The Future Is Just Around the Corner
And everything is integrated
It has been less than a decade since the original iPhone came out, and today over half of all adults in the United States own a smartphone. The first truly mass marketed personal computer came out 30 years before in 1977. It took a full three decades to move from desktop computing to having a small device travel with us in our pockets with more horsepower than we ever expected was possible. The next major change should take much less than a decade.
Virtual Reality has been the talk ever since Oculus had its first successful crowdfunding campaign. Now, it seems like everyone is trying to get into the VR race. While VR has a lot of potential, at Fantasmo.io, we believe that Augmented Reality is the right starting point for the next revolution in how we interact with technology. Sure, the tech industry has been experimenting with AR for years, but it has yet to produce the killer app. We believe that this is all about to change, thanks to a few important innovations that are materializing now. Combined, these innovations will not just change the way we interact with devices but also the way we interact with the world and everyone in it.
Why Now?
Augmented Reality is not new, the AR experiences that have been created so far have not been very impressive. Most use cases have been limited to gimmicky marker experiences where you point your camera at a piece of paper you print out and something pops up. There have also been a number of “informational overlay” applications that try to overlay info on a camera feed to help you see what is in your immediate vicinity. Yelp even launched a feature like this, but ended up removing it, as it was not particularly useful.
Today, the technology in the space is evolving rapidly, and the need for markers will soon disappear. The real world is about to become a digital canvas for us to design and build on.
So what is changing to make this possible?
1. The Rise of Micro-Location
Our phones have had GPS in them for a while, but the accuracy varies widely depending on any number of factors. It is particularly bad indoors.
Apple has been working to address the indoor problem with “Maps Indoor.” Participating venues are mapped in advance, then a combination of wifi and the M7 motion processor in the iPhone tracks your location instead of the GPS. Of course, Google is working on something very similar. Mobile devices already provide a bevy of onboard sensors (e.g., GPS, wifi, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, depth and camera). Advances in the fusion of these sensors will allow for precise tracking of position and orientation without the need for pre-mapped spaces or other external references.
The important takeaway is that our phones and other mobile devices will know exactly where they are and what is around them.
2. Advanced Computer Vision (+ Depth Sensing Cameras)
Computer vision has made significant strides in recent years. One example is OpenCV, a mature, open source computer vision and machine learning software library with amazing capabilities, and another is simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms allow us to build 3D models of the environment in real time with just a 2D camera.
The most fascinating advances are occurring on the hardware side. The 3D tracking offered by Xbox Kinect was just the beginning. The first Kinect was powered by a chip from PrimeSense. A newer chip from PrimeSense can be found in the first version of Google’s Project Tango and the Occipital Structure. Both devices are capable of true depth sensing and are seeing the world in 3D just like we do.
It just so happens that Apple bought PrimeSense two years ago, and we expect that just as Apple added the motion coprocessor (and accordingly the Core Motion API) with the iPhone 5S, they will also add a vision coprocessor (and likely depth sensing cameras if this job listing is any indication) to the iPhone 7.
Android has already showed off a similar setup with their Tango tablet. Intel is working on this as well, and so are many other independent chip manufacturers. The next big innovation in mobile is to move beyond the phone screen into the environments we inhabit, so that we can merge the digital into the phsyical. In order for that to happen our phones have to be able to see and understand environments in real time.
3. True Augmented Reality
New depth sensing cameras will make Augmented Reality an actual reality on mobile phones, but the fun really starts when we can put on a pair of glasses (and eventually contacts) and completely transform the world we see.
Things got off to a bad start with Google Glass, but the form factor will be back. There are already several startups, such as castAR and Meta, working on glasses that project images directly onto the lenses you are wearing. Microsoft recently threw its hat into the ring with HoloLens.
The most exciting company is Magic Leap who raised $542 million in a round led by Google. (Note this is Google, not Google Ventures. Google believes in this company so much, that the investment came from the top of the organization.) The MIT Technology Review has the best insight into the very secretive Magic Leap: “Essentially, it has developed an itty-bitty projector that shines light into your eyes — light that blends in extremely well with the light you’re receiving from the real world.”
At this point, the digital can be integrated into the real world in such a way that it feels, well, real. Imagine a world where our devices disappear, and computing moves into the world, a natural part of the way we move about and live our lives. This is a world where technology can be integrated seamlessly into the everyday.
Integration
Something beautiful happens when you’re able to blend precise location, computer vision and realistic Augmented Reality. The confluence of all three will enable us to build entirely new Layers on top of the world that we inhabit, and we will be able to access these Layers together with other people as we please.
This is a future where the real and the digital are integrated and nearly indistinguishable. Augmented Reality is the key to enable this visually. Your perception of reality is modified with visual elements and contextual information laid on top of the real world. It adds a Layer that is accessible through digital devices such as smartphones and wearables.
But, we believe that we can do better than just simple augmentation.
If the Layer is persistent, then interactions matter, because they influence future experiences. If the Layer is smart, it can learn about the users and their physical environment to provide context. If the Layer is accessible, then users can interact with each other from their own location and perspective. It’s no longer an individual experience like traditional Augmented Reality — it’s a shared experience across the entire globe.
We believe that this deserves its own term, as it is not just augmented reality. This is “Integrated Reality.” John Lester of ReactionGrid defines Integrated Reality as “the augmentation of our way of communicating and sharing knowledge through the use of all our technological tools in a complementary way.”
We See the Future
At Fantasmo.io, we want to see the future happen sooner. We are working on making “Integrated Reality” a reality today, on current generation smartphones. We are working on building technology to power augmented reality and location-based applications and services that are operating at world scale. We’re building new Layers on top of this world. Layers that are alive. Layers that you and I can access together, can interact with together, can impact together.
We have been dreaming about this future for years; a future where technology is integrated so seamlessly that it feels like a natural extension of the real world. This is a future where technology truly improves our interactions, connects us as humans and removes the screen as a barrier between people.
Preview the Future Next Week in Austin
If you are in Austin next week, you can get a little preview of what we’re building. We will be hanging outside on N Congress Ave between 4th & 5th hosting Project BLAM from Saturday, March 14 to Tuesday, March 17. So swing on by, say hi, see the future, and blast some crazy pink stone gorillas off buildings. Just look for the dudes on the street in red jumpsuits and the people pointing iPads into the air. There’s no need to RSVP or anything, but give us your email here, and we’ll make sure to keep you up to date.
