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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio, and how the tech

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Speaker 1: are you? It's time for a tech Stuff classic episode.

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Speaker 1: This episode is called Augmenting Your Reality and originally published

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Speaker 1: November twenty third, twenty sixteen. Obviously, augmented reality is still

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Speaker 1: a developing technology. I would argue that no one has

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Speaker 1: really created the killer hardware for augmented reality as of yet.

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Speaker 1: By the time you listen to this, is entirely possible

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Speaker 1: that Apple has already unveiled its mixed reality headset, and

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Speaker 1: maybe Apple will be the company that really succeeds where

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Speaker 1: others just haven't yet. I don't know. I'm recording this

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Speaker 1: way back in May twenty twenty three before Apple has

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Speaker 1: held that event, So when it comes round, I guess

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Speaker 1: I'll find out. Anyway, that's going down a long tangent.

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Speaker 1: Let's listen to this classic episode, Augmenting Your Reality, which

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Speaker 1: published November twenty third, twenty sixteen. So I thought I

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Speaker 1: would do a deeper dive, a bigger explanation about what

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Speaker 1: augmented reality is. What it's all about how it works

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Speaker 1: and sort of the applications we might put a R

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Speaker 1: toward things that, you know, was it good for tons

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Speaker 1: of stuff? As it turns out, So the first thing

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Speaker 1: we should do is probably defined some terms, because if

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Speaker 1: you haven't really looked into augmented reality and you aren't

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Speaker 1: familiar with AR, you might just be lost. I'm going

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Speaker 1: to define it all for you right now, because that's

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Speaker 1: the kind of stand up guy I am. Technically speaking,

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Speaker 1: augmented reality is using digital information to enhance or augment

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Speaker 1: and experience in our physical real world. So the way

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Speaker 1: we usually see this implemented involves some sort of display

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Speaker 1: that has an image of the real world on it

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Speaker 1: and it overlays digital information on top of that image.

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Speaker 1: So think of like a camera's viewfinder, like an LCD

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Speaker 1: screen on a camera, and it actually labels the buildings

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Speaker 1: that are in view. When you're out on the street

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Speaker 1: and you hold the camera up, or a smartphone or

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Speaker 1: even a wearable device like a head mounted display that

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Speaker 1: you can look through so you can see the real world.

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Speaker 1: You're not just staring at a screen, or if you

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Speaker 1: are staring at a screen, you're staring at a video

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Speaker 1: feed that is provided by an external camera mounted just

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Speaker 1: on the other side of the screen, so it's like

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Speaker 1: you're looking through a display in the first place, but

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Speaker 1: then on top of that view you have this digital information.

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Speaker 1: That's the most common implementation we talk about, but it's

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Speaker 1: not the only one. Augmented reality does not have to

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Speaker 1: only be or even involve visual information at all. You

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Speaker 1: could have audio only augmented reality, for example, But the

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Speaker 1: whole idea is that it's something that is created digitally

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Speaker 1: to enhance your experience in the real world. Now we

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Speaker 1: can contrast this with the concept of virtual reality. Virtual reality,

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Speaker 1: of course, is a term where you create an experience

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Speaker 1: completely through computer generated means a computer is making all

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Speaker 1: the things you see and hear, and maybe even beyond

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Speaker 1: that if you have really sophisticated setups, so you might

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Speaker 1: have some haptic feedback. Haptic refers to your sense of touch,

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Speaker 1: so if you have haptic feedback, that means you're getting

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Speaker 1: information feedback through your sense of touch. A common example

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Speaker 1: of this is a rumble pack inside a game controller

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Speaker 1: where you fire a gun and a first person shooter

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Speaker 1: and your controller rumbles as a result, letting you know

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Speaker 1: that you are in fact, unleashing virtual destruction upon all

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Speaker 1: you survey. Well, the same thing can be true with

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Speaker 1: a virtual reality setup. So virtual reality is all about

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Speaker 1: constructing an artificial reality, a simulated reality. Augmented reality is

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Speaker 1: all about enhancing the one that we are actually in.

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Speaker 1: And then there's also mixed reality. Mixed reality is kind

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Speaker 1: of sort of in between the two. You might have

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Speaker 1: some physical objects within a room that are also mapped

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Speaker 1: to a virtual environment, and then you use something like

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Speaker 1: a head melted display to enter the virtual environment. That's

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Speaker 1: what looks like you're inside. But you have physical objects

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Speaker 1: in the room around you that are also mapped to

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Speaker 1: the virtual world, meaning you could pick up this physical

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Speaker 1: object and you would see that reflect did within the

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Speaker 1: virtual world, where you might pick up a sword and

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Speaker 1: shield or move a chair or something along those lines.

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Speaker 1: So augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality are all

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Speaker 1: kind of interrelated, so much so that their histories also

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Speaker 1: are very much interrelated. And there's some people who try

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Speaker 1: to collect these different technologies, these different approaches and put

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Speaker 1: them under a common umbrella, and they tend to use

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Speaker 1: the phrase alternate reality, which is unfortunate because that's also

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Speaker 1: ar but Alternate reality is kind of the umbrella for virtual,

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Speaker 1: augmented and mixed reality. Now that kind of gives you

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Speaker 1: the definition of those basic terms, and it is important

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Speaker 1: to understand them because they're becoming more and more important today.

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Speaker 1: You are already probably aware of a lot of VR

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Speaker 1: headsets that are out there on the market as well

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Speaker 1: as VR well, they're kind of like case is that

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Speaker 1: you slide your smartphone into, so your smartphone becomes the

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Speaker 1: actual display on a VR headset. The headset itself is

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Speaker 1: more or less just a head mounted case for your phone.

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Speaker 1: We've seen a lot of those come out over the

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Speaker 1: last few years. We've also seen a lot of AR

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Speaker 1: applications come out, typically for things like iPads and smartphones,

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Speaker 1: but we've also seen some hardware come out that for

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Speaker 1: wearable devices that falls into the augmented reality category, stuff

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Speaker 1: like Google Glass, which i'll talk about more a little

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Speaker 1: bit later in this episode. For augmented reality to work

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Speaker 1: to get this enhanced experience of reality around you, there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of technological components that have to come

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Speaker 1: together so that you actually do get an experience that

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Speaker 1: is meaningful. You have to have technology that quote unquote

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Speaker 1: knows where you are and what you are looking at

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Speaker 1: or what you are close to in order to get

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Speaker 1: that augmented experience. It wouldn't do me any good if

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Speaker 1: I put on an augmented reality headset, for example, and

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Speaker 1: stared at let's say a famous painting, and instead of

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Speaker 1: getting information about the famous painting, I see an exploded

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Speaker 1: view of an car engine. That would make no sense.

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Speaker 1: So you have to build in technologies in order for

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Speaker 1: the AR to understand what it is you're trying to

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Speaker 1: do and to augment that experience, which meant that we

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Speaker 1: had to wait a pretty good long time for the

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Speaker 1: various technologies that we use to create this relationship to

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Speaker 1: mature to a point where it was possible. Sometimes we

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Speaker 1: had technologies that would allow us to do it, but

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Speaker 1: it required tethering headsets to very large computers, which meant

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Speaker 1: that you didn't have really any mobility and it really

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Speaker 1: limited the usefulness of the actual application. In other cases,

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Speaker 1: you could say things like your head tracking technology was

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Speaker 1: absolutely necessary for AR to develop the way it did.

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Speaker 1: GPS technology as well. Remember it wasn't that long ago

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Speaker 1: that we ordinary mirror mortals didn't have access to really

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Speaker 1: accurate GPS information For a very long time that was

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Speaker 1: purposefully made less accurate. It was a matter of national defense.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't until the nineties that you started to see

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Speaker 1: GPS become more accurate. For the basic consumer. Way back

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Speaker 1: in the day, you might get accuracy of up to

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Speaker 1: around one hundred meters, which is not great if you're

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Speaker 1: looking for the next place to make your turn. If

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Speaker 1: it's one hundred meters away, that's pretty far. But now

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Speaker 1: it's within a few feet, so it's much better. That

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Speaker 1: sort of stuff all had to come together in order

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Speaker 1: for augmented reality to become viable. I almost said a reality,

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Speaker 1: but that just starts to sound redundant at any rate,

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about some of these technologies we really need,

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Speaker 1: things like gyroscopes, accelerometers. These help devices understand their orientation

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Speaker 1: where they are in respect to something else, like are

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Speaker 1: they For a smartphone, it might be is it in

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Speaker 1: landscape mode or portrait mode? But for a head mounted display,

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Speaker 1: it would help give the unit the information it needs

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Speaker 1: to know which way you're looking, like are you looking

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Speaker 1: to the east or to the west. That kind of

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Speaker 1: thing also compasses obviously very important GPS sensors, image recognition software,

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Speaker 1: but has become really important so that when you are

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Speaker 1: looking at something, the system can actually identify what that is.

