With a launch date of early next year for the sleek, low profile ‘Google Glass’ frame and a price tag of around AUD$1,500, Augmented Reality (AR) eyewear will soon become our reality.
Apple and Olympus are a couple who have patents in place and concepts under development as does Explore Engage, software and hardware development gurus from Australia.
AR eyewear has managed to creep – or rather leap – its way from the pages of Stan Lee into the real world.
32 per cent said ‘yes we’ll buy it’, 36 per cent said ‘as long as there’s good use for it we’ll buy it
We first saw it used in Marvel comics, then the Terminator movies, 3D movies and gaming, architectural software, and so it went on.
As the American film producer, special effects director and inventor Douglas Trumbull has said of the 3D movies he’s created, it’s about creating a “direct first-person experience where each audience member feels that they are inside the movie — participating IN the movie, not just looking AT the movie”.
This is the experience creators of AR aim to create. The big push for this technology has come from advertisers and marketers looking for that next sensory buzz to create a point of difference within a cluttered market – looking to capture the consumer dollar any time, day or night.
And, they’re succeeding, aren’t they?! Now, using our tablets, laptops, desktops or a shop kiosk, we can virtually try on outfits, accessories and glasses, then place an order. A new concept can be sold to us in detail, using a printed 2D poster or graphic that springs to life when viewed through any ‘iDevice’, android or smartphone.
Sydney based AR software and hardware developer Explore Engage recently completed a project on behalf of the Federal Government for the Melbourne Open Home Festival. Its aim was to demonstrate the physical changes that NBN will make to the ‘home of the future’.
Scott O’Brien, CEO Explore Engage, showed me printed 2D NBN plans that were sitting on his desk. He then placed his iPad over the print to show me what happens when the print and the camera of an iPad converge with AR software. The 2D floor plan instantly ‘grew’ into a 3D structure with virtual control buttons superimposed on top. I touched the buttons on the iPad screen and more perspectives of the floor plan came into view. Then I put my hand under the iPad to move the original 2D print. I could see my hand, moving the print, on the iPad screen. It was extraordinary.
That, Mr. O’Brien explained, is exactly what we’ll be able to see and do with true augmented reality eyewear, only we won’t need our hands to hold the AR device and the images will be projected directly on to the back of our lenses.
A report by US based Semico Research Corporation, described Augmented Reality as “a disruptive technology that is going to influence almost every aspect of our technological life. It is still in its infancy and is often looked upon as gimmicky or promotional, but it is going to drive innovation within the gaming, medical, mobile, automotive, and manufacturing markets.”
The Corporation forecasts that revenues related to augmented reality technology will approach USD$600 billion by 2016.
“We’re at a time when technology is accelerating so quickly it’s hard to keep up. QR codes, NFC codes, AR tags, every day there is something new. But AR isn’t just a new fad that will only impact marketing firms,” said Michell Prunty, Consumer Analyst.
“It’s a new way to see and interact with technology that everyone should be aware of. There is going to be an increased need for new software platforms, video and audio processors, NAND, and mobile DRAM. If you’re developing for the consumer or automotive industries, you must be involved with this market early on.”1
Project Glass
When Google recently launched its concept for augmented reality with a series of video presentations, ‘Project Glass’ made the headlines around the world and created mass awareness of the potential for this new technology.
In one of its video presentations, sky divers leap from a plane and, as they organise their parachutes, capture their descent with their Google Glasses. The footage is relayed, in real time, to earth.
In another, a man uses his Google Glasses to find his way to meet up with a friend in an unknown district while checking the likelihood of rain, creating a reminder to book tickets to a concert and avoiding a ‘suspended subway service’. He gets to the destination then pinpoints his friend’s exact location. All this thanks to the information projected on to the back of one lens of his Google glasses, just at the top of his line of sight. Later, having learned to play the ukelele in a day, he climbs to the top of a tower block then relays the sunset – in real time while playing the said uke – to his girlfriend who sits in an office elsewhere in the sprawling US city. Phew, are you exhausted already? 2013 is looking pretty interesting… or is it?
Mr. O’Brien from Explore Engage says the technology behind the currently exhibited Google Glass does not make it true augmented reality eyewear. “Google Glass is exciting and it’s great that Google is building blanket awareness of the technology among consumers but the current technology is not as developed as the initial hype proposes. Many of the features they promoted will not necessarily be rolled out in the first generation of the product, so it is not in essence true augmented reality eyewear.
“What Google is doing is providing a video micro display with icons, alerts or arrows that float at the top of a user’s field of vision,” said Mr. O’Brien.
Blair McIntyre, director of the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology in the US agrees.
