Netease Technology News June 21 news, foreign media, Fast Company, wrote that from Facebook to Google, to Snapchat, various technology companies are actively competing in the augmented reality market, the future will be the era of augmented reality, the only problem now It is in how we will enter that era.
The following is the main content of the article:
"If you have the same gains today," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the annual F8 Developer Conference on Facebook in April. "That's it: we are changing the smartphone camera." Become the first augmented reality platform."
Facebook has begun adding camera effects to its applications, allowing users to overlay objects, animations, and filters on their photos - yes, apparently copied from Snapchat's popular AR filter feature. By creating a brand new open platform that allows developers to create their own special effects, artistic effects and 3D games, Facebook bet that they will be able to become the platform of choice for the AR experience and present third-party applications in their applications like WeChat.
After years of silence, the augmented reality boom is gradually heating up. In addition to Facebook’s Augmented Reality ambitions (and a future wearable device), Google’s four-year history of Google Glass, Microsoft’s HoloLens, and Magic Leap’s mystery products, which have received huge amounts of funding, are also inbound. The legendary Apple AR product. According to market research firm CB Insights, 49 companies have reached equity financing transactions since the spring of last year – an increase of 75% over the previous 12 months.
These companies are all trying to dominate the future: the boundaries between the physical world of the future and the digital world will become increasingly blurred, and you don’t even need a keyboard or touch screen to control them. "Augmented reality is the next mobile computer, the next operating system, and the next social platform." Ori Inbar, founder of venture capital firm Super Ventures in the field of AR, said: "Smart phones are dead; just people I haven't realized this yet."
Is this true? What will AR evolve into in the future? Below we read from three aspects:
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Our mobile phone will become an entrance (for the time being)
For a very large part of the past decade, developers have been promising to use smart phone cameras to give us a better perspective of the world. In 2009, the consumer review site Yelp introduced the Monocle function, which allows users to view people’s appraisal of local businesses through camera shots; this has led to a large number of similar applications, but none has achieved significant results. Monocle is widely welcomed by millennials, and the technology has thus entered the mainstream of the market. In September 2015, Snapchat's highly addictive self-portrait filter was born. In August last year, Pokémon Go downloaded 100 million times. People all over the world took their smart phones out of the ground and went around to capture the elf.
Replacing your nose with a dog's nose on a photo, or capturing a sprite that moves outside your favorite coffee shop, may seem boring, but it can actually have a profound effect - a very smart one. Attract consumers to approach augmented reality. With its sponsorship lens, Snapchat now has a promising advertising platform. This function can be limited to a specific place. Pokémon Go developer Niantic has created a popular game popular around the world. It is estimated that Pokémon Go’s revenue reaches more than US$1 billion. Currently, developers are scrambling to build the next heavy AR application - from multiplayer games to more practical applications such as interactive travel guides and shopping assistants. Their success may ultimately depend on one of the key elements revealed by Snapchat and Niantic: based on advanced location intelligence technology, providing a social interaction experience.
At the same time, smart phones are becoming more advanced. Since 2014, Google has been working on the development of the Tango platform with the goal of bringing spatial awareness to mobile devices. At the end of last year, Lenovo introduced Phab 2 Pro, the first $500 smartphone that supports Tango. The phone uses multiple cameras and advanced motion tracking sensors to create 3D maps based on 2D images. Shoot your living room with Phab 2 Pro's camera, and Tango will know that the lamp is placed six feet to the left of the sofa. Then, you can use the e-commerce giant Wayfair through Tango-optimized applications to see what effect a (virtual) coffee table would be placed between a sofa and a light fixture. Lowe's, a home improvement store chain, also has a similar application, as well as an app that allows customers to visit its stores via a mobile phone camera.
Such projects are still in the early stages of development, and the implementation of those involved is not very good. Lenovo embraced Tango's Phab 2 Pro, more of a proof of concept product than a groundbreaking one. However, this situation may soon change. The second ASUS ZenFone AR smartphone supporting Tango will enter the market this summer. In addition, there are rumors that the upcoming iPhone 8 will also be equipped with a depth sensing camera to support AR applications. It should be pointed out that for new technologies, Apple usually waits until it is mature (that is, consumers are ready) before integrating it into its flagship products. "Once the iPhone has that type of camera," Inbar pointed out, "it will become the industry's default standard."