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Speaker 1: In some cases you can get around this. You can

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Speaker 1: design an AR system where let's say you make a

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Speaker 1: movie post and the AR application has the movie poster

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Speaker 1: animate in some way if you hold up a smartphone

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Speaker 1: that's running the appropriate app. So I'm just gonna take

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Speaker 1: a movie from my past that does not have an

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Speaker 1: AR movie poster associated with it, but one that I

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Speaker 1: can talk about as if it were a good example,

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Speaker 1: and that has to be Big Trouble in Little China,

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Speaker 1: universally declared the best movie that has ever been made.

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Speaker 1: So you've got your Big Trouble in Little China poster

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Speaker 1: up on the wall, and you hold up your smartphone

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Speaker 1: and you activate your Big Trouble in Little China movie

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Speaker 1: marketing app and the camera on your phone to text

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Speaker 1: the poster. You know the posters there well, The app

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Speaker 1: and the poster together are able to construct the augmented

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Speaker 1: experience because there have been elements put into the poster

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Speaker 1: that the app is looking for, and once the app

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Speaker 1: identifies that, like, it sees maybe eight different points on

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Speaker 1: the poster and because of the orientation of those points,

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Speaker 1: it knows what angle it's at, what height it's at

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Speaker 1: in relation to the phone, and can give you on

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Speaker 1: your display the augmented reality experience. In this case, it's

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Speaker 1: obviously Jack Burton and the pork Chop Express eating a sandwich, because,

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Speaker 1: as we know, the most riveting scene in the movie

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Speaker 1: unfolds in this way. So that would be kind of

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Speaker 1: an augmented reality experience where you didn't have to worry

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Speaker 1: about every possible application out in the real world. You

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Speaker 1: made it for something very specific, which means in your

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Speaker 1: software you can have the camera look quote unquote for

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Speaker 1: these particular points of reference and thus create the augmented

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Speaker 1: experience in that way. If you want to take that

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Speaker 1: and move it to the real world where you can

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Speaker 1: see augmented information about just the world around you, it

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Speaker 1: becomes way more complicated. You have to have very sophisticated

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Speaker 1: image recognition saw so that the camera picks up the images,

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Speaker 1: the software processes the information, identifies what those images are,

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Speaker 1: and gives you the relevant information. So working with all

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Speaker 1: the sensors, augmented reality can make this a possibility. So

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Speaker 1: another example, let's say you're out on the street in Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: you're here in my hometown Atlanta, Georgia, and you're looking

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Speaker 1: at a building and you wonder what it is, and

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Speaker 1: you hold up your phone and you've got your little

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Speaker 1: map app that allows you to look at a real

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Speaker 1: world setting and tells you information about it, and it

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Speaker 1: tells you it's the Georgia Aquarium. Well, first of all,

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Speaker 1: you would probably know that already because the signage there

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Speaker 1: is actually pretty good. But the point being that this

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Speaker 1: would be something that would tap into the GPS coordinates

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Speaker 1: on your phone, so it would know where your location

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Speaker 1: was and help narrow that down. The compass would tell

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Speaker 1: it what direction you are facing the camera angle. Also,

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Speaker 1: you have some image recognition going on there. The accelerometer

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Speaker 1: tells the orientation of the phone itself. All of this

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Speaker 1: data together would give the software the information needed for

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Speaker 1: it to display the labeled Georgia Aquarium on your phone.

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Speaker 1: And it all happens in an instant that's pretty amazing. Typically,

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Speaker 1: you also have to have some other method to communicate

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Speaker 1: with a larger infrastructure, because we don't have the capability

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Speaker 1: of building an enormously powerful computer that has all this

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Speaker 1: real world information programmed into it and make it a

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Speaker 1: handheld or wearable device. So usually you have to pair

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Speaker 1: these devices with some other larger infrastructure. Sometimes it's a

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Speaker 1: double handshake. For example, with Google Glass, you would use

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Speaker 1: Bluetooth to connect Google Glass to a smartphone. Then the

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Speaker 1: smartphone would have the connection to the larger internet through

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Speaker 1: your smartphone's cell service provider. So while you're experiencing the

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Speaker 1: augmented reality through the Google Glass, it's actually communicating through

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Speaker 1: your phone to the infrastructure to get the data it

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Speaker 1: important elements. And all of these components, like I said,

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Speaker 1: came together more or less around the same time. Most

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Speaker 1: of them were being developed independently of each other, and

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Speaker 1: it's just that now we're seeing them all converge. That's

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Speaker 1: an old favorite word here at tech stuff converge together

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Speaker 1: to create the augmented reality experience and make it possible.

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Speaker 1: So how did we get here? How did these different

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Speaker 1: elements develop? Well, there are a whole bunch of technology

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Speaker 1: pioneers who really create the foundation for augmented reality as

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Speaker 1: well as virtual reality and mixed reality. But one that

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Speaker 1: I think we really need to concentrate on it first

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Speaker 1: is Ivan Sutherland. Now Sutherland was born in Hastings, Nebraska

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Speaker 1: fascinated with mathematics, particularly geometry, and also with engineering. He

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Speaker 1: began to study and experiment with computers while he was

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Speaker 1: in school, and this was at a time where personal

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Speaker 1: this point. Computers were actually pretty rare, and they were huge,

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Speaker 1: and in fact, they often would rely upon physical media

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Speaker 1: formats like punch cards or paper tape to read a program.

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Speaker 1: So you didn't even have a disc or like certainly

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Speaker 1: nothing like a USB thumb drive or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: You actually had to put physical media into the machine

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Speaker 1: for it to read and then execute whatever program you

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Speaker 1: had designed for that device. He went to college at

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Speaker 1: what is now Carnegie Mellon University on a full scholarship.

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Speaker 1: He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. He would

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Speaker 1: then go on to earn a master's degree at cal

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Speaker 1: Tech and a PhD in electrical engineering from MIT. And

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Speaker 1: actually his doctoral thesis supervisor was Claude Shannon. And we

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Speaker 1: talked about Claude Shannon back in the twenty fourteen episode

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Speaker 1: Who is Claude Shannon. We recorded that not too long

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Speaker 1: after Shannon's passing, So if you want to hear a

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Speaker 1: really interesting story about a pioneer in computer science, you

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Speaker 1: should go check out that twenty fourteen episode. Back to Sutherland.

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Speaker 1: For his thesis, he created something called Sketchpad and that

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Speaker 1: was really, by most accounts, the first computer graphical user

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Speaker 1: interface or guy A graphic goal user interface means that

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Speaker 1: you interact with the computer through graphics representing various commands

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Speaker 1: on the computer. Windows and the Mac operating system are

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Speaker 1: both examples of graphical user interfaces, as is the interface

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Speaker 1: on your smartphone. If you have a smartphone where you

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Speaker 1: choose applications on a screen, that's a graphical user interface. Well,

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Speaker 1: Sutherland created what is largely considered to be the first

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Speaker 1: one of those. After college, he entered military service and

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Speaker 1: he was assigned to the National Seecurity Agency. We have

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Speaker 1: great friends there. I assume I'm sure they're listening, because

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Speaker 1: they're listening to everything at any rate. He entered the

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Speaker 1: NSA as an electrical engineer, and in nineteen sixty four

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Speaker 1: he replaced JC. R. Licklider as the head of DARPA's

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Speaker 1: Information Processing Techniques Office. Or IPTO. And also by back

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Speaker 1: then DARPA wasn't DARPA, it was just ARPA. So this

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Speaker 1: is the same group, by the way, that would end

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Speaker 1: up doing a lot of work that would form the

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Speaker 1: ARPANET a few years later, and the arpainet was the

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Speaker 1: predecessor to the Internet in some ways. At least, the

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Speaker 1: ARPAET was what ended up being the building blocks for

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Speaker 1: the infrastructure that would become the Internet. Now, all of

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Speaker 1: that work happened after Sutherland had already departed the organization.

