Emerging tech brings real and virtual worlds closer together
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“The internet and reality have a hard time working together. Thankfully, this is changing quickly,” Lee LeFever of Common Craft
explained in a video. “New tools mean the world around you can now be seen with a layer of new information from the Internet.”The video was created to introduce viewers to the concept of augmented reality.
William Hurley, Chief Technology Officer at Chaotic Moon Studios, further describes the technology as a layer of information overlaid on one of your senses. This information can be seen, for example, through the lens of your camera phone.
Whurley, as he is known in the industry, demonstrated the technology with a mobile application his company created to help people who are colorblind identify colors. Using the ColorAid application, which has yet to be released, a person runs their finger across the screen of the mobile phone and the name of the color is displayed on the left side of the screen.
The app further helps people by matching colors. They can find which articles of clothing make matching outfits and even which colors work together when they paint their home.
The uses for the technology are unlimited, especially as cell phone hardware catches up with the ideas of the innovators.
“I think ten years from now you'll probably start to see it become more pervasive, so it won't be something that we look at as such a fascinating technology; it's will be something that is just integrated into everything we do,” he said.
In designing the next wave of useful mobile applications, Whurley said he and his team often have to think about the impact of the technologies.
“When you look at situations with augmented reality, I think that the first phase of it will be people realizing there's more information out there about them and everybody they know,” he said. “It's not that the information isn't already there; it's just that there has never been such a simple way to expose it.” Click here to read more about the privacy concerns in the industry.
With so many possibilities, the future of these technologies can be shaped by consumers.
“I think consumers need to start demanding more out of the application providers,” he said. “We strive to really deliver above and beyond the expectations, but we wouldn't be able to do it without people in your audience pushing us for better and better uses of the technology that are actually more applicable in the real world.”