from 15 billion in 2015 to 200 billion by 2020. (Sun,
2016). With the increased number of sensors and markers the
capability and contextual awareness of AR will increase. Figure
1 shows this predicted growth.
Figure 1. Rapid Growth of the Number of Things Connected to
the Internet by Joseph Bradley, Joel Barbier, Doug
Handler, 2013, Bradley, J., Barbier, J., & Handler, D.
(2013). Embracing the Internet of Everything To
Capture Your Share of $14.4 Trillio. Cisco IBSG, 2.
Retrieved from
http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/ac79/docs/i
nnov/IoE_Economy.pdf
These devices store their data in the cloud. Big Data refers to
the storage and analytical processing to interpret terabytes of
data. Big data is high-volume, high-velocity and/or
high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective,
innovative forms of information processing that enable
enhanced insight, decision making, and process automation
(Gartner Inc, 2016). The developing analytical processing
includes machine learning (ML). As ML develops and is able to
interpret new patterns, rather than respond to know patterns of
markers and context, AR applications become more relevant
and intuitive.
By 2020, global smartphone subscriptions will more than
double to 6.1 billion, 70 percent of people will use smartphones,
and 90 percent will be covered by mobile broadband (Mlot,
2015). This increase in numbers along with improvements with
every new model such as: processing power, storage capacity,
image resolution and input methods such as cameras, GPS,
gyros and altimeters. While Waldrop (2016) suggests that
Moores Law of doubling computing power roughly every two
years is coming to an end, products will continue along this
trend, adding even more features to be used as sensors and input
devices. If this prediction comes true, then AR will be readily
available to the majority of people.
While smart phones are capable of High Definition displays,
an exciting recent development is in the area of wearable
display devices such as Google Glass. The original Google
Glass product was discontinued in January 2015 (Burns, 2015)
but there are several other companies developing similar
products that look like a pair of glasses, contain a display, a
microphone, camera and sensors to detect movement. One of
the most recent is Microsoft HoloLens. Microsoft HoloLens is
the first fully untethered, holographic computer, enabling you to
interact with high-definition holograms in your world
(Microsoft, 2016). These devices take AR beyond the
smartphone and into seamless blend where people see the
Augmentation and real world together in a natural way.
III. REAL WORLD EXAMPLES
Recently over dinner I was asked what AR was, so I
suggested a download of HPs AURASMA (Hewlett-Packard
Development Company, 2016). Using this application, a photo
was taken of the fish tank, and an overlay of purple digital fish
was added. When a smartphone running AURASMA sees the
real fish tank it now displays both the real fish tank and the
school of fish. This simple example demonstrates how
marketers are creating more exciting campaigns to engage
potential customers. In this section I will look at examples of
how AR is being used by the retail industry, the automotive
industry and as way of enhancing content within museums.
Consumers are increasingly tech savvy who tend to make
their purchasing decision from home or on a mobile device.
Augmented reality is the segway for retailers to create more
meaningful, memorable shopping experiences for customers
while leveraging your digital audience in the process
(Williams, 2016). Williams describes how Lego has a special
booth where customers can take the box they are thinking of
purchasing and a 3D model of the constructed Lego toy is
displayed effectively showing the finished product or in other
words what is inside the box.
Figure 2. A shop camera reveals what a box of LEGO bricks
can become (source: YouTube) by Hardt, D. (2011, 2
9). Business in Two Worlds. Retrieved from SAP News
Center:
https://news.sap.com/augmented-reality-marketing-sal
es-businessobjects/
IKEA has a catalogue app that will show an image of the item
in the customers home partially answering the question about
how it will when I get it home, or what colour should I choose?
The application works by placing the IKEA paper catalogue on
the floor where the item will be placed in home. This catalogue
acts as a marker for the application to then display the catalogue
item in the smart phone together with you image of your room.
The LEXUS GS450h has several AR features built into it.