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Speaker 1: His work became a fundamental component of both virtual and

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Speaker 1: augmented reality. As I mentioned earlier, in nineteen sixty five,

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Speaker 1: he wrote a piece and essay. It's very short, it's

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Speaker 1: very easy read, and you can find it online. The

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Speaker 1: title of the essay is the Ultimate Display. And if

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Speaker 1: you ever do any research and virtual reality or augmented reality,

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Speaker 1: this essay is going to pop up in your research,

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Speaker 1: so go ahead and read it. It's like two pages long,

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Speaker 1: so it goes very quickly. In that essay he talked

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Speaker 1: about several ideas, including the idealized display, the ultimate display,

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Speaker 1: something that would be the furthest you could go with

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Speaker 1: display technology. Now, keep in mind in his time. By

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Speaker 1: his time, he's still alive, by the way, this time

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, he you know, things were just

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Speaker 1: restricted to monitors. You might have a light pen, but

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Speaker 1: usually you just use a keyboard. Like it was pretty

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Speaker 1: bare bones. But he said, let's push this as far

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Speaker 1: as we can imagine it. His example, he thought of

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Speaker 1: a room that would be completely controlled by computers. Everything

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Speaker 1: you would experience within that room would be generated by

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Speaker 1: a computer. Everything you see here, smell, taste, and touch,

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Speaker 1: all of it generated by computers. The computer would even

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Speaker 1: be able to form physical objects out of pure matter itself. Now,

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Speaker 1: he wasn't suggesting that this would ever be a device

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Speaker 1: that we would actually be able to build. He was

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Speaker 1: just saying, what is the ultimate incarnation of display technology?

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Speaker 1: And if you read it, you realize, oh, this is

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Speaker 1: where the Star Trek Next Generation writers got their idea

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Speaker 1: for the Holidack. But unlike Star Trek the Next Generation,

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Speaker 1: the Ultimate Display would not go on the Fritz every

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Speaker 1: other episode and try to kill the crew. It was

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Speaker 1: better than that. The Ultimate Display was sort of a

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Speaker 1: foundational like Philosophically, it was foundational forvirual reality and augmented reality.

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Speaker 1: This idea of a very immersive experience where you, as

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Speaker 1: a user are surrounded somehow by this computer generated experience.

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Speaker 1: And that's true both with augmented reality and virtual reality.

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Speaker 1: In augmented reality, the real world is still there, but

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Speaker 1: you get this enhanced experience that is completely computer generated.

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Speaker 1: So in nineteen sixty eight, Sutherland and a student named

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Speaker 1: Danny Cohen would create a VR ar head mounted display

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Speaker 1: or HMD, and they nicknamed it the Sword of Damocles.

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Speaker 1: Why because you had to suspend it from the ceiling.

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Speaker 1: It was too heavy to wear on your head. You

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Speaker 1: needed it to be nice and sturdy. It included transparent lenses,

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Speaker 1: which meant you could overlay computer information on the lenses themselves,

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Speaker 1: and thus you could look through the lenses at the

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Speaker 1: real world and have these wireframe graphics on top of

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Speaker 1: what you were looking at. And it also had a

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Speaker 1: magnetic tracking system, meaning that it had sensors that could

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Speaker 1: detect magnetic fields, and as you turned your head or

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Speaker 1: you change the inclination of your head, it would change

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Speaker 1: the magnetic field and this would be relayed as a

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Speaker 1: command to the visual center the actual lenses themselves, so

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Speaker 1: that it would the change would be reflected in what

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Speaker 1: you saw. So if you have a virtual environment and

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Speaker 1: you turn your head to the left, you want the

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Speaker 1: view within the virtual environment to go to the left too,

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Speaker 1: But without head tracking technology that's impossible. So this was

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Speaker 1: a very early example of head tracking technology, and again

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Speaker 1: it used magnets magnetic fields in order to do that. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: it's also really important for augmented reality. Again, if the

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Speaker 1: AR system doesn't detect that you are looking around, then

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Speaker 1: you're not getting relevant information for the specific thing you

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Speaker 1: are looking at. Anyway, as I said, the graphics were

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Speaker 1: pretty primitive, they were wireframe drawings, but they still showed

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Speaker 1: that this was a viable approach to technology using HMD

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Speaker 1: for augmented or virtual reality use. Oh and one other

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Speaker 1: note I should make So a lot of people say

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Speaker 1: the sort of Damocles was the first head mounted display,

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Speaker 1: and they say, you know, this is the first HMD

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Speaker 1: was made in nineteen sixty eight. I take issue with that.

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Speaker 1: I don't think of the sort of Damocles as the

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Speaker 1: first head mounted display. That to me should go to

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Speaker 1: a different invention called the head site hadsight now that

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Speaker 1: was developed by phil Co and unlike the sort of damocles.

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Speaker 1: It didn't create a virtual world. Instead, the head site

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Speaker 1: was sort of a remote viewfinder for a video camera.

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Speaker 1: Imagine that you got a camera mounted on a mechanical

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Speaker 1: swiveling mount, so you can move it left right, you

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Speaker 1: can change the orientation the inclination as well, and then

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Speaker 1: you have that mapped to a head mounted display, so

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Speaker 1: that if I put the display on and I look

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Speaker 1: to the left, the camera pans to the left. If

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Speaker 1: I look to the right, it pans to the right.

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Speaker 1: That sort of thing. It was meant to be a

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Speaker 1: way for people to operate a camera in a remote

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Speaker 1: location that might not be very friendly to a human

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Speaker 1: being standing there. For example, the exterior of an aircraft.

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Speaker 1: You could have a camera mounted on the outside of

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Speaker 1: your aircraft that would allow an engineer on the inside

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Speaker 1: to look around and maybe help a pilot land or

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Speaker 1: navigate in a dangerous situation, or just get an idea

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Speaker 1: of the status of the aircraft itself. This was very

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Speaker 1: much a technology that was being pushed by the military,

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Speaker 1: an idea to create more military uses using this technology

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Speaker 1: to make the military more competent, more adept at very

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Speaker 1: rapid changing situations on the technology front, so headsite preceded

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Speaker 1: the sort of Damocles by about seven years. It came

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Speaker 1: out around nineteen sixty one. But again it wasn't a

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Speaker 1: virtual reality headset or an augmented reality headset. It was

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Speaker 1: kind of a like I said, a remote viewfinder. But

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Speaker 1: still I consider that to be the earliest head mounted display,

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Speaker 1: not the sort of Damocles. However, Sutherland would end up

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Speaker 1: going on to make lots of other contributions in computer

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Speaker 1: graphics as well as the overall concepts that would guide

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Speaker 1: both virtual reality and augmented reality development over the next

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Speaker 1: several decades. But now it'll be time for me to

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Speaker 1: kind of move away from Sutherland and talk about some

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Speaker 1: other developments that were important in AR. And before I

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Speaker 1: get to that, let's take a quick break to thank

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Speaker 1: our sponsor. All Right, we just left off with Ivan Sutherland.

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Speaker 1: Now let's talk about a different father of augmented reality,

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Speaker 1: Myron Krueger or doctor Myron Krueger. In nineteen seventy four,

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Speaker 1: doctor Krueger created an augmented reality lab called Video Place.

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Speaker 1: He was really into this idea of seeing the interaction

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Speaker 1: of technology and people in artistic ways. He really wanted

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Speaker 1: to explore artistic expressions using technology and people working together.

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Speaker 1: So he wanted to create an artificial reality environment that

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Speaker 1: didn't require the user to wear special equipment. You wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have to put on a head Moulton display, or wear

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Speaker 1: special gloves, or use in any kind of device to

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Speaker 1: control your actions, because that's a barrier between you and

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Speaker 1: the experience. Instead, his version consisted of a laboratory that

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Speaker 1: had several rooms all networked together, and each room had

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Speaker 1: a video camera in it and a projector and a screen. Now,

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Speaker 1: the video camera would pick up the motions of the

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Speaker 1: person inside the room, it would send information to the projector,

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Speaker 1: which would then project the person's silhouette on the screen.

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Speaker 1: And the silhouette was typically a really bright color, and

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Speaker 1: you could move around and your silhouette would move around,

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Speaker 1: So you almost became like a puppet master controlling your

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Speaker 1: own silhouette. But then he started to incorporate other things,

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Speaker 1: like other elements that were virtually on the screen. The

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Speaker 1: projector was projecting things that were on the screen but

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Speaker 1: not in the actual real room itself. So imagine a ball,

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Speaker 1: and a ball is being projected on the screen. Well,

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Speaker 1: you could move as that your silhouette would interact with

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Speaker 1: the ball and the ball would bounce away. That sort

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Speaker 1: of thing. So you would be able to interact with

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Speaker 1: virtual environments by moving around in a real physical space.

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Speaker 1: And while those objects weren't really there in front of you,

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Speaker 1: you could see the representation of them on the screen.

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Speaker 1: And this was really powerful stuff. And remember I said

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Speaker 1: these rooms were all networked together, so you could actually

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Speaker 1: have a system where a person in one room and

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Speaker 1: a person in another room both have their silhouettes projected

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Speaker 1: together in their respective rooms on the screen, and your

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Speaker 1: silhouette would be one color, the other person's silhouette would

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Speaker 1: be a different color, and you could interact with one another.