Wearable AR equipment will be better applied in the workplace
Although Snapchat and Pokémon Go have achieved a lot of success, no one would think that AR's future includes letting people look at smart phones while chasing elvens.
That's because the phone is a less than ideal operator interface. “For example, you walk into a supermarket that supports augmented reality,†said Tuong Nguyen, chief analyst at market research firm Gartner. “How many times are you willing to take out a mobile phone when you shop in the supermarket? How long does it take?†He added that the biggest obstacle to the development of AR is, “It needs to be embedded in the glasses I already wear.â€
Today, from the glasses that can display 3D images to Daqri's $20,000 industrial helmet, there are about 50 AR equipment in production. However, for the majority of consumers, there is no one that is small enough, cheap and beautiful. So in the next few years, AR equipment will mainly appear in the working environment. In this scenario, their cost and appearance are not so important. According to estimates by ABI Research, the AR market will grow to US$96 billion by 2021, and industrial and commercial products will account for 60% of them.
For example, Google Glass found a home in the factory floor after failing to win the favor of consumers. Boeing uses Google Glass to display technical parameters for workers installing electronic harnesses for aircraft, so that they do not have to free up hands to view relevant information. (When you can reduce the assembly time by 25%, no one will call you Glasshole.) Not only Google Glass was used in the workflow: Medical technology startup Scopis created a HoloLens application to guide surgeons to perform spine surgery . At the Mortenson Construction Company in Minneapolis, the contractor can wear a Daqri Smart Helmet smart helmet to visit a 3D model of a hospital that is under construction to see where the plumbing installation will go, although it is not yet in place.
Extensive industrial applications will not only change the way we work, it will also inspire future consumer products. Just as industrial workers use AR to obtain remote assistance while performing complex operations, future homeowners who want to remodel their bathrooms may use a pair of glasses to enter the virtual world and research the effect of the bathroom renovation in advance.
AR will be everywhere
At the same time, AR will continue to appear on a variety of everyday devices. If your car's rear camera shows a curved red line when you are about to hit the trees when you are reversing, you are using AR. The skin care beauty cosmetic brand Sephora is launching smart mirrors in its stores to allow customers to conduct virtual makeup tests. Neiman Marcus, a high-end department store in the United States, is also launching a smart mirror that allows customers to change the color of the clothes they try on or try prescription glasses. Just as the "adaptive cruise control" and "lane change assist" functions are leading us to fully automated driving cars, AR will also gradually infiltrate all aspects of our daily lives.
From Specscles eyeglasses that Snapchat supports video capture and wireless headphones such as Apple AirPods, amplification capabilities may also further penetrate into inexpensive wearable products. Doppler Labs has launched the Here One smart headset, which allows you to boost specific frequencies and filter out other frequencies—enhancing your listening realities. According to Noah Kraft, the company’s CEO, AR will exist in your ears in a natural way. "For example, when you walk down the street, suddenly Siri will appear in your ear and tell you, 'Hey, you're 15 minutes late for your next meeting.'" He said, "In our In the world, that will not interfere with what is happening around you."
However, it is still a very difficult task to bring advanced and reliable industrial applications to a device that seamlessly integrates into our daily lives. The technical challenge is huge, and it is not clear whether the public will embrace another wearable product (also do not know whether the matching content is good enough and whether it can attract them to use). However, Apple is said to be struggling to develop in this direction, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many other companies.
For technology companies, getting involved in the AR market may be a matter of life or death. According to Piers Harding-Rolls, head of game research at IHS Technology, a London-based market research company, just as the Internet and mobilization trends have completely changed the landscape of the technology industry, AR has the potential to generate new giants and will The old giant pulled down the horse.
In other words, the future will be the era of augmented reality. But when this happens, we may not notice it. (Lebang)