Note: I am no augmented/mixed realities expert, but I have a big crush on it. The musings in this post were born in a train to Amsterdam, as I looked out the endless fields speckled by some contented cows lazing in the sun. Be warned: this post contains more questions than answers.
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This last month saw AR (augmented reality) news proliferating my feeds. Some of the most popular ones:
- Cute virtual reality pets on your i-phone and kicking some zombie ass with Skittles
- AR-enabled toys as part of the Avatar film campaign and AR in your TV guide
- Project Natal’s motion- or human body-activated graphics in gaming
- Access to location of stations and Twitter neighbours
- Acces to ATM location and real estate information, and your very own AR ID
- What the ROI is of AR
And the buzz goes on. Interest in AR has spiked this year in the Netherlands and across all regons.
Being the sci-fi and lover of stories that I am makes me excited with all the advancements in augmented reality we are seeing right now. I already get giddy thinking that it will perhaps change knowledge in the same way the telescope impacted our ecosystem of learning. The telescope enabled us to view things from a distance; with augmented reality we gain access to a multitude of information within and around us.
I am also deeply fascinated by the sophistication of the medium and its impact on the creation of user experience, interaction and different forms of narratives. I wonder in which ways it will change perspectives.
Or will it?
We’re living in a time where the most prosperous societies are immersed in digital visual culture. While this immersion has given birth to new ways of seeing the world, it has also been largely transformed into what theorist and filmmaker Guy Debord would refer to as the ‘fascination for the spectacle’ that is constantly being fuelled by a commodified view of the world.
Visual seductions reinforce the public’s ‘pleasure in spectatorship’. The dominance of the visual dimension makes us more likely to see — and look — at the appearance of things, not at their underlying relationships.
If this is one significant context wherein developments in AR take root, I wonder how it will then affect our social and signifying practices. With which eyes will we view our environment, how will we assign meaning and how will we define our experiences of the world? Will augmented reality also augment our understanding of worldviews? Will it enrich meanings in our lives?
If the world becomes our interface, and yet the reality it represents is actually illusory, then what is augmented reality actually resonating, mediating and recreating?
Allow me to wax poetic: unaided and un-augmented by augmented (and virtual) reality technologies and digital technology in general, will we still be able to look deeper in the heart of a flower, tremble at the abyss of poverty, and glimpse the history of a raindrop?
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Related posts I’ve written on visual culture:
The spectacular commodification of Che
Gollum: poster-boy for the next generation
The Realism Chronicles: The hero, the tiger and the matrix
Gulf Wars
The Nightwatch
My Magic Library
I definitely think we will live deeper, richer lives with the aid of technology and augmented reality. We will be able to live multiple lifetimes in one, and the information bottle neck will no longer be the delivery mechanisms, but rather, how fast we can absorb and process information.
Hi Haz. That’s my hope too for immersive technologies in general. That’s why I believe a broader participation of artists, poets, storytellers (and by this i include the game narrarives), educators, environmentalists, etc is needed to really optimise and humanise the technology. To make it more relevant and something recognised beyond its business applications. Don’t get me wrong: I applaud the current business iniatives, but I hope the focus will also include iniatives by other sectors as we slowly begin to familiarise ourselves with this emerging technology.
I definitely think we will live deeper, richer lives with the aid of technology and augmented reality. We will be able to live multiple lifetimes in one, and the information bottle neck will no longer be the delivery mechanisms, but rather, how fast we can absorb and process information.
Hi Haz. That’s my hope too for immersive technologies in general. That’s why I believe a broader participation of artists, poets, storytellers (and by this i include the game narrarives), educators, environmentalists, etc is needed to really optimise and humanise the technology. To make it more relevant and something recognised beyond its business applications. Don’t get me wrong: I applaud the current business iniatives, but I hope the focus will also include iniatives by other sectors as we slowly begin to familiarise ourselves with this emerging technology.
Of course, as with most emerging technologies, the early adaption of AR is far from poetic. The military has been using it since the 1950s to make killing easier for pilots:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-up_display
I’m looking forward to seeing applications aimed at achieving the opposite!
Bas, thanks for your comment (sincerely!)
AR/Mixed Reality has been around a long, long time, and the current fixation with FLAR toolkit demos re-implementing 10 year old state of the art technology is really uninteresting.
