Augmented Reality for the over-stimulated
Much of the AR work I have seen has been additive in nature.
That is, AR products tend to layer additional information, stimuli, experiences, on top of the “vanilla” reality one would normally experience.
What I have not seen yet is a subtractive AR: a reality augmented by removing the or masking the bits of real that one would prefer to do without.
Imagine walking through times square without the billboards and flashing lights.
Imagine a commute on a quiet, empty train.
Imagine working at your office without the noise pollution or distraction from coworkers approaching you from behind or the side.
Most modern design trends, across nearly all disciplines, tend towards simplicity.
Websites is a great example of a technology maturing.
What began as largely plain text with some imagery turned first into a animated, neon-colored, flashing disaster, then into a smoothed out but still “gaudy” web 2.0, then trended towards simplicity and minimalism.
Unfortunately the competition intrinsic in capitalism has re-introduced a great deal of gaudy eye-grabbing disasters with data behind it — people are distracted by the distractions. It’s effective.
But it is not an effective way to live life experiencing a constant barrage of well-researched intrusive advertisements or the chaos and overstimulation of the modern urban environment.
AR need not be limited to additive. Sometimes removing is a better augmentation.