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Speaker 1: And according to reports from this art experiment, they noticed

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Speaker 1: that whenever people would have their silhouettes cross one another,

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Speaker 1: they would actually recoil in their physical rooms. Keep in mind,

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Speaker 1: they're in different rooms, they're not in the same one together,

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Speaker 1: they would recoil as if they had made physical contact

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Speaker 1: or bumped into someone. So it showed that there was

433
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 1: a very powerful psychological element to this virtual presence. And

434
00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 1: again that psychological element plays a huge important role in

435
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:21,080
Speaker 1: VR and AR research and development, not just for creating products,

436
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:25,360
Speaker 1: but just to understand how we process information and incorporate

437
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:28,800
Speaker 1: it into our sense of reality. Not to get too

438
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:33,320
Speaker 1: deep for you guys, So experimentation in the field continued

439
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 1: over the years. In the early nineteen eighties, doctor Krueger

440
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 1: would write a book and publish it about artificial realities.

441
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 1: But while the principles for augmented reality were established, the

442
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:49,720
Speaker 1: technologies were still rather unwieldy. They were large, they weren't reliable,

443
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:53,440
Speaker 1: and it would require several years of work to improve

444
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: those technologies, to create miniaturization strategies, to get the elements

445
00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 1: down to a size that was more practic for that

446
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:03,719
Speaker 1: sort of use, and what can require you to have

447
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:07,840
Speaker 1: a headmund display mounted to the ceiling, and all of

448
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,880
Speaker 1: that took time, but you could tell that the ideas

449
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:15,920
Speaker 1: underlying augmented and virtual reality were already in place. In

450
00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:20,720
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety there was a Boeing researcher named Tom Coddell

451
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:26,240
Speaker 1: who coined the term augmented reality, and he was specifically

452
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: using it to talk about this approach to overlaying digital

453
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:31,959
Speaker 1: information on top of our physical world to enhance it

454
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:36,120
Speaker 1: in some way. Now, doctor Coddell earned a PhD in

455
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:40,480
Speaker 1: physics and astronomy from the University of Arizona, and before

456
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 1: contributing the term augmented reality to the public lexicon, he

457
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:48,160
Speaker 1: did extensive work and artificial intelligence research and development. He

458
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 1: also became a professor in the fields of electrical and

459
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:54,960
Speaker 1: computer engineering at the University of New Mexico. So when

460
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:57,600
Speaker 1: he was working with Boeing, he used this phrase to

461
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 1: talk about specific system he was working on, an augmented

462
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: reality system, and the whole purpose of this was to

463
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:09,640
Speaker 1: help people who were helping construct airplanes lay cables properly.

464
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,520
Speaker 1: The whole idea was to use this system so that

465
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,800
Speaker 1: an electrician can see exactly where the cable needed to

466
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:23,720
Speaker 1: go inside the partly constructed cabin of an aircraft, and

467
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: that way you could follow the directions that you see

468
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:30,680
Speaker 1: through your display, lay the actual cable down where the

469
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:34,480
Speaker 1: guide tells you to go, and then you would have

470
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 1: a properly wired airplane. And I'm sure, as we're all aware,

471
00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 1: properly wired airplanes are good airplanes. Improperly wired airplanes are

472
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,320
Speaker 1: not so good. So it was a very important system

473
00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:53,520
Speaker 1: to make this much more smooth and fast, and it

474
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:58,360
Speaker 1: meant that you didn't have to have as many experts

475
00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:02,360
Speaker 1: to guide the process. You could actually have someone come

476
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 1: in who had never done this before and just follow

477
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 1: the directions through this augmented reality set system and they

478
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:17,080
Speaker 1: could wire the airplane properly. So really clever means of

479
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:20,640
Speaker 1: using augmented reality. Also, we would end up seeing that

480
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 1: same sort of philosophy used again and again in the

481
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:28,200
Speaker 1: future in more sophisticated types of technology, but it was

482
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:32,840
Speaker 1: the exact same approach, exact same idea underlying it. In

483
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Lewis Rosenberg proposed a system that the

484
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 1: Air Force could use to allow someone to control devices

485
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:43,800
Speaker 1: from a remote location, and that consisted of a video

486
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:46,960
Speaker 1: camera which would provide the visual data to the user

487
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:50,160
Speaker 1: through a head mounted display. They would wear the display

488
00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:52,560
Speaker 1: on their heads or they would look at a screen,

489
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:56,080
Speaker 1: but typically they'd wear a display, and then they would

490
00:31:56,080 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 1: also wear an exoskeleton on their upper body that would

491
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:05,320
Speaker 1: allow them to control some sort of robotic device, typically

492
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:08,520
Speaker 1: robotic arms. And usually the way this would work is

493
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,640
Speaker 1: that the display was designed in such a way with

494
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 1: the video camera so that the view that the person

495
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 1: had it made it look like the robot arms were

496
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:22,240
Speaker 1: their actual arms, which required a little bit of trickery

497
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 1: on the part of Rosenberg. They had to fudge the

498
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 1: distances between the video camera and the robotic arms to

499
00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:33,440
Speaker 1: give this sort of feeling that the robot arms represented

500
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 1: your actual arms. So you move your arms inside the

501
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 1: exoskeleton and the robot arms would move as well at

502
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 1: their remote location. So it's kind of like a really

503
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: fancy remote control. Now imagine that the robot arms are

504
00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:54,240
Speaker 1: holding various tools. The suit would also provide haptic feedback,

505
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 1: that touch based feedback to let a user know more

506
00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 1: about what is going on when they're operating the arms.

507
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 1: So if you were to do something that would make

508
00:33:03,840 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 1: a robot arm and counter resistance, then you would feel

509
00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 1: haptic feedback in the suit that would indicate, oh, you're

510
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:13,960
Speaker 1: going beyond the parameters of where this robot arm is

511
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:17,800
Speaker 1: capable of going. So you learn very quickly where you

512
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:21,160
Speaker 1: can operate within that suit and make sure that you

513
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:26,160
Speaker 1: are not pushing it beyond its limits. You could also

514
00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 1: end up using these tools to do various things in

515
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 1: this remote environment. Now, Rosenberg called a system virtual fixtures,

516
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:37,880
Speaker 1: which meant that the user would see these virtual overlays

517
00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:40,120
Speaker 1: on top of a real environment that they were looking

518
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,720
Speaker 1: at So I'm going to give a very basic example

519
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,440
Speaker 1: to illustrate this, because it's hard to imagine, it's hard

520
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 1: to get it across in words. But let's say you're

521
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 1: looking through a head mount display and in front of

522
00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:58,480
Speaker 1: you is a board, wooden board, and it's just a

523
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:01,560
Speaker 1: regular wooden board. There's nothing painted on it or anything

524
00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:03,920
Speaker 1: in the real world, and it's in a room that's

525
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: across the building from you. You cannot see this with

526
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:08,920
Speaker 1: your own eyes. You can only see it through the

527
00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:14,400
Speaker 1: video camera. The virtual fixture overlay might be a series

528
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:17,440
Speaker 1: of circles, and the circles are things that you are

529
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:19,720
Speaker 1: meant to cut out of the board using the robot

530
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:24,000
Speaker 1: arms and a tool that's right there inside the physical environment,

531
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:27,440
Speaker 1: across the building from you. So you follow the patterns

532
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 1: that you see in this virtual overlay and you complete

533
00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:35,360
Speaker 1: the task. That's a very simple example, and this system

534
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:38,080
Speaker 1: was meant to allow for that. That's what he would

535
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,800
Speaker 1: call the virtual fixtures, these overlays that you would see

536
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 1: that would appear to be real, but actually were not

537
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:51,240
Speaker 1: present in the physical environment itself. Now, also in nineteen

538
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:54,640
Speaker 1: ninety two, a group of researchers at Columbia University were

539
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:58,120
Speaker 1: proposing a system that they called the Knowledge based Augmented

540
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:05,840
Speaker 1: Reality for Maintenance Assistance aka Karma Cute. Their approach was

541
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:08,839
Speaker 1: pretty novel. They pointed out that while augmented reality had

542
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:12,520
Speaker 1: tremendous potential, it also had a really big barrier in

543
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:16,320
Speaker 1: that it takes an enormous amount of time to design

544
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 1: or animate and implement these graphic overlays for AR applications.

545
00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 1: So let's say you're in a room and you're looking

546
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:26,840
Speaker 1: at different objects, and little labels are popping up for

547
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:30,040
Speaker 1: each object. If you're having to do all that by hand,

548
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 1: it takes a huge amount of time. What they wanted

549
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:37,839
Speaker 1: to do was create artificial intelligence systems, or at least

550
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 1: techniques to generate graphics automatically on the fly. So this

551
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,480
Speaker 1: would be similar to using image recognition software, so that

552
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 1: if you look at a specific box, let's say, the

553
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:55,280
Speaker 1: image recognition software might be able to map that box

554
00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:58,000
Speaker 1: to a specific product and thus give you an overlay

555
00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:01,759
Speaker 1: of information about the product though inside that box. And

556
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:03,480
Speaker 1: it would be able to do all this automatically. It

557
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:07,840
Speaker 1: would not require a human programmer to go through and

558
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:11,280
Speaker 1: look at every single product in every single type of box.

