Augmented is set to be the innovation that will take center stage in both our personal lives and working lives in the future. But where do smartphones fit in this brand new virtual landscape? As the industry continues to grow into the world of entertainment and consumerism, we’re gaining greater insights into just how AR will shape our lives, and how the innovations it will bring will be powered by smartphones.
Reality technology and smartphones have developed an uneasy relationship over the years. We perceive AR as an experience that’s optimized through smart headwear to generate a more immersive and engaging experience for the wearer.
This has led to questions as to whether AR will ultimately retire the smartphone. After all, if you can browse the web, make calls, and communicate with friends and colleagues all within your field of vision, what use is a smartphone?
However, today the smartphone appears to be thriving in the age of augmented reality, and has utilized the technology to bring users cutting-edge experiences on their handsets. The future looks pretty promising for both smartphones and AR too, with more innovative experiences on the way for users to enjoy.
Augmented Reality will be a Major Disruptive Force
The immersive qualities of augmented reality will greatly improve the experience in the field of gaming and far beyond over the coming years, with a wide range of possibilities for the development of new applications utilizing AR technology.
Fundamentally, augmented reality has the power to make existing processes considerably more efficient while mitigating instances of human error.
For instance, in the manufacturing industry, augmented reality programs can digitally overlay instructions to assemble complex equipment, or display a list of potential troubleshooting issues associated with the machinery that you’re looking at. When operating machinery, augmented reality can share your field of view with senior personnel who can visually guide you by adding indicators onto your augmented display.
The utility of holograms as a means of conveying complex information in bitesize chunks means that technicians can always have the most important information available to them to follow as and when required–all with AR working alongside artificial intelligence to understand when to display the relevant information and how.
Augmented Consumerism
Although we may best know smartphone AR as the filters that we can add to images or apps like Pokemon Go, the technology is already transforming eCommerce shopping on handsets.
Thanks to artificial intelligence, our smartphone cameras are the perfect tool for AR programs. Our cameras are capable of understanding what’s in front of them, and are capable of delivering essential information surrounding any given object.
According to Jennifer Liu, director of product management at Google, this is significantly changing how search engine queries are processed. “Search isn’t just about the same old text input, website-suggestions output anymore,” Liu suggests.
Google has understood this changing sentiment towards searches. After all, many of our queries arise from something we’ve seen or another form of visual trigger. For instance, if we’re interested in a coat worn by a friend, it can be tricky to describe in a way that a search engine would understand–but with programs like Google Lens, it’s possible to identify the item visually. Google Lens would then overlay relevant information about the item and even offer shopping or styling recommendations to boot.
This, accompanied by virtual try-ons, is the future of shopping. As the world becomes increasingly remote, our traditional brick and mortar experiences will be replicated by augmented reality.
(Image: Sifted)
As Sifted data shows, there’s already a market for users willing to shop via augmented reality, and the volume of users willing to virtually try on goods is only likely to increase as acceptance grows around the world.
Furthermore, the emergence of 5G connectivity, and the rise of more competitively priced 5G smartphones is likely to make augmented reality usage more effective, with faster data speeds paving the way for a faster, more seamless experience.
Roots in the World of Gaming
As with many emerging technologies, we’ll see the latest evolutionary steps for augmented reality take place in the field of gaming.
Games like Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite may be early iterations of AR gaming, the future appears to be exciting for the augmented video games market as the technology continues to grow.
One iteration of smartphone AR gaming, Knightfall, offers an immersive experience based around a 3D tower defense strategy game that can take place on your living room table, or any other real world location in-view of a smartphone camera.
As the technology grows, these augmented reality games will become more impactful, and the experiences they offer will be richer and more immersive.
For the coming years at least, smartphones will be the gateway to augmented reality acceptance and adoption among millions of users. Whether they’ll pave the way for a future built around mixed reality headsets remains to be seen, but for now, AR and smartphones have formed a symbiotic relationship that’s aiding both technologies to evolve and improve.
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