Gabbard (2014) describes four opportunities for AR in
transportation: head-up displays in the windscreen; wayfinding
and navigational aids; driver safety and information cues; and
digital layers of the city. The LEXUS driver is able to view
speed displayed on the windscreen while driving reducing the
need to look down at the dashboard. The car speaks when
driving past a high accident location and keeps a safe distance
from the car in front, even stopping while using the radar cruise
control. The driver is able to view the location points of interest
in the navigation system. As this technology becomes more
affordable it will be implemented in mainstream vehicles as well
as luxury cars making the roads a safer place and paving the way
for driverless technology.
The final example of AR technology is found in museums,
primarily because they are a small controlled world that can be
compiled easily and enhanced for the mostly pure reason of
learning more about the subject, as opposed to commercial gain.
I believe museums represent a sample of interesting objects
which can be used to trial AR technology that can be applied to
a more diverse outside world.
In Sydney, the Powerhouse museum used AR to enhance
learning in the following two applications. Layer allowed
people to walk around Sydney and view historic building as they
were 100 years ago. Thinkspace AR displays 3D Minecraft
objects throughout the museums exhibition spaces. (NSW
Government, n.d.).
In the article 5 killer augmented reality features for museums
and education, Poulson (2015) lists the following concepts to
engage people: unlocks, resurrects, recreates, immerses and
engages. Each of these features changes how the person
viewing or interacting with the object perceives the objects. It
becomes a more intense personal experience rather than a
viewing a simple object. These objects are located with beacons
using increasing levels of sophistication: barcodes, near field
identifiers picture recognition from a smart phone or tablet
camera in a manner similar to AURASMA. Once the location is
recognized an image is projected that allows interaction in a
style familiar to younger game players. It is now possible to
walk amongst the dinosaurs (Smithonian Institute, 2016). This
technology represents a massive change from static displays and
offers enormous potential for applications outside education as
the technology develops and more markers are recorded.
IV. THE FUTURE REALITY WHERE COULD AR TAKE US?
Given the enabling technologies such as IoT, Cloud, Big Data
and personal devices will continue to develop and cost less,
more applications for AR will become available as businesses
and other organizations see opportunities. The Lego example
could be expanded from a corner in a shop to smart spaces in a
city. As AR becomes better at determining context and
standards are adopted (rather than competing incompatible
products) these smart spaces will become less defined and most
places will be smart or AR enhanced. This implies going from
mobile apps to urban appsthat is, applications running on
city-level (software and hardware) infrastructurescreating an
open ecology of interconnected smart spaces and services
(Ricci, Piunt, Tummolini, & Castefrano, 2015). Ricci describes
the use of AR to enhance Ambient Intelligent (AmI) creating a
world where in some cases the brain is unable to distinguish
between the real world and the mirrored AR world. The
manipulation of introduced AmI agents inside this world, or the
ML algorithm controlling the agents, has the potential change
social behavior by working on the brain in a similar way as the
imagination. While this could be seen as positive there are
obvious concerns whenever social manipulation occurs.
Pervasive Augmented Reality is a continuous and pervasive
user interface that augments the physical world with digital
information registered in 3D, while being aware of and
responsive to the users context. Hence, Pervasive Augmented
Reality can be seen as a context-aware and responsive,
continuous Augmented Reality experience (Grubert, Langlotz,
Zollmann, & Regenbrecht, 2015). Pervasive Augmented
Reality (PAR) is taking AR beyond the current specific
application AR products and providing a platform to bring it all
together. AR generally determines context from a single source
such as a camera image, a NFC or beacon or a geographical
location. PAR is extending this to include multiple context
sources. Grubert lists these as: human factors - such as physical
medical states (e.g. blood pressure, heart rate), age, sex, and
cultural background; environmental factors in which the PAR is
operating such as whether or not there is a WiFi signal available
and the system factors it is operating on such as the type of
display being used. The richness of these factors determine the
breadth of context in which the PAR can exist. Once these
definitions can be agreed and standardized PAR becomes
possible.