559
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:14,719
Speaker 1: And program all that out. That would be ridiculous, it

560
00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:17,600
Speaker 1: would take forever. So it was the work of this

561
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 1: group with Karma that really started the ball rolling with

562
00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:24,920
Speaker 1: this AI approach to automatically fill in that information and

563
00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:31,480
Speaker 1: make AR a more practical experience. Around the same time,

564
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:36,320
Speaker 1: between ninety two and ninety three, the Laurel Western Development Labs,

565
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:39,279
Speaker 1: which was a defense contractor, began to work with the

566
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:43,080
Speaker 1: US military to create AR systems for military vehicles. And

567
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:47,000
Speaker 1: you can understand very quickly how AR would have enormous

568
00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:51,279
Speaker 1: potential for military applications. And in fact, AR is very

569
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:54,360
Speaker 1: commonly used in lots of different things like pilot helmets

570
00:36:54,440 --> 00:37:01,360
Speaker 1: where it helps pilots keep track of targets and potential threats,

571
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:05,040
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But in this case, they were

572
00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:09,799
Speaker 1: really looking at creating a augmented reality system that would

573
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 1: create virtual opponents for people working in simulated wartime conditions,

574
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:19,520
Speaker 1: so really a training program. Imagine that you're operating an

575
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:23,680
Speaker 1: actual military vehicle like a tank, and you have a

576
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:28,400
Speaker 1: view outside that is really an augmented reality system, so

577
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:30,640
Speaker 1: you're actually looking at the real world around you. You

578
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:33,200
Speaker 1: aren't just sitting in a simulator inside of building. You

579
00:37:33,239 --> 00:37:36,560
Speaker 1: are out there in the field controlling a real vehicle

580
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:40,480
Speaker 1: moving around in real terrain, but you also see virtual

581
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:45,399
Speaker 1: representations of enemies in that real terrain, and you can

582
00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:49,200
Speaker 1: practice maneuvers and firing on enemies that sort of thing,

583
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:53,359
Speaker 1: probably not using live ammunition at that point, but having

584
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:56,239
Speaker 1: a more realistic simulation in a real environment, so that

585
00:37:56,280 --> 00:38:03,000
Speaker 1: you're not just trying to create a totally virtual scenario. Anyway,

586
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:05,480
Speaker 1: that work was done in ninety two and ninety three,

587
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:08,359
Speaker 1: the world wouldn't really learn about it at large until

588
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 1: about ninety nine, because that's the way the military works.

589
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:14,080
Speaker 1: They're not so eager to talk about their stuff while

590
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:18,240
Speaker 1: are still doing it. Meanwhile, at the same time, artists

591
00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 1: were continuing to explore the relationships between physical performers and

592
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:24,880
Speaker 1: virtual elements. You remember I talked about doctor Krueger earlier,

593
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:27,960
Speaker 1: while in nineteen ninety four, a different artist, Julie Martin,

594
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 1: would create a piece called Dancing in Cyberspace, and in

595
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:36,240
Speaker 1: that piece, dancers on a physical space or a physical

596
00:38:36,239 --> 00:38:39,960
Speaker 1: stage were able to manipulate virtual objects, so an audience

597
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:43,000
Speaker 1: would be able to see both the physical performance by

598
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:48,160
Speaker 1: the dancers and the virtual reactions. The things that happened

599
00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:50,760
Speaker 1: within the virtual environment as a result of the dancers

600
00:38:50,800 --> 00:38:55,040
Speaker 1: moving around their physical space pretty neat. In nineteen ninety five,

601
00:38:55,880 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 1: two researchers Rekimoto and Nagao created their the first real

602
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:05,080
Speaker 1: handheld AR display. But it was a tethered display. It

603
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:08,120
Speaker 1: wasn't free form. You couldn't just take it anywhere. It

604
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:11,560
Speaker 1: was called navicam, and you had to have a tether

605
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,840
Speaker 1: cable essentially connect the navicam to a workstation. But it

606
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:19,160
Speaker 1: had a forward facing camera and you could use a

607
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:24,200
Speaker 1: video feed to go through this handheld device through the

608
00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:28,760
Speaker 1: cable to the workstation, and it could detect color coded

609
00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:31,920
Speaker 1: markers in the camera image and display information on a

610
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:34,560
Speaker 1: video see through view. So you could get that augmented

611
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:38,120
Speaker 1: reality experience. Obviously very limited, you know, you could not

612
00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 1: just carry this around with you everywhere you go, but

613
00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:45,319
Speaker 1: it showed the ideas behind augmented reality could in fact

614
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:48,480
Speaker 1: be realized in a handheld format. Now, it was just

615
00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:52,319
Speaker 1: a matter of getting those different components small enough to

616
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:57,960
Speaker 1: all fit in a self contained mobile form factor. Now

617
00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:01,040
Speaker 1: in the late nineties, we started seeing televi sporting events

618
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:05,120
Speaker 1: featuring augmented reality elements, or at least you did. I

619
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:08,920
Speaker 1: don't watch sports ball. That's not entirely true, but I

620
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:12,239
Speaker 1: don't watch football or hockey, American football or hockey, and

621
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:16,000
Speaker 1: both of those were the sports that really got them.

622
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:19,760
Speaker 1: First off, I'm going to backtrack. I used to watch hockey,

623
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:27,120
Speaker 1: but then Winnipeg stole the Atlanta Thrashers from me. Winnipeg, okay,

624
00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:30,120
Speaker 1: getting back to hockey. So hockey had the Fox track system,

625
00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:33,440
Speaker 1: which Fox put into hockey games so that you could

626
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 1: easily follow the puck. Instead of trying to watch this

627
00:40:36,239 --> 00:40:39,359
Speaker 1: little bitty black disc spinning around, you got to watch

628
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 1: this very bright, highlighted neon colored disc that everyone hated.

629
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:50,160
Speaker 1: And after about two seasons, Fuck stopped doing it and

630
00:40:50,239 --> 00:40:54,239
Speaker 1: people were happy until a Thrashers moved away, and then

631
00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:59,080
Speaker 1: it was just miserable. American football would follow suit in

632
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 1: the late nineties and have the first down line introduced,

633
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:07,360
Speaker 1: where they could on live video overlay the first down line.

634
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:11,359
Speaker 1: Usually it's a bright yellow line that indicates how far

635
00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:13,920
Speaker 1: the offensive team needs to go. And by offensive, I

636
00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:16,120
Speaker 1: mean they're on the offensive. I don't mean they offend

637
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:20,480
Speaker 1: my sensibilities. I'm not that against American football, but it

638
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:22,000
Speaker 1: showed how far they would need to go in order

639
00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:25,200
Speaker 1: to establish a first down, which I am told is

640
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:29,480
Speaker 1: something you want to do. That would start to get

641
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 1: employed in nineteen ninety eight, and over time we would

642
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:37,000
Speaker 1: see that increase where eventually Skycam was able to even

643
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:39,919
Speaker 1: use this system. At first, it wasn't You could get

644
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:42,440
Speaker 1: a skycam view, but you couldn't do the overlay of

645
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 1: the first and ten line until later. Well, I've got

646
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:50,640
Speaker 1: a lot more to say about augmented reality, but before

647
00:41:50,680 --> 00:42:04,040
Speaker 1: I do, let's take another quick break to thank our sponsor. Okay,

648
00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:08,120
Speaker 1: we're back. Let's skip ahead to nineteen ninety nine. I

649
00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:10,280
Speaker 1: guess it's not really skipping. I just talked about nineteen

650
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:14,399
Speaker 1: ninety eight. Let's plot ahead to nineteen ninety nine. That's

651
00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:19,759
Speaker 1: when NASA's X thirty eight spacecraft was using an AR

652
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:24,120
Speaker 1: system as part of its navigational tools, so people back

653
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:27,879
Speaker 1: on Earth could look at a view from the spacecraft

654
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:32,279
Speaker 1: a camera mounted on the spacecraft, and on top of

655
00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:36,360
Speaker 1: that view they could overlay map data to help with navigation.

656
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:38,560
Speaker 1: And all of that, of course was controlled back here

657
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:41,680
Speaker 1: on Earth. But it was sort of an experiment to

658
00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:46,000
Speaker 1: see how augmented reality could be incorporated into space exploration.

659
00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:50,200
Speaker 1: Missions in the future and make them more effective. Also

660
00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:53,399
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety nine, the Navy began work on the

661
00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:58,320
Speaker 1: Battlefield Augmented Reality System or BARS, which is a wearable

662
00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:02,759
Speaker 1: AR system for soldiers. You probably seen various implementations of

663
00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:06,680
Speaker 1: this over the years. Is obviously evolved since nineteen ninety nine.

