Is AR Eyewear Ready For Consumers? Are Consumers Ready For AR Eyewear?

DooKey

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Ari Grobman, at Techcrunch, asks whether or not consumers are ready for AR eyewear and if the technology is ready yet. Industry thinks AR is going to be big and Apple and Google are heading in that direction since both of them have announced release of AR tool kits to developers. However, I'm not so sure the glasses themselves are going to be ready any time soon. Furthermore, is AR going to truly be anything other than a novelty?

It’s too early to know what the new ecosystem of software and hardware designed to provide AR experiences will evolve into in the future, but it’s safe to predict that AR headsets will be part of the picture. So why is AR suddenly ready for mass consumption? And why aren’t we leaping (magically!) into AR glasses?
 
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Bet they add social networking to them so that a hacker can drop virtual elephants on the road while someone is driving.
 
I scanned that article without finding any real definition of AR, and without one it's pretty difficult to discuss. Any links to where it might be laid out more clearly?

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As an aside (related to VR, not AR), it's amusing to me that so many folks who couldn't get on board with the idea of wearing 3D glasses, either for gaming or for watching movies because they were "bulky" or "uncool" or whatever, seem to have no similar qualms about strapping a small box to their faces instead (for VR). :D

For my part, I'm of the opinion 3D glasses and spherical projection solutions offer more, provided you have the space (and can afford the outlay), but those are mostly for fixed-seating (cockpit) applications too, whereas VR can incorporate an otherwise missing physical aspect--playspace movement.

The next two items I want are a good (3D) 4K projector...or (more likely)...one of the Pimax 8K HMD's due in the next few months. I have a Pimax 4K HMD here, (trying to get hand controls working with it this week), and I can see a sense of real immersion in a similar unit, but with a FOV of 180-200 degrees or so.
 
Well, here's what's in store if we go down this road in the not too distant future:



Lucky for us, eyewear that could enable this is a few years away still.
 
I may become interested in VR/AR when the glasses are comparable to a pair of sunglasses.
 
They need to look normal. Google Glass made you look ridiculous. I saw a few kind of cool demos for it - but not enough to make me want one back in the day. Also tried out the HoloLens - it is really cool but big and bulky.
I know there are lots of Apple haters on here. Tim Cook recently commented that the technology wasn't ready yet for consumers. I'm sure Apple will move into the market when they can charge $1200 for a pay. iGlass?
 
Can't wait to walk down the street and see nothing but green paint with helpful signage slashed with promotional advertisements.

We'll need more laws governing how people walk with devices to prevent them from darwining into the streets.
 
Can't wait to walk down the street and see nothing but green paint with helpful signage slashed with promotional advertisements.

We'll need more laws governing how people walk with devices to prevent them from darwining into the streets.

It will be fine as long as they include a "Peril Sensitive Sunglasses" mode so the darwin candidates don't see the truck coming.
 
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