Zuckerbergs 10 year roadmap for Facebook clearly
identifies drones, artificial intelligence, and VR/AR as the
future of the social network powerhouse. (Williams, 2016)
(See Figure 3)
Figure 3. Facebook 10 year Roadmap by Williams, D. (2016, 4
12). Mark Zuckerbergs Vision of Augmented Reality
at Facebooks F8. Retrieved from Industry and
Augment News:
http://www.augment.com/blog/mark-zuckerbergs-visi
on-augmented-reality-facebooks-f8/
Zuckerberg talks of a world where many of the physical
devices we have now, will become $1 apps that we load into our
Virtual Reality (VR) glasses. The example given is instead of
displaying a photo on the TV, it will be shared with our friends
and displayed in our glasses. VR glasses such as Microsoft
HoloLens combined with the growth from connected things to
connected everything shown by CISCO in Figure 1, creates
potential for a world very different from today.
V. THE DOWNSIDE OF AR
While AR presents business and society many benefits, there
are concerns about health, cognitive ability and censorship.
The social and health implications of AR are also quite
compelling. Smartphone usage has been slowly consuming a
greater portion of our attention and lives since the beginning of
their rise in 2008. Analytics firm Flurry, released data in late
2014 that indicates daily mobile phone users spend 3 hours and
45 minutes on their smartphones per day, finally edging out TVs
3.5 hours to become the most avidly viewed display in our lives
(Bossio, 2015). This increased smartphone usage is reducing
our personal interaction with each other, reducing the amount of
exercise and using different parts of the body. Hand and neck
injuries may be linked to the increase usage of smartphones.
Interestingly, VR glasses could offer a solution and reduce the
interaction with the phone, but will it help in actually sitting and
talking to a real person? Probably not, unless they are really
boring and a more interesting image can be overlaid.
While AR can potentially make motor vehicles safer,
Gabbard (2014) talks of distractions introduced by electronic
devices. Moving forward, we can expect AR applications to
have the potential to trigger all three types of distractions, as
users must visually attend to AR information, think about what
that information may mean (especially for non-primary task
information), and potentially interact with that information via
manual controls (e.g., buttons on a steering wheel). Will we
the miss real life indicators and cues because we have become
reliant on AR notification? Why do people walk onto a busy
road to cross while listening to music and using their
smartphone totally ignoring the car about to hit them?
The AmI and PAR world mentioned earlier offers enormous
potential for productivity, learning and even medical
rehabilitation of people with psychological conditions. The
ethical question becomes who creates and controls the content,
agents and interaction that has the ability to actually be believed
in a manner similar to ones own thoughts? It may become like
the junk mail we learn to ignore, or something more sinister
such as manipulation of a target population. Do these controlled
thoughts reduce our ability to be creative outside the PAR
world? Perhaps it will be like the difference between reading a
book and watching a movie. In the book the mind creates
images it wants. In the movie the images are provided by the
film maker.
VI. CONCLUSION
AR has raised expectations about delivering rich interactive
context in faster and cheaper ways, providing business
opportunities to both advertise and educate consumers about
their products. AR offers great opportunities as an educational
platform but also has the potential manipulate people and detach
them from mainstream society.
With the acceleration of technologies enabling AR it is only a
matter of time before we see more applications being used by
more people in creative ways. As with most things, its a case of
buyer beware to let the technology augment and not diminish
or totally miss though distraction what the user and society
really values in life.
VII. REFERENCES
Mojang Synergies AB. (n.d.). Retrieved from MINECRAFT:
https://minecraft.net/?gl=AU
Amazon Web Services. (2016). Cloud Products. Retrieved
from https://aws.amazon.com/products/
Bossio, L. (2015, 5 9). Experts Weigh In On The Future of
Augmented Reality. Retrieved from Andriod
Headlines: The social and health implications of AR
are also quite compelling. Smartphone usage has been
slowly consuming a greater portion of our attention
and lives since the beginning of their rise in 2008.
Analytics firm Flurry, released data in late 2014 that i
Bradley, J., Barbier, J., & Handler, D. (2013). Embracing the
Internet of Everything To Capture Your Share of $14.4
Trillio. Cisco IBSG, 2. Retrieved from
http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/ac79/docs/i
nnov/IoE_Economy.pdf
Burns, M. (2015, 1 19). Today Is The Last Day To Buy Google
Glass. Retrieved from Techcrunch:
http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/19/today-is-the-last-da
y-to-buy-google-glass/
Chatelain, J. (2015, 11 23). How many players are currently
active in Ingress? Retrieved from Quora:
https://www.quora.com/How-many-players-are-curre
ntly-active-in-Ingress
Gabbard, J., Fitch, G., & Kim, H. (2014). Behind the Glass:
Driver Challenges and Opportunities for AR
Automotive Applications. roceedings of the IEEE, vol.