664
00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:10,640
Speaker 1: It's one of those pieces of technology that some soldiers

665
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:14,000
Speaker 1: took to, but a lot just felt that it created

666
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:20,840
Speaker 1: unnecessary distractions. Technology and warfare is very very difficult because

667
00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:25,160
Speaker 1: there's sometimes where we think, oh, more information is always better,

668
00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:28,720
Speaker 1: but in some cases that doesn't seem to hold true,

669
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:33,200
Speaker 1: and for some people with these head mounted displays or

670
00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:37,239
Speaker 1: really its heads up displays HUDs, that can sometimes be

671
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:41,959
Speaker 1: the case, depends on the implementation. In two thousand, hiro

672
00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:48,000
Speaker 1: Katsu Kato created a software library called AR Toolkit. Very

673
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:51,920
Speaker 1: important software library was also open source, so anyone could

674
00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:56,080
Speaker 1: contribute to it, modify it. Brent put out a new

675
00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:59,800
Speaker 1: version that sort of stuff, and it uses video tracking

676
00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:03,719
Speaker 1: to overlay computer graphics on a video camera feed, and

677
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:07,200
Speaker 1: it's still a component for a lot of AR experiences today.

678
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:10,879
Speaker 1: Later on in the two thousands, this would be adapted

679
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:14,800
Speaker 1: so that it could also be used in web experiences,

680
00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:20,600
Speaker 1: not just native experiences to specific devices, and we continued

681
00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:24,920
Speaker 1: to see AR built into new experiences, including smartphones and tablets.

682
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:28,160
Speaker 1: By two thousand and four, some researchers in Germany were

683
00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:31,640
Speaker 1: creating AR apps that could take advantage of a smartphone's camera.

684
00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:35,680
Speaker 1: But two thousand and fours pretty early for smartphones. It

685
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:39,160
Speaker 1: really would would be a few years before this would

686
00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:42,680
Speaker 1: truly take off, because that's when Apple came out with

687
00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:45,719
Speaker 1: the iPhone in two thousand and seven. That was the

688
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:50,400
Speaker 1: real revolution in smartphone technology. There had been smartphones before

689
00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:52,920
Speaker 1: the iPhone, don't get me wrong, and many of them

690
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:57,360
Speaker 1: were really good, but the iPhone was something that caught

691
00:44:57,400 --> 00:45:02,080
Speaker 1: the public's attention and made smartphones sexy. And because of that,

692
00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:05,320
Speaker 1: there was a ton of money poured into the smartphone

693
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:08,400
Speaker 1: industry as well as not just Apple, but also to

694
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:11,759
Speaker 1: other companies, like the companies that were offering Android smartphones.

695
00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:15,759
Speaker 1: But I think we can really thank Apple for all

696
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:19,400
Speaker 1: of that happening in the first place, especially things like

697
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 1: seeing that accelerometer where you could switch from portrait to

698
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 1: landscape mode. I remember everyone freaking out about that when

699
00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:28,040
Speaker 1: Steve Jobs showed it off in two thousand and seven

700
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:32,080
Speaker 1: at Macworld and everyone thought, wow, this is amazing. Well,

701
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:33,640
Speaker 1: we take it for granted now, but it was a

702
00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:38,560
Speaker 1: big deal then. So once that smartphone revolution happened, it

703
00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:43,880
Speaker 1: was a landslide victory for both augmented reality and virtual

704
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:47,200
Speaker 1: reality research and development, because it meant that so much

705
00:45:47,239 --> 00:45:53,040
Speaker 1: money was being poured into creating newer, thinner, more capable

706
00:45:53,080 --> 00:45:58,160
Speaker 1: smartphones that we saw an explosion in technological development that

707
00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:03,520
Speaker 1: could also be used for virtual and augmented reality experiences. So,

708
00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:07,440
Speaker 1: for example, think of those sensors I talked about earlier,

709
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:12,399
Speaker 1: accelerometers and gyroscopes, that sort of thing. Well, we saw

710
00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:14,600
Speaker 1: a lot of development in those spaces in order to

711
00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:17,759
Speaker 1: make smartphones better, and people who were working in AR

712
00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:21,200
Speaker 1: and VR experiences could take advantage of those same sensors

713
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:25,920
Speaker 1: either creating apps specifically for smartphones. Thus, you don't have

714
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:29,440
Speaker 1: to build any other hardware, you just use existing hardware,

715
00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:32,600
Speaker 1: but that limits how you can use it, right because

716
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:35,040
Speaker 1: you don't typically wear your smartphone directly in front of

717
00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:38,879
Speaker 1: your face. Or they could end up taking advantage of

718
00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 1: those new, smaller sensors and incorporate them directly into brand

719
00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 1: new hardware like various types of wearables like Google Glass,

720
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:48,440
Speaker 1: for example, but that would be a few more years.

721
00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:55,280
Speaker 1: In twenty eleven, Nintendo launched the Nintendo three DS, which

722
00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:59,720
Speaker 1: included a camera. It was the three D capable handheld

723
00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:04,800
Speaker 1: device and included actually a pair of forward facing cameras,

724
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:07,759
Speaker 1: so you could take three D photos if you wanted to,

725
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:12,680
Speaker 1: and it also had some AR software included with it.

726
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:17,200
Speaker 1: You would get these special Nintendo cards kind of like

727
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:21,280
Speaker 1: playing cards, and if you were to point the camera

728
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:24,759
Speaker 1: of the three DS at the card and look at

729
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:28,440
Speaker 1: the screen, you would see a little virtual three dimensional

730
00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 1: character pop up on the card. So Mario would be

731
00:47:31,520 --> 00:47:34,759
Speaker 1: an obvious example. You put the Mario card down on

732
00:47:34,840 --> 00:47:37,239
Speaker 1: the table, you hold up the three DS, and you

733
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:39,279
Speaker 1: aim the camera at the card, and you look at

734
00:47:39,280 --> 00:47:42,040
Speaker 1: the screen and there's Mario, and Mario appears to be

735
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:45,799
Speaker 1: jumping around on your physical table. Now, obviously, if you

736
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:50,440
Speaker 1: look off of the display, there's no Mario jumping around,

737
00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:53,600
Speaker 1: but on the display there he is, and it was

738
00:47:53,640 --> 00:47:57,040
Speaker 1: pretty cute. I remember being really impressed with this very

739
00:47:57,080 --> 00:48:00,720
Speaker 1: simple implementation of AR when we got our three DS,

740
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:04,920
Speaker 1: and then I took our three DS apart, and then

741
00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:07,680
Speaker 1: I took pictures of it, and then I posted it

742
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:12,759
Speaker 1: on Twitter and people got sad, it's a great day.

743
00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:16,640
Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, Google introduced Google Glass. That was the

744
00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:20,000
Speaker 1: wearable that included a small display position just above the

745
00:48:20,040 --> 00:48:24,640
Speaker 1: right eye, so when you look straightforward, you could tell

746
00:48:24,680 --> 00:48:28,799
Speaker 1: that there was something kind of above your natural eyeline,

747
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:32,799
Speaker 1: but it didn't get in the way too much to

748
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:34,800
Speaker 1: look at the screen. You actually had a glimpse. You

749
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:37,440
Speaker 1: had a glance upward, and then you could see what

750
00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:42,640
Speaker 1: was on the display. Google Glass had augmented reality features

751
00:48:42,680 --> 00:48:47,360
Speaker 1: like crazy. You could see video calls. You could actually

752
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:52,319
Speaker 1: use the glasses to not just take a video call,

753
00:48:52,360 --> 00:48:55,239
Speaker 1: but show the other person what you are looking at

754
00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:58,560
Speaker 1: so they could see from your point of view. You

755
00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:01,480
Speaker 1: could also overlay direction, so if you're walking down street,

756
00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:04,040
Speaker 1: you could glance up at the screen and it would

757
00:49:04,040 --> 00:49:05,719
Speaker 1: tell you if you need to keep going straight, or

758
00:49:05,719 --> 00:49:07,840
Speaker 1: turn left or turn right, that kind of thing. It

759
00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:10,920
Speaker 1: was really useful. I had a pair of these Google

760
00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:15,080
Speaker 1: Glass and I really liked the direction they were going in.

