The 4 Types of AR (and why you should know them)
Quick Hit: TV AR, Smartphone AR, AR Lite, True AR
“We’re making a longterm bet that immersive virtual and augmented reality will become a part of people’s daily life” — Mark Zuckerberg
In these early days of augmented reality, there has been a lot of debate about semantics. AR covers a variety of different experiences and in a world where nothing is concrete and most is yet to be discovered, there is little certainty about what all these different types of AR should be called. For anyone that isn’t following AR progression extremely closely, this uncertainty can be especially confusing.
For those with an untrained eye, this confusion will most likely only intensify in the coming years. The more notoriety (and venture capital) AR raises, the more common it will be for companies only tangentially related to AR to claim they are building augmented reality. Even innocently, there will be an even broader range of experiences that can accurately be described as AR.
It is important that we come to some consensus about the different types of AR in order to correctly convey to potential consumers. In this post I will attempt to parse out augmented reality into 4 main categories. I admit, even these 4 categories are not enough to properly recognize every variation in the technology, but I believe they represent a few of the largest buckets that most AR can be grouped into. Starting from the least immersive to the most immersive, here we go.
TV AR
TV AR — digital features that have been layered on top of a television broadcast
Although often overlooked, the AR we regularly see on television, plays an important role as the stepping stone for broad appeal augmented reality. Ultimately, AR occurs whenever digital elements are added to the real world. In the world of TV, this mix of real and digital is common place. Don’t believe me? Think about the last NFL game you watched. The 1st and 10 line is the perfect example of a digital element that has been added to a live video broadcast of the real world.
Without even realizing it, hundreds of millions of Americans enjoy augmented reality in their homes every Sunday.
The same goes for pretty much any broadcast booth or talk show on the air. TV AR adds information, context, and excitement to video. People have been enjoying augmented reality on their television for years now.
Smartphone AR
Smartphone AR — augmented reality that is conducted through a smartphone
With social proof of acceptance on television, the next step for AR is bringing it into our personal worlds. For a while this had been considered a major social and technological challenge. Before the proliferation of the iPhone, there were no mass consumer devices packed with the features necessary for AR. Once the smartphone caught on, some questioned if the public even had an appetite for AR experiences through their phones. This past summer that question was answered loud and clear with the emergence of Pokémon Go. This game based on a franchise that was popular over a decade ago, is a perfect example of smartphone AR. By putting digital Pokémon into parks and streets across the world, the app amassed over 100 million downloads by last August.
Right now the digital elements of smartphone AR have little interaction with the real world. For example, Pokémon will sometimes defy the laws of physics and sit in between the middle of a wall instead of to the side of it. In the next year or two this will change as more companies invest in smartphone AR.
I use the Pokémon Go example because everyone knows it, but really that is just the tip of the iceberg. Major tech players are investing heavily to bring more and better smartphone AR to market. Google just released Google Tango which allows smartphones to use motion tracking and depth perception in creating AR experiences. This means the next version of Pokémon Go will have creatures that recognize the couch in your room and jump on top of it.
Here’s another example. In November Apple was granted a patent for an AR mapping system on the iPhone.
Soon you will be able to have an interactive experience with Google Maps, looking through your phone to see Yelp reviews of nearby restaurants or directions digitally added to the sidewalk.
Just as people got their first taste of immersive VR through smartphones in 2016, people will get their first taste of personal AR through their smartphones in 2017.
AR Lite
AR Lite— augmented reality through a headset only involving simple image overlay
When you think of AR Lite, think of Google’s 2013 experiment Google Glass. A relatively small HMD (head-mounted display) that can add digital information to the real world. The difference between AR Lite and True AR, which I will discuss next, is that the digital elements in AR Lite have no interaction with the real world. It essentially moves your phone screen into your natural field of view without an understanding of what else you are looking at.
For example, imagine getting turn by turn directions while you bike using AR Lite. The directions would be displayed in the top right hand corner of your vision, but would not interact with the real world. That is to say, the directions would not map onto the road or adjust depending where you looked.
Despite these deficiencies, AR Lite can still be very useful because it offers access to information without the use of your hands.
In the previous example, it would have been much more to reach for your phone while biking. Because it is not so easy to ride a bike and use your phone at the same time, AR Lite can be of use. Additionally, because AR Lite does not use require intense amounts of computer processing for things like computer vision, AR Lite headsets can be extremely lightweight and mobile.
Although AR Lite may not be the brilliant future of AR that most imagine, it has a place in certain activities. Effective use cases for AR Lite can serve as a good placeholder while True AR technology develops.
True AR
True AR — immersive augmented reality including computer vision and interactive digital elements
True AR is the holy grail of augmented reality and what has driven the intense excitement surrounding the field. Recently the term “mixed reality” has gained in popularity. For the purposes of consistency, this post will continue to refer to it as True AR, but the term is interchangeable with mixed reality.
True augmented reality is immersive. This type of AR places holograms into your vision of the real world.
Using computer vision and spatial mapping of your surroundings, True AR headsets not only add digital elements, but add them in the context of your environment.
This means the 3D ballerina you created will know to avoid the chair in the middle of the room, so it doesn’t crash and fall.
At the moment there are three major hardware players in this space:
- Microsoft (HoloLens)
- Magic Leap
- Meta
None of the three have released consumer grade headsets yet, but Microsoft and Meta are currently selling development editions. Right now headsets are a bit clunky, but experts expect sleeker consumer editions to be released around 2018.
Despite all the buzz surrounding these companies and this form of AR, there are still some issues that need to be worked out. At the moment, the field of view ranges from merely 45 to 85 degrees. This has been compared to watching television through a keyhole. Hardly what one would consider “fully immersive”. On top of that, the headsets require so much computer processing that they are much too bulky to wear without social ridicule (or neck issues).
If after reading those last two setneces you are getting cold feet about AR, don’t fret. These issues may be present now, but they will quickly be solved. Thanks to Moore’s Law, the headsets of 2018, 2020, and 2022 will each be lighter than the next until eventually they start to resemble a normal pair of reading glasses. Remember that computers went from room sized to pocket sized in a matter of decades.
True AR is not quite ready to enter the mainstream today, but soon, as Zuck said, it will most likely be a part of your daily life.
