4 Reasons AR Glasses Won’t Replace Your Smartphone (Yet)
Magic Leap One notwithstanding, augmented reality gear isn’t ready for the consumer market; AR headsets have a number of challenges to overcome before they are must-have gadgets.
By Ben Dickson
At Facebook’s F8 developer conference last year, Oculus chief scientist Michael Abrash encouraged attendees to “imagine AR glasses that enhance our perceptions so that the lines between the virtual and real worlds blur, giving us deeper experiences, stronger connections, and richer lives.”
This month’s arrival of the highly anticipated Magic Leap mixed reality headset marked a big step toward fulfilling what Abrash and other industry experts envision as the future of virtual computing. The headset is light and comfortable, has crisp visuals, and reportedly succeeds in many areas where other AR glasses and headsets fall short.
But one big step doesn’t mean we’re there yet. And the AR industry has many hurdles to overcome before it can become “one of the great transformational technologies of the next 50 years,” as Abrash promises.
Here are the key challenges that current AR technology faces.
Form Factor
The shape and size of AR gear continue to be limiting factors. There’s a correlation between bulkiness and computational capabilities of AR headsets: Smart glasses such as the Google Glass are light, and users can wear them for extended periods of time, but their limited computing capabilities make them suitable only for very specific use cases.
As we explored here on PCMag, smart glasses are perfect for professional environments such as factories and hospitals, where workers need hands-free access to work-related information. But they’re far from delivering a seamless computing experience that could replace the hundreds of smartphone and computer applications we use every day.
The bulkier headsets, such as Magic Leap One, HoloLens, and Meta, support advanced features: mixed reality, environment mapping, and gesture detection, for example. And they can provide a more immersive experience. But users can’t wear them for long — it’s like wearing a computer on your head.
“For consumers, today’s binocular AR glasses are still too bulky and uncomfortable to wear for longer periods of time,” says Tero Aaltonen, CEO of Augumenta. “Even if a device is packed with impressive tech, it makes no difference if it’s not wearable [or] appealing for the large audience.”
With the Magic Leap One, the company worked around the weight problem by offloading its heavy electronic parts into the Lightpack, a small pocket computer wired to the headset. But appearances also limit the use of mixed reality headsets, including the Magic Leap One. I’m not sure anyone wants to walk around looking like Robocop or a giant bug.
Field of View
“Field of view is one of the key aspects that’s holding back consumer adoption for AR headsets,” says Taylor Freeman, co-founder and CEO at Upload.io. “For the experience to be truly compelling and immersive, there would need to be a sizable field of view (FOV), ideally over 180 degrees, if not 220 degrees.”
Due to hardware constraints, AR headsets currently have very limited fields of view. The Microsoft HoloLens has a 35-degree FOV, though Microsoft is reportedly working on a new headset that will double its FOV. The Magic Leap One and the ODG R9, another high-end mixed reality headset, offer 50-degree FOVs. These are all improvements, but the headsets are still limited compared with the human field of vision.
For consumer applications, a limited visual field means a less immersive experience, because the user has to view virtual objects from a distance. It’s like looking at the world through a pipe.
In the workplace, the negative effects of a limited field of view can be much worse than frustration. “In enterprise use cases, it is essential that the glasses don’t obstruct your view too much, otherwise you’re prone to accidents,” Aaltonen says. This means that for the professional workplace, smart glasses that are open at the sides are safer because they allow users to better observe their surroundings.
User Interaction
This is an area where we’ve seen much improvement. But the AR industry is still struggling to develop to right tools to help users interact with virtual environments.
Some headsets, such as Google Glass and the ODG smart glasses, provide touchpads on the side of the frame that support swipes and taps to change and activate menu items. ODG also lets users interact with applications and virtual environments through hand gestures. Other headsets have handheld controllers; the Magic Leap One has one of the most sophisticated controllers, with a trigger, button, and trackpad.
The problem is that touchpads have limited functionalities; hand gestures can be misinterpreted by the device in poor lighting conditions, and controllers occupy at least one of your hands.
Many headsets also support voice commands, which is helpful in situations where you need hands-free access to your device. But voice commands can support only basic functions — for example, opening applications and activating features such as recording or taking photos. They also have limited utility in noisy environments.
Eye-tracking can improve the user interaction experience with AR headsets. The combination of eye tracking and voice commands lets users interact with virtual and physical objects in more complex ways without the need for hand gestures. For instance, users can use voice commands to pull up information about the object they’re staring at.
Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are also one of the interaction mediums that could enhance the user experience in AR applications. A number of companies are working on non-invasive BCI, but we’re probably still a few years away from seeing a reliable form of the technology in AR headsets.
Down the road, AI assistants will play an important role in enhancing the user experience in AR headsets. AR gear is meant to work in various use cases and environments, and AI assistants can simplify the use of applications by helping users fulfill complicated tasks with minimal interaction.
Pricing and Applications
The Magic Leap One comes with a $2,300 price tag, the Microsoft HoloLens is $3,000, and the ODG R9 and Google Glass Enterprise each sell at around $1,800. With such high prices, AR headsets are suitable only for businesses, where the headsets’ problem-solving features justify paying such large sums.
“There are some applications, like training or manufacturing, where a few thousand dollars is a small price to pay relative to the overall workflow advantages,” says Freeman. “Once price gets down toward the cost of an iPhone, and it enables the capabilities of today’s mobile devices and more — that’s when I would expect to start seeing real movement on adoption.”
Currently, consumers can get a high-end smartphone such as the iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy Note 9, or Google Pixel XL 2 at much lower prices. All those devices support plenty of AR applications, though they don’t provide the immersive experience of AR headsets. With a limited number of applications, AR headsets provide little incentive for consumers to purchase them at such high prices. And without users, developers have little incentive to create new apps.
The Future of AR
“Twenty or 30 years from now, I predict that instead of carrying stylish smartphones everywhere, we’ll wear stylish glasses. Those glasses will offer VR, AR, and everything in between, and we’ll wear them all day and use them in every aspect of our lives,” Abrash said in his keynote.
History has shown that we’re not very good at predicting how the future will unfold, though. Since the term “artificial intelligence” was first coined, scientists have been speaking of human-level AI being just around the corner — symbolized by the likes of C-3P0, HAL 9000, and the Terminator. Decades later, our AI doesn’t have the cognitive abilities of a human child, although it’s extremely fast at performing specific tasks, such as playing chess, classifying images, and converting speech to text.
Just as laptops didn’t obviate the need for desktops, and smartphones didn’t eliminate laptops, I can’t imagine AR headsets will become the only computation and communication device we use. But as the industry overcomes its hurdles, we can expect to see AR headsets become more commonplace in the workplace and in the streets.
Read more: “Augmented Reality (AR) vs. Virtual Reality (VR): What’s the Difference?”
Originally published at www.pcmag.com.