102, no. 2 (pp. 124-136). IEEE.
doi:10.1109/JPROC.2013.2294642
Gartner Inc. (2016). Big Data. Retrieved from IT Glossary:
http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/big-data/
Grubert, J., Langlotz, T., Zollmann, S., & Regenbrecht, H.
(2015). Towards Pervasive Augmented Reality:
Context-Awareness in Augmented Reality. IEEE.
Hardt, D. (2011, 2 9). Business in Two Worlds. Retrieved from
SAP News Center:
https://news.sap.com/augmented-reality-marketing-sal
es-businessobjects/
Hewlett-Packard Development Company. (2016). Retrieved
from Aurasma: https://www.aurasma.com/
Levin, L. (2016, 7 17). HOW AUGMENTED REALITY IS
SHAPING THE FUTURE OF RETAIL. Retrieved
from Retailigence:
http://www.retailigence.com/how-augmented-reality-i
s-shaping-the-future-of-retail/
Microsoft. (2016). Microsoft Hololens. Retrieved from
Microsoft:
https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us
Mlot, S. (2015, 6 4). PCMag Australia | Cell Phone Reviews |
News. Retrieved from PCMag Australia:
http://au.pcmag.com/smartphones/31166/news/70-per
cent-of-population-will-have-smartphones-by
Mor, Y. (2015, 11 15). Analyzing AWS EC2 Price Drops over
the Past 5 Years. Retrieved from Cloudyn:
https://www.cloudyn.com/blog/analyzing-aws-ec2-pri
ce-drops-over-the-past-5-years/
Niantic Labs. (2015). The world around you is not what it
seems. Retrieved from Ingress:
https://www.ingress.com/
NSW Government. (n.d.). Layar: Augmented Reality browsing
of Powerhouse Museum around Sydney. Retrieved
from Powerhouse Museum:
https://www.powerhousemuseum.com/layar/
NSW Government. (n.d.). Mobile Apps. Retrieved from
Powerhouse Musum:
https://www.powerhousemuseum.com/online/mobilea
pps.php
Poulson, A. (2015, 9 7). 5 KILLER AUGMENTED REALITY
FEATURES FOR MUSEUMS AND EDUCATION.
Retrieved from INDE:
http://www.indestry.com/blog/2015/9/7/5-killer-augm
ented-reality-features-for-museums-and-education
Ricci, A., Piunt, M., Tummolini, L., & Castefrano, C. (2015, 6).
The Mirror World: Preparing for Mixed-Reality Livin.
Pervasive Computing, 1536-1268.
Smithonian Institute. (2016). Walk Among Dinosaurs:
Augmented Reality Experience. Retrieved from
Smithonian National Museum of Natural history:
 http://naturalhistory.si.edu/exhibits/walk-among-dinos
aurs/
Sun, L. (2016, 2 6). How Intel Corporation's Internet of Things
Business Is Doing In 4 Numbers. Retrieved from The
Motley Fool:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/06/ho
w-intel-corporations-internet-of-things-business.aspx
Waldrop, M. M. (2016, 2 11). The chips are down for Moores
law. Nature, 530, 144-147. doi:10.1038/530144a
Williams, D. (2016, 3 22). 3 Retail Giants Who Used
Augmented Reality to Sell. Retrieved from
AUGMENT:
http://www.augment.com/blog/3-consumer-giants-wh
o-used-augmented-reality-for-retail/
Williams, D. (2016, 4 12). Mark Zuckerbergs Vision of
Augmented Reality at Facebooks F8. Retrieved from
Industry and Augment News:
http://www.augment.com/blog/mark-zuckerbergs-visi
on-augmented-reality-facebooks-f8/