No-one has realised their camera’s viewfinder is a form of AR? Or TV subtitles (teletext 888 for those in the UK)
Bas, thanks for your comment (sincerely!)
AR/Mixed Reality has been around a long, long time, and the current fixation with FLAR toolkit demos re-implementing 10 year old state of the art technology is really uninteresting.
No-one has realised their camera’s viewfinder is a form of AR? Or TV subtitles (teletext 888 for those in the UK)
I agree with Bas, that AR has been around for quite some time.. even for not military personal. I remember downloading the java AR toolkit during my study or short after (which is 10 years ago). Last time i went to DEAF, you had some nerds trying to sell it as art.
In the end, its just a technology hype for 2009 that has been fueled because with AR toolkits becoming more stable and easy to implement. Also with the processing power of smart phones and even have it running on websites, it seems like it has become a technology that can be ubiquitous and transportable.
But as any hyped technology, its been abused and misused for many cases. I like the UPS app and the wikitube idea but the ipet, the mini and the general electric campaign are total bullshit… especially form a user interaction point of view.
Some people do not understand, that just because a technology becomes into reach, it does not justify it to be used to cover the lack of decent idea.
First idea, than technology.. who cares about technology just as in “l’technology-pour-l’technology” really?
Finally was able to gather my thoughts on all the great comments that’s been going on here (and in LinkedIn where I posted a link to this post. I’d like to elaborate a bit more on the context of this post and share some insights from others along the way.
—-
As I’ve said, I’ve got a big crush on AR. I am thrilled by its sophistication and get giddy thinking of the ways it can change / enhance interactive narratives — how it will shape storytelling and feed the story. However, the recent surge of attention on AR applications for business and marketing made me — however fascinated I was about it all — turn the other way looking for the same buzz in other fields. I found none. Of course, it’s out there, but the signal I got from the news/buzz landscape in the last few weeks was weak. This led me to reflect more on this technology and what the message of the medium is. If the medium becomes the message itself because of the immensity of changes it summons, I wondered what ramifications this immersive technology will bring forth. Some of my thoughts:
1. The possibility of AR trying to replace real life is no longer just the stuff of science fiction. We are already witness to how revolutionary the digital technology is shaping and changing the world outside us (infrastructure, tools, industries) and within us (cognitive, affective and behavioral domains).
It’s no longer crazy to fall in love with someone online (I met my husband in a multi-user dungeon game in 2000 and nobody thought it was col, but I digress.) Real people feel real anger when their ships are blown away on Eve Online. The way we publish our thoughts and opinions to the world is instant. Instead of undergoing an editing process first, the tendency is to publish first, edit later — or just delete. Ordinary citizens, armed with digital tools are changing global news production and reporting.
AR comes from a long history rooted in visual culture and taking ‘pleasure in spectatorship’. AR will birth more changes because of its immersive nature. It has the ability to alter the spectacle, the object of our view and make boundaries fuzzier as Murphy pointed out. The ‘centred eye’ of Albertian perspective is actually extending outside the frame, the TV, the monitor and the cinema. In the future, the artefacts we view will actually be the spaces and environments we inhabit.
As Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins (http://siliconangle.com/ver2/2009/07/28/augmented-reality-metaphysical/) in his post said:
Knowing now what we do – remember, we’ve been talking about the business and marketing applications of augmented reality – about the march of technology and Moore’s Law, these are concerns and salient discussions that will be on the public’s doorstep sooner, rather than later.
2. Readers from LinkedIn mentioned that the key is to augment this reality – enhance the real world, not replace it. Recent studies have shown again only 23.8% of the world population are online. (http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25857420-5018992,00.html) Although internet has permeated our lives, majority of the world still don’t have access to the technology or its shaping. I guess it was more within this context when I asked in my post if AR can enrich our understanding of the world. If technologies such as this can reveal more meanings and more truths. If it can be more relevant to more people around the world. What would a wondrous medium it — and digital media in general – would be if it continued to be accessible and relevant only to a few?
On the other hand, again as Murphy pointed out, an anesthetizing culture plus AR’s recreative power can answer the needs and wants of so many levels: on intellectual, emotional, social, logistical, scientific, educational. You name it. For many it will be the replacement – or at least they will prefer it over the real world. My guess (my hope) is that with heightened verisimilitude, we can see better the contrasts with the real world.