“AR is about putting content out in the world, virtually attaching it to the objects, people and places around you. You could not do AR with a display like this (the small field of view, and placement off the side, would result in an experience where the content is rarely on the display and hard to discover and interact with)… This is not a criticism, but we still have a long way to go before someone creates a cheap, potentially usable set of augmented reality glasses”.
To achieve true augmented reality eyewear, Mr. O’Brien says, it requires more componentry which necessitates a more sizeable, less sleek pair of glasses than the ones Google has used.
“The glasses we have developed really are capable of delivering the experiences Google promoted in its launch video – we can get glasses talking to other glasses, to mobile phones and inanimate objects. We’ve got to the point where our graphics are very believable and they keep up when a wearer moves his or her head.
“But to achieve this, we’ve had to maintain a fatter profile. Some people won’t be in to this, but some – those who are less concerned by what they look like than the experience they get – will love them.”
He said initial users of AR glasses are likely to be in the aeronautics, mining, competitive sport and entertainment industries as well as the health sector.
Embracing Opportunities
Already Explore Engage is working with the President of Neuroscience Australia to develop a software application to work in conjunction with its AR glasses to help people with Parkinsons Disease exercise. “People with Parkinsons will be able to wear our glasses to visualise a line in front of them that initiates gait,” said Mr. O’Brien.
It may sound simple to create an augmented line but in reality, Mr. O’Brien says it’s a real achievement. “To develop a simple virtual line we need to determine the position of the wearer’s head in relation to their feet and to enable the componentry to understand gravity and the horizon as well as head and body movements. The line needs to remain realistic and stable as the wearer moves. So there are game mechanics, elements of optics, elements of magic and psychology involved.”
Mr. O’Brien said the opportunities for augmented reality eyewear to assist people with vision impairment are extremely promising. “Using our 3D camera and componentry, our AR glasses can alert people with vision impairment of oncoming traffic, a pot hole in the footpath or a pedestrian crossing for instance. And depending on the application, those alerts could be provided via audio or large virtual lettering.”
He said Explore Engage is enthusiastic to work with companies to develop the technology to specifically meet their needs.
Concerns Fading
One of the concerns people have had with the concept of AR eyewear is that alert messages, information or visuals overlaid on the real world will confuse the eye, obstruct clear vision and distract concentration.
“People use to think they’d be so consumed with the virtual images in front of them that they’d walk into poles or into oncoming traffic but I think they’re now coming to terms with the fact that AR images are not intrusive,” said Mr. O’Brien. “It’s much like the Heads Up Display of a BMW 5 Series that provides real time information on speeds, fuel efficiency, directions and so on.”
I’d have to vouch for that. I tried Explore Engage’s concept glasses on and although at this point, they were only enabled to demonstrate virtual alerts, I could see they would present no problem in terms of obstructing view.
Impressively, as I moved my head, the alert stayed with me and didn’t distort. Neither did the vision hurt my eyes.
Mr. O’Brien said his company’s technology has come a long way in the past 24 months. “One of the key issues we’ve overcome is the problem of latency so now, as the wearer moves around, the virtual image is maintained in its ‘true’ perspective within space. By being able to track head movements within millimetres, we’ve created a more seamless digital experience for the wearer,” he said.
Additionally, virtual images, which once appeared washed out now appear more solid in colour and therefore more believable because Explore Engage can now manage the light entering the lenses to a greater degree.
And, where once the glasses needed to grab on to a reference in the real world to determine the wearer’s current position, the latest componentry enables the glasses to know precisely where the wearer is standing.
A Ready Market
Futurist Craig Rispin says there’s a ready market for AR eyewear. “People right now are demanding it. Walk down the street and all you see are people staring down at their iPhones – we refer to them as iPhone zombies – they can’t bare to be
disconnected from their friends and the digital world around them.
“It’s just the way people communicate these days. I have friends who won’t organise anything without Facebook. They won’t use phone, email or text to arrange to meet up at the pub. And when I ask them why, they tell me it’s because Facebook lets them see who else is going, and where everyone is. Phones and email, they say, are old fashioned.”
Mr. Rispin said AR eyewear will be the perfect tool for social media because it’s hands free and always there, right in front of your eyes. “Which makes it safer,” he said.
“Smart phones are a safety hazard. 13,000 people are hit by vehicles in Sydney every year, because they’re glued to their smart phones. I witnessed a guy who was almost struck by a bus the other day. We were at a major intersection and he had his headphones in. He heard a pedestrian crossing signal so he walked – but the signal wasn’t for the road he was on. Someone pulled him back. He had no idea.”
Research by Mashable reinforces Mr. Rispin’s belief. In a recent survey of 20,000 social media savvy individuals, Mashable showed Google Glass and asked how likely they were to adopt the technology.
