Augmented reality today is still a gimmick, just as it was many years ago. Nothing has drastically changed in the field since 2004. Indeed there is a bunch of SDKs with a lot of features, but many of them have been invented a long time ago (see Part 6).

But progress, even if it’s not out there in the open and not obvious at first, moves quicker and quicker every day. Recently groundbreaking events occured that marked the start of a new era in information perception.

On the 1st of August, 2012 a project of virtual reality glasses called Oculus Rift was launched on Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform. In a month 9,522 backers pledged $2,437,429 to help bring this project to life. On the 24th of March, 2014 Facebook announced that it acquired OculusVR for $2 billion.

In October, 2014 a small company from Florida, Magic Leap, working in a stealth mode raised $540 million from Google Ventures. Andreesen Horowitz, Qualcomm, Kleiner Perkins and other investors contributed to a impressive $590 million overall. Magic Leap is now developing augmented reality wearable glasses that will allow us to blend computer generated graphics seamlessly into any environment in any conditions.

Many children have imaginary friends. Not because they are crazy, but because they have vivid imaginations. In their imagination they see the world in a similar way as AR has the ability to: that is, they superimpose their imagination on top of the real world. For example, a child might pretend that they are a doctor, and the family kitchen table the operating theatre.

We, ‘adults’, struggle to make our world a more beautiful place — we love looking at things. There is no direct practical use for art, but still it is so important to us, it is the product of evolution and it is inside our very genes.

Art helps us in most if not all aspects of our lives. Art evolves. And we evolve along with it, with it’s help and it’s guidance. As we develop technology, we give ourselves more freedom of self-expression. Technology is at the verge of a mixed reality revolution. Anything we will are able to imagine, want to modify or explore — is, or will be, possible!

The future of art lies in the symbiosis of all modern technologies. Augmented reality will eventually come to most of the fields of our lives. It will allow us to bring any first person game onto the streets. Imagine playing games, not on a map, but in a real life!

Imagine a theater, where all viewers put on augmented reality glasses, sit in vibrating chairs. The room is equipped with smell generators, advanced ventillation systems and a myriad of other emulators, like water and air guns, itchy legs simulators, etc. Imagine, a cave appear instead of a wall. A giant monster holding a huge piece of a tree in it’s hands walks out of the cave making the ground shake, the smell of the cave and the monster fills your nostrils. The monster waives the tree above the viewers’ heads and they feel the air on their faces by inertia from the tree. Your heart races faster and faster as you become part of the story…

That is what Augmented Reality will achieve, or rather has achieved.

But where will AR Shift be in all of this I hear you ask? Well, we are currently developing your personal guide to this new world of perception. An AR Assistant if you will. Someone to take your hand and guide you through life, teach you, work for you. Your imagination, as always, is the limit! So check out our constantly evolving website for the latest developments!