3. In the hustle and bustle that accompanies every emerging media, expectedly the media focus has been on marketing and business applications. That is fine, but I hope that the public can gain more access to applications and experiments from other fields. This is a medium that will have more impact outside the business world, so I’d like to see not only corporations advancing its use, but more artists, poets, educators, environmentalists, storytellers, etc. involved in its development and mediation in the public sphere.
Finally was able to gather my thoughts on all the great comments that’s been going on here (and in LinkedIn where I posted a link to this post. I’d like to elaborate a bit more on the context of this post and share some insights from others along the way.
—-
As I’ve said, I’ve got a big crush on AR. I am thrilled by its sophistication and get giddy thinking of the ways it can change / enhance interactive narratives — how it will shape storytelling and feed the story. However, the recent surge of attention on AR applications for business and marketing made me — however fascinated I was about it all — turn the other way looking for the same buzz in other fields. I found none. Of course, it’s out there, but the signal I got from the news/buzz landscape in the last few weeks was weak. This led me to reflect more on this technology and what the message of the medium is. If the medium becomes the message itself because of the immensity of changes it summons, I wondered what ramifications this immersive technology will bring forth. Some of my thoughts:
1. The possibility of AR trying to replace real life is no longer just the stuff of science fiction. We are already witness to how revolutionary the digital technology is shaping and changing the world outside us (infrastructure, tools, industries) and within us (cognitive, affective and behavioral domains).
It’s no longer crazy to fall in love with someone online (I met my husband in a multi-user dungeon game in 2000 and nobody thought it was col, but I digress.) Real people feel real anger when their ships are blown away on Eve Online. The way we publish our thoughts and opinions to the world is instant. Instead of undergoing an editing process first, the tendency is to publish first, edit later — or just delete. Ordinary citizens, armed with digital tools are changing global news production and reporting.
AR comes from a long history rooted in visual culture and taking ‘pleasure in spectatorship’. AR will birth more changes because of its immersive nature. It has the ability to alter the spectacle, the object of our view and make boundaries fuzzier as Murphy pointed out. The ‘centred eye’ of Albertian perspective is actually extending outside the frame, the TV, the monitor and the cinema. In the future, the artefacts we view will actually be the spaces and environments we inhabit.
As Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins (http://siliconangle.com/ver2/2009/07/28/augmented-reality-metaphysical/) in his post said:
Knowing now what we do – remember, we’ve been talking about the business and marketing applications of augmented reality – about the march of technology and Moore’s Law, these are concerns and salient discussions that will be on the public’s doorstep sooner, rather than later.
2. Readers from LinkedIn mentioned that the key is to augment this reality – enhance the real world, not replace it. Recent studies have shown again only 23.8% of the world population are online. (http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25857420-5018992,00.html) Although internet has permeated our lives, majority of the world still don’t have access to the technology or its shaping. I guess it was more within this context when I asked in my post if AR can enrich our understanding of the world. If technologies such as this can reveal more meanings and more truths. If it can be more relevant to more people around the world. What would a wondrous medium it — and digital media in general – would be if it continued to be accessible and relevant only to a few?
On the other hand, again as Murphy pointed out, an anesthetizing culture plus AR’s recreative power can answer the needs and wants of so many levels: on intellectual, emotional, social, logistical, scientific, educational. You name it. For many it will be the replacement – or at least they will prefer it over the real world. My guess (my hope) is that with heightened verisimilitude, we can see better the contrasts with the real world.
3. In the hustle and bustle that accompanies every emerging media, expectedly the media focus has been on marketing and business applications. That is fine, but I hope that the public can gain more access to applications and experiments from other fields. This is a medium that will have more impact outside the business world, so I’d like to see not only corporations advancing its use, but more artists, poets, educators, environmentalists, storytellers, etc. involved in its development and mediation in the public sphere.
Virtual Reality as I knew it better from Second Life was really about to replace and transform all activities from physical to virtual. It kind of works one sort of deep meditation, where you separate yourself from one reality and bring to the another. But Augmented Reality seems to expand either virtual or real life to extra dimensions, which has extra challenges because you should be aware of both worlds. Really exciting.
Google treads shows how quickly in a few past years AR has been evolving. I dont remember any public talks of it at the beginning of millenium and to be honest just after this post I came to realize the meaning of AR in near future. Thanks for sharing @delunna