Approximately 32 per cent said ‘yes we’ll buy it’, 36 per cent said ‘as long as there’s good use for it we’ll buy it’, and another 12 per cent said the decision would ‘depend on the price’.
Mr. O’Brien said older members of the population will also adopt the technology quickly.
“If you look back into recent history there’s been a clear evolution in the way we use computers – we’ve moved from the large screen with the hard drive, to the laptop to the iPad and smart phone. Screens are getting smaller, images are moving closer to the eye and content is becoming more personalised. With these trends people are naturally moving toward the concept of using smart glasses.
“A lot of people are spatial, and some baby boomers in particular, still find it hard to navigate the square concept of data displayed on a PC. I believe they’ll adapt to AR glasses more easily because the data is more contextually relevant – it’s the difference between having data or concepts presented to you on a flat screen and having them presented in situ.”
The Race is On
According to Wired.com, Google recently filed a patent application that revealed the organisation is looking to employ voice recognition and hand-tracking techniques through cameras. Additionally, it’s exploring low-level artificial intelligence that will automate some of the Glass navigation mechanisms currently adjusted with a small touchpad on the temple,
Apple’s latest patented idea doesn’t reveal much of its styling although, being Apple, it’s a given that its final result will be supremely elegant. The patent identifies that the company is working on a single lens fitted over one eye, similar to that of the Google Glass project. Olympus too is working on a lightweight frame with
a display over one eye.
Vuzix, in conjunction with Nokia Corporation, has developed its own Smart Glasses Technology and has concepts for both monocular and binocular displays.
Like Explore Engage’s glasses, Vuzix Smart Glasses are designed to work with other smart devices that are typically connected to the internet. They’re interactive and merge virtual information with the real world and can be used at night or outdoors in full daylight.
Vuzix’s concept for binocular Smart Glasses, which the company is developing for the consumer market, is bulkier than Google Glass but more streamlined than the concept Explore Engage showed me. In fact, they pretty much look like a standard wrap frame yet, the company claims, it has the capacity to carry all the componentry required for a full AR experience.
The glasses for commercial and industrial purposes were due to market as we went to print.
Other Potentials
Mr. Rispin predicts that AR is just one of two major trends we’ll see in the eyewear industry over the coming years. The other is the use of new materials like plastic and a hybrid of plastic and glass merging with technology. “New materials, such as Corning’s intelligent glass and emPower’s electronically adjustable lenses will have a massive impact on the optical industry’s future,” he said.
Corning Glass Technologies produced a film last year titled A Day Made of Glass. It depicts a world in which interactive glass surfaces – glass wardrobes, interior walls, desks, cook tops, fridges, car windows and more – all enable people to connect through seamless delivery of real-time information – whether they’re waking up for the day, at work, shopping, dining out (or in) or relaxing. That world may not be too far away.
On the company’s website, Jim Clappin, President of Corning Technology said the “world is being created as we speak… The consumer trend driving our vision for tomorrow is very clear. We all want to be connected with what we want, when we want, anywhere… and with great ease”.
Mr. Rispin described Corning’s intelligent glass as “amazing” but he said, “so too are the electronic focusing lenses developed by the American company emPower”.
Each of the lenses in emPower frames has a virtually invisible layer of liquid crystals that can automatically or manually adjust as the wearer’s vision needs change. In Manual mode, a touch of the temple triggers the near-focus zone, while another touch turns it off. A swipe of the temple – as if you’re swiping an iPhone – activates the Automatic mode, which in turn activates an accelerometer so the electronic reading zone turns on and off according to head movement. emPower claims the glasses are the most important innovation in eyewear in 50 years and the next big step on from progressive lenses.
“We need to look at the trends, see what’s happening just over the horizon, then project different scenarios that could possibly take our businesses forward into the future,” says Mr. Rispin.
Look to the past and you’ll realise he’s making perfect sense. Remember Douglas Adam’s book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to
the Galaxy?
“I used to read it when I was a boy and I remember it talked about the future and a tablet that would contain information about all the galaxies – you’d be able to find out everything you wanted. Well it’s here – and it’s an iPad. Steve Jobs read that book too, and he wanted to create the future that Adams helped us to imagine – he did it!”
For those who now live their lives attached to an iPad or an iPhone it’s hard to imagine a world without ‘smart’ technology. Explore Engage’s Scott O’Brien predicts that’s how we’ll look at AR eyewear in five years time.
“We used to generate work without computers, shop without the internet, meet up with friends without the aid of a mobile phone, arrive at a party without directions from a Navman and these days we wonder how we did it.
“In five years I predict we’ll be wondering how we ever operated without the benefit of augmented vision as our reality.”
Reference
1. http://semico.com/studies/category.asp?id=14#1474