Reality 2.0: How Hololens And MR are Going to Change Everything

Recently, I’ve been inundated with press regarding the Microsoft Hololens and the applications being developed for it. There is some truly amazing stuff in the works, like this mixed reality (MR) game that allows you to defend your own house from a robotic invasion!

For those who don’t know, mixed reality can be thought of as adding pieces of virtual reality to the real world for a “mixed reality” experience.

With Hololens currently in it’s developer friendly stage and other MR platforms like Magic Leap on the horizon, I’ve been thinking about some of the ways that mixed reality is going to change the way that we go about our daily lives. One of the first things that comes to mind… mixed reality advertising.

More than ever, it seems like ads are everywhere these days. They permeate both our physical and digital lives, and sometimes it seems impossible to get away.

In fact, just the other night, I was out to a bar for drinks with some friends when I see a human billboard on a hover-board whiz by.

This guy certainly caught my attention. He looked as if he belonged in some obscure Facebook click bait advertisement, and this got me thinking. What happens when advertisers can access your physical reality via the digital channel that is mixed reality?

What does the world look like when the weird stuff that you see advertised on Facebook is a part of your everyday physical existence? I found an interesting video by Keiichi Matsuda that vividly demonstrates the kind of situation I’m talking about.

This ‘hyper reality’ could pose some interesting questions for companies as well as consumers.

Should there be limits on where MR ads can be shown to you?

Does your favorite coffee shop become a click bait ad farm?

Better yet, do you have to pay a monthly subscription fee to enjoy your morning coffee without being bombarded by ads?

Are you ready for MR advertising?

This being said, if MR advertising is done tastefully, it could create some pretty amazing experiences that would truly enrich our existence instead of overwhelming it.

I’ve seen a few ideas on Hatchli recently that played on the concept of a mixed reality grocery store experience. These ideas have shown how a simple trip to the grocery store could become a “fantastical and enlightening experience”.

But seriously… Think about what you could learn in a grocery store with the power of MR. You look at a display of apples and watch as the space around them populates with images, snippets, and facts from around the web.

A Dr. Oz article about the health benefits of eating apples, a pictorial guide to picking apples that are perfectly ripe, and a recipe suggestion for an apple pie that just got it’s 100th five-star review on your favorite recipe site.

With this in mind, I think it’s important to acknowledge the need for thoughtful and meticulous planning when it comes to the development of mixed reality software.

The Hololens and future MR devices will give software engineers and advertisers unprecedented access into the lives and existences of their end consumers. With this great power, comes… you guessed it… great responsibility (yeah I went there)

All Spiderman quotes aside, developing a well thought protocol that governs how, when, and where mixed reality software can interact with consumers needs to be a priority sooner rather than later.

Sure, we might be 5–10 years away from a fully immersive MR experience, but if we don’t have a damn good set of ground rules laid out beforehand, we may just end up like the unfortunate woman in Keiichi’s video.

What other kinds of challenges do you think mixed reality poses to our daily lives? What other implications and uses can you see, for better or for worse? Be sure to let me know in the comments and post your ideas to Hatchli!