While most people know what virtual reality is, augmented reality is still a fairly new technological concept. The best example of augmented reality is a game that many people play on their smartphones called “Pokémon Go.” This game is a great illustration of augmented reality, and the easiest way to describe the technology.
Simply speaking, “Pokémon Go” requires the collection of characters that are “present” in different geographical locations. A user opens the app on their phone, and they are able to see a Pokémon character on their phone screen, that’s “present” in their current location. It could be in an office, on a restaurant table, on the street corner, in a park, or anywhere the game makers have geographically “placed” a character for someone to find and collect digitally.
The fact that these characters are “present,” as in someone can see them on their phone screen based on the location they’re in, but not present, as in physically the character is not actually there, is representative of augmented reality, or AR.
Augmented reality is not a falsified reality, like virtual reality, but it is a way of simply enhancing, or adding to the reality that is already there around us with added digital images, graphics, sound or even videos. There isn’t an entire “Pokémon Go” world around the user, but they can see the character through their phone screen when they have the phone app open. In other words, a person’s reality is slightly changed.
Now knowing what AR is, what are some simple ways this technology can be used?
AR can be used for gaming, as discussed above with “Pokémon Go,” it can also be used in sales and marketing of various products and even enhancing GPS.
- Gaming becomes a more physically interactive experience with AR. With “Pokémon Go” instead of sitting at home playing video games on a television for hours at a time, children and adults alike are now exploring their neighborhoods, going to beaches or parks and seeing what characters they can collect in the outside world. AR takes the idea of gaming and melds it with the real world. Instead of creating a false reality to be lost in, people are interacting within their reality.
- AR is going to be a great technology advancement in the sale of many products as well. Let’s take the example of furniture. Instead of measuring and guessing where the furniture in someone’s living room will go, AR could help pinpoint exactly what a room could look like while shopping for these products. Virtually placing furniture from an online shopping cart can not only help someone see various options regarding size and type of product, but can also allow a customer to see different colors and patterns they might want to purchase. AR could help greatly diminish the need for these types of showrooms while enhancing the customer’s experience by “seeing” every possible product combination offered.
- GPS can also be enhanced using AR. Let’s say someone is walking down the street with a friend in search of something to do. While looking through their phone screen at their surroundings, AR could tell a person exactly what each building and landmark is around them. Someone could hold their phone up to a series of buildings and be told there is a coffee shop, followed by a clothing store, a museum of art, a set of offices and a nice restaurant that’s located inside a hotel. Not only would someone know generally what’s around them, but they would be looking at the exact building through their phone screen and be told specifically what the business is.
This is only a simple explanation of AR and a few ideas of how AR can be used. The technology of augmented reality is fairly new and different adaptations and applications are being discovered every day as the technology becomes more widely used.