761
00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:18,440
Speaker 1: I felt that it wasn't a fully realized product at

762
00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:21,560
Speaker 1: the time, and eventually Google agreed and after a couple

763
00:49:21,600 --> 00:49:24,600
Speaker 1: of years they took Google Glass off the market entirely,

764
00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:28,240
Speaker 1: and now you can't get them anymore. They were clever,

765
00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:33,279
Speaker 1: but they were expensive, and they had some limitations, And

766
00:49:33,840 --> 00:49:35,880
Speaker 1: like I was saying earlier, you know, it's hard to

767
00:49:35,880 --> 00:49:38,920
Speaker 1: build all the components you need into one headset. So

768
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:43,200
Speaker 1: Google Glass would communicate via Bluetooth to your smartphone, and

769
00:49:43,239 --> 00:49:45,880
Speaker 1: your smartphone would act as the actual nexus point to

770
00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:50,239
Speaker 1: the Internet. But it was a neat idea, and I

771
00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:53,440
Speaker 1: enjoyed getting to use them while I did, so I

772
00:49:53,560 --> 00:49:57,879
Speaker 1: keep hoping to see a return of that kind of technology,

773
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:02,080
Speaker 1: but perhaps in a more mature and less expensive format.

774
00:50:03,560 --> 00:50:07,360
Speaker 1: Now we've also seen applications similar to the ones we

775
00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:10,480
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, the ones that are meant to guide people

776
00:50:10,640 --> 00:50:14,440
Speaker 1: into laying out or repairing a system. We've seen that

777
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:17,680
Speaker 1: in the car world. Not too long ago, there was

778
00:50:17,719 --> 00:50:21,880
Speaker 1: the MARTA system introduced by Volkswagen. MARTA makes me chuckle

779
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:25,320
Speaker 1: because that's also the name of Atlanta's public transportation system,

780
00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:28,520
Speaker 1: But in this case, it stands for Mobile Augmented Reality

781
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:33,000
Speaker 1: Technical Assistance, and it's specifically designed for mechanics who are

782
00:50:33,040 --> 00:50:36,640
Speaker 1: working on the XL one vehicle. So if you hold

783
00:50:36,719 --> 00:50:40,120
Speaker 1: up an iPad that has this app on it, and

784
00:50:40,239 --> 00:50:42,759
Speaker 1: the camera is pointed at an XL one and you

785
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:46,040
Speaker 1: look at the display, you'll see information overlaid on top

786
00:50:46,080 --> 00:50:50,040
Speaker 1: of the car, including labels for all the different parts.

787
00:50:50,080 --> 00:50:52,319
Speaker 1: So let's say you're a mechanic and you have to

788
00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:56,480
Speaker 1: do a specific repair on this vehicle. You hold up

789
00:50:56,520 --> 00:50:59,480
Speaker 1: the iPad, you look through the display, and you see

790
00:50:59,520 --> 00:51:01,279
Speaker 1: exactly what you need to do. It gives you a

791
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:04,200
Speaker 1: set of instructions. It shows you how you need to do.

792
00:51:04,239 --> 00:51:06,560
Speaker 1: It tells you where you need to stand based upon

793
00:51:06,680 --> 00:51:09,400
Speaker 1: the angle of the view. So if you hold it

794
00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:10,920
Speaker 1: up and it says no, you need to move about

795
00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:12,839
Speaker 1: a foot to the right, you can do that. Then

796
00:51:12,880 --> 00:51:14,640
Speaker 1: hold up the iPad again and you'll say, all right,

797
00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:17,400
Speaker 1: you're in the right spot. Make sure you loosen this

798
00:51:17,480 --> 00:51:20,920
Speaker 1: particular bolt first, that kind of thing. And it's meant

799
00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:25,480
Speaker 1: to be an interactive maintenance guide in a way maintenance

800
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:28,960
Speaker 1: and repair guide. This is one of those applications of

801
00:51:29,040 --> 00:51:33,560
Speaker 1: augmentary reality. I think is a no brainer to me.

802
00:51:33,640 --> 00:51:37,279
Speaker 1: It's a killer app The idea of having an ability

803
00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:42,160
Speaker 1: to work with something you are not one hundred percent

804
00:51:42,239 --> 00:51:46,279
Speaker 1: familiar with, but you're able to leverage the expertise of

805
00:51:46,360 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 1: people who either designed it or built it, or just

806
00:51:48,719 --> 00:51:53,480
Speaker 1: fully understand it and get guidance based on their expertise

807
00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:57,080
Speaker 1: in real time, so you're not having to go and

808
00:51:57,280 --> 00:52:01,800
Speaker 1: consult an article of it or watch a YouTube video.

809
00:52:02,520 --> 00:52:06,400
Speaker 1: You get step by step instructions overlaid on top of

810
00:52:06,440 --> 00:52:11,320
Speaker 1: your view of that thing. To me, that's the most

811
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:14,960
Speaker 1: compelling use of augmented reality from a practical standpoint. There

812
00:52:14,960 --> 00:52:16,719
Speaker 1: are a lot of other uses that I'll talk about

813
00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:19,279
Speaker 1: towards the end that I think are also really super cool.

814
00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:21,239
Speaker 1: So don't get me wrong, It's not the only one.

815
00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:25,560
Speaker 1: But let's move on to twenty fifteen. That was when

816
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:29,520
Speaker 1: Microsoft would unveil the Holow Lens, something I still want

817
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:31,279
Speaker 1: to try out. I have not had a chance to

818
00:52:31,320 --> 00:52:34,440
Speaker 1: try a Holow lens yet. That is a headset capable

819
00:52:34,480 --> 00:52:37,600
Speaker 1: of advanced AR applications everything from what I was just

820
00:52:37,640 --> 00:52:41,000
Speaker 1: talking about, giving you guidance, step by step instructions on

821
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:43,680
Speaker 1: how to do like a repair job on say an

822
00:52:43,719 --> 00:52:48,319
Speaker 1: electrical outlet. You could even use a Skype system to

823
00:52:48,480 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 1: call an expert who can then view your point of

824
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:56,799
Speaker 1: view and interact with that point of view. So let's

825
00:52:56,800 --> 00:53:01,200
Speaker 1: say I'm looking at the outlet the expert electrician i'm

826
00:53:01,200 --> 00:53:05,000
Speaker 1: talking to can see what I see, and he or

827
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:09,640
Speaker 1: she can also make notes on the display, which shows

828
00:53:09,719 --> 00:53:12,600
Speaker 1: up in my field of view. So he or she

829
00:53:12,680 --> 00:53:15,640
Speaker 1: might circle a specific wire and say you need to

830
00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:18,040
Speaker 1: you need to remove that one first, and I know

831
00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:20,200
Speaker 1: I need to do that one first because I can

832
00:53:20,239 --> 00:53:22,319
Speaker 1: see which one they are talking about. Or they might

833
00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:26,400
Speaker 1: circle another wire and say, no, matter what you do,

834
00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:32,279
Speaker 1: don't cut this wire, or the toilet upstairs will explode

835
00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:36,120
Speaker 1: like lethal weapon two. And I won't do that because

836
00:53:36,840 --> 00:53:39,880
Speaker 1: you know that guy's like three days from retirement. So

837
00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:43,480
Speaker 1: I have a heart. But no, this is this is

838
00:53:43,520 --> 00:53:48,440
Speaker 1: a really neat idea, having this interactive ability to overlay

839
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:51,799
Speaker 1: the information from the world, the digital world, onto your

840
00:53:51,800 --> 00:53:54,640
Speaker 1: physical world. And beyond that, the HoloLens has lots of

841
00:53:54,680 --> 00:53:58,319
Speaker 1: other functions. It's not just something to do, you know,

842
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:01,400
Speaker 1: home repairs around the house. Else. You can also use

843
00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:05,440
Speaker 1: it for entertainment purposes, like you could create a screen

844
00:54:05,719 --> 00:54:09,640
Speaker 1: that can show you video from various sources and you

845
00:54:09,680 --> 00:54:14,120
Speaker 1: can assign it a place on a wall in your environment.

846
00:54:14,200 --> 00:54:17,879
Speaker 1: Let's say that you're in your living room and you

847
00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:20,640
Speaker 1: just create a screen so you can watch Netflix and

848
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:23,720
Speaker 1: you slap it on a wall, and it will stay

849
00:54:24,120 --> 00:54:27,040
Speaker 1: in that same position relative to your point of view.

850
00:54:27,320 --> 00:54:29,080
Speaker 1: So if you look to the left or right, the

851
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:32,319
Speaker 1: screen stays where you put it, as if it were

852
00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:34,960
Speaker 1: physically there on your wall. But keep in mind it's

853
00:54:35,120 --> 00:54:38,080
Speaker 1: just a virtual screen, and when you look back to

854
00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:40,640
Speaker 1: that part of your wall, you'll see the virtual screen

855
00:54:40,680 --> 00:54:43,000
Speaker 1: there playing whatever it was that you wanted to watch.

856
00:54:44,320 --> 00:54:46,560
Speaker 1: I think that's a super cool idea. And they've also

857
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:50,600
Speaker 1: shown off games like a game of Minecraft that uses

858
00:54:50,640 --> 00:54:53,600
Speaker 1: hollowle in so you can actually view a Minecraft world

859
00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:57,480
Speaker 1: sitting appearing to sit at any rate on top of

860
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:00,759
Speaker 1: a table, so you can walk around the table and

861
00:55:00,880 --> 00:55:04,439
Speaker 1: view the Minecraft world from various angles and play that way.

862
00:55:05,239 --> 00:55:08,319
Speaker 1: I think that's super neat. Don't know how compelling it is,

863
00:55:08,360 --> 00:55:11,320
Speaker 1: because again I haven't tried it myself, but I really

864
00:55:11,440 --> 00:55:16,720
Speaker 1: like the idea. This year, twenty sixteen, AR got another

865
00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:20,960
Speaker 1: big boost from a little game called Pokemon Go. Although

866
00:55:21,120 --> 00:55:24,360
Speaker 1: I have to admit this was a really primitive, basic

867
00:55:24,520 --> 00:55:28,680
Speaker 1: implementation of augmented reality. Really, it was not much more

868
00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:31,200
Speaker 1: than just a In fact, it was nothing more than

869
00:55:31,280 --> 00:55:34,439
Speaker 1: just an animated overlay that would exist on top of

870
00:55:34,480 --> 00:55:38,799
Speaker 1: the camera view of of your device. So I'd say

871
00:55:38,840 --> 00:55:41,879
Speaker 1: I'm holding up my smartphone and I'm trying to catch

872
00:55:41,880 --> 00:55:45,560
Speaker 1: a Jigglypuff and the jigglypuff is currently bouncing up and

873
00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:48,799
Speaker 1: down on the sidewalk in front of me. That's about

874
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:52,040
Speaker 1: as far as the augmented reality actual experience would go.

875
00:55:52,320 --> 00:55:56,840
Speaker 1: So very primitive. But because Pokemon Go became so popular

876
00:55:56,960 --> 00:56:01,799
Speaker 1: so quickly, it really pushed the concept of AR to

877
00:56:01,880 --> 00:56:05,680
Speaker 1: the front of the minds of people everywhere, including business

878
00:56:05,719 --> 00:56:09,080
Speaker 1: owners who immediately said, we need an augmented reality app.

879
00:56:09,880 --> 00:56:12,880
Speaker 1: Whether they actually needed one or not is beside the point.

880
00:56:13,280 --> 00:56:16,120
Speaker 1: A lot of people got into AR because of Pokemon Go,

881
00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:20,080
Speaker 1: for both good and bad. I always think that you

882
00:56:20,120 --> 00:56:22,319
Speaker 1: have to come up with the experience first. You have

883
00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:27,440
Speaker 1: to understand why you need to use a specific strategy

884
00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:33,040
Speaker 1: to create a specific experience, and then build it. Not hey,

885
00:56:33,440 --> 00:56:38,040
Speaker 1: we need to augmented reality. Make something that's AR. To me,

886
00:56:38,120 --> 00:56:41,160
Speaker 1: that's the backwards way of going about it. But what

887
00:56:41,239 --> 00:56:44,480
Speaker 1: do I know, not a programmer, So I'm sure the

888
00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:47,960
Speaker 1: programmers feel in a similar way to me, But that's

889
00:56:48,040 --> 00:56:51,960
Speaker 1: just a guess. Now, the future of AR depends heavily

890
00:56:52,040 --> 00:56:55,080
Speaker 1: upon the applications we see in which ones end up

891
00:56:55,080 --> 00:56:58,439
Speaker 1: being successful and which ones aren't. Right now, I would

892
00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:01,160
Speaker 1: say that the best bet is to see more AR

893
00:57:01,360 --> 00:57:06,640
Speaker 1: features built into smartphones and tablets, maybe not necessarily built

894
00:57:06,640 --> 00:57:10,839
Speaker 1: into them, but have apps available that create AR experiences

895
00:57:10,880 --> 00:57:15,160
Speaker 1: for very specific contexts, like let's say it's a museum app.

896
00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:18,160
Speaker 1: You might download a museum app on your phone, and

897
00:57:18,200 --> 00:57:20,600
Speaker 1: when you go to the museum and you use your phone,

898
00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:23,920
Speaker 1: you can get more information about the paintings and sculptures

899
00:57:23,960 --> 00:57:26,880
Speaker 1: and other installations that you see in the museum. That's

900
00:57:26,920 --> 00:57:29,919
Speaker 1: an easy one to understand. But that same app isn't

901
00:57:29,960 --> 00:57:32,280
Speaker 1: going to be useful once you leave the museum, you

902
00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:35,600
Speaker 1: no longer have the context that it is tied to.

903
00:57:36,440 --> 00:57:39,000
Speaker 1: I think that smartphones are probably going to be where

904
00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:41,800
Speaker 1: the greatest development is going to be in the near term,

905
00:57:42,200 --> 00:57:46,280
Speaker 1: because wearables is still really hard to do. We still

906
00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:49,680
Speaker 1: don't have a consumer version of the HoloLens out available

907
00:57:49,720 --> 00:57:53,000
Speaker 1: for anyone to purchase, and it may never come out

908
00:57:53,040 --> 00:57:55,920
Speaker 1: as a consumer product. Microsoft hasn't shown a whole lot

909
00:57:55,960 --> 00:57:58,720
Speaker 1: of interest in making it a consumer product. Maybe that

910
00:57:58,800 --> 00:58:01,360
Speaker 1: will change, but at the moment, I wouldn't hold my

911
00:58:01,400 --> 00:58:06,080
Speaker 1: breath so I would argue smartphones and tablets are pretty

912
00:58:06,160 --> 00:58:10,000
Speaker 1: much where it's at. Maybe some implementation with some existing

913
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:14,000
Speaker 1: VR headsets which have external cameras mounted on them as well,

914
00:58:14,120 --> 00:58:17,760
Speaker 1: like forward facing cameras, you could build ar experiences there.

915
00:58:17,920 --> 00:58:20,440
Speaker 1: Then it gets a little weird because you're also you know,

916
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:23,000
Speaker 1: you're looking at a monitor, so you're looking at a

917
00:58:23,080 --> 00:58:25,520
Speaker 1: video feed of your surroundings, and on top of the

918
00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:27,880
Speaker 1: video feed you get the overlay. Same thing is true

919
00:58:27,880 --> 00:58:30,880
Speaker 1: for your smartphones and tablets, by the way, but different

920
00:58:30,960 --> 00:58:34,120
Speaker 1: that from the Google Glass implementation, where you're looking at

921
00:58:34,160 --> 00:58:37,080
Speaker 1: the actual physical world, not a video representation of it,

922
00:58:37,640 --> 00:58:41,000
Speaker 1: but the real world. And then, because the display itself

923
00:58:41,040 --> 00:58:43,880
Speaker 1: that you are looking through is transparent, you're looking at

924
00:58:43,880 --> 00:58:47,800
Speaker 1: a transparent overlay of digital information that gives you more

925
00:58:48,400 --> 00:58:51,400
Speaker 1: info about the world you are in. I hope you

926
00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:55,360
Speaker 1: enjoyed that classic episode from twenty sixteen, Augmenting your Reality.

927
00:58:55,800 --> 00:59:00,840
Speaker 1: I've had a lot of experience using various augmented real apps,

928
00:59:01,480 --> 00:59:06,080
Speaker 1: and I've always found them really intriguing and interesting and

929
00:59:06,240 --> 00:59:10,760
Speaker 1: potentially really useful, but I haven't actually made use of

930
00:59:10,840 --> 00:59:16,439
Speaker 1: one that I felt was, you know, really necessary or

931
00:59:16,960 --> 00:59:19,640
Speaker 1: added a whole lot of value to whatever the experience was.

932
00:59:19,800 --> 00:59:24,360
Speaker 1: I could see the potential, but it just didn't quite click.

933
00:59:24,720 --> 00:59:27,360
Speaker 1: And it may very well be that's because I'm using

934
00:59:27,840 --> 00:59:31,880
Speaker 1: the wrong equipment and probably the wrong apps. But I

935
00:59:31,960 --> 00:59:37,480
Speaker 1: definitely see the potential for AR. I just haven't experienced

936
00:59:37,520 --> 00:59:41,000
Speaker 1: it being really transformational. I hope that actually changes, because

937
00:59:41,000 --> 00:59:43,800
Speaker 1: I really do think this is a technology that could

938
00:59:43,800 --> 00:59:47,360
Speaker 1: potentially do a lot of good in a lot of

939
00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:51,479
Speaker 1: different applications. That's it for this classic episode. I hope

940
00:59:51,520 --> 00:59:53,880
Speaker 1: you are all well, and I'll talk to you again

941
00:59:54,640 --> 01:00:04,640
Speaker 1: really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more

942
01:00:04,720 --> 01:00:09,440
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

943
01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:11,400
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.