In 1945, The Atlantic Monthly published an article by the American inventor Vannevar Bush. The title of the article was “As We May Think”. It outlined a concept (considered revolutionary at that time) for a futuristic networked machine similar to today’s Internet-enabled devices. This apparatus was called a Memex. The Memex can be seen as a powerful precursor to present-day digital tech. In Bush’s descriptions, we could in fact be reading about modern PCs or tablets:
Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library…A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.
Vannevar Bush foreshadowed the impact that such technology would have on our contemporary lives. By doing so, Bush inspired critical aspects of current online tools, including the hyperlink and the World Wide Web. Bush’s vision directly influenced researchers to create digital technology we nowadays consider commonplace. Today’s equivalent of Bush’s breakthrough is just as radical, except it’s far beyond the conceptual stage and is already in extensive development. This technology is termed “Augmented Reality” (AR). AR has the potential to act as a harbinger of future hi-tech transformations whilst irrevocably altering the basic nature of everyday life.
Just what the heck is augmented reality?
If you have even a fleeting familiarity with sci-fi pop culture, you’ve probably been exposed to the concept of AR via two of the most hackneyed references in cinematic history. The first comes from the movie Minority Report, where imagery is nonchalantly flung onto translucent screens via gloved gestures, and personalised advertorials bombard consumers.
This depiction echoes the 1990s version of AR – “Virtual Reality” – complete with a light-enhanced version of the data glove (though not the standard clunky headset). Virtual Reality is widely considered a precursor to AR, in that it engineers environments or spaces devoid of anchors to the physical world. Users participate in these simulated spaces with the intent of becoming completely absorbed in a Virtual Reality scenario, minus distractions that would pull users out of such worlds.
Virtual Reality is described as tech that encourages users to engage in completely immersive computer-generated arenas (often including Mixed Reality setups), rather than AR experiences which present digital enhancement through overlaps with – or over – the physical world. Confusingly, both AR and Virtual Reality share key elements that allow users to experience enhanced interactions through digital and online input, and often the terms are used interchangeably: with the increasing advancements of gesture-based interfaces (think the Kinect), distinctions between Virtual Reality and AR are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
The second film-based reference that’s inevitably trotted out when describing AR is from the movie Terminator, where a character is embedded with a HUD (Heads-Up Display) unit that continually scrolls updated data through a visual overlay. To continue this slightly-abused sci-fi referencing theme in regards to AR, we may as well throw in William Gibson’s character of Molly Millions, with her “Mirrorshade” inlays giving her enhanced vision similar to the point-of-view display used in the Terminator. Although HUD units are far from new technology – having originated in the military – they are also being put to good use in existing AR applications. Pioneer has designed a car navigation system that merges AR with a HUD, combining projected mapping and navigational data on a plastic sleeve mounted before the driver-side windshield. Such an application of HUD-based AR has multiple uses, especially in regards to practical learning.
Although pop cultural references may make AR look somehow effortless, existing AR has sprung instead from years of dedicated research and development. Interestingly, even today’s top AR businesses have been inspired by great works of fiction: Maarten Lens-FitzGerald (VP of Marketing at Layar) describes their version of AR as:
Inspired by the 2006 Sci-Fi novel Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge…the team began exploring the possibilities offered by content layered on top of reality, and the concept for Layar was born…Layar wants to connect print with the online world. In an age where online consumption is skyrocketing, print publications must find a way to communicate with their readers in new and interactive ways. Layar merges the online and offline worlds, bringing new levels of engagement to a previously one-way conversation.
Initial rumblings for the formation of Layar began in 2007, when Lens-FitzGerald, Raimo van der Klein and Claire Boonstra (all part of the founding team of Mobile Monday Amsterdam) decided to formalise their vision for the future of AR mobile tech. Almost two years later, on June 16th 2009, the team released their first official Layar application.
Just as the concept of the Memex eerily foreshadowed commonplace technology, AR offers a similarly historically-relevant leap towards the revolutionary. And although the Memex isn’t a direct conceptual throwback of AR, it is an example of a concept that has shaped the very building blocks of how digital devices used for communication, data interaction and information enhancement have changed the fabric of our day-to-day lives. Augmented Reality – as both a concept and an emergent technological field – has the potential to impact our future just as much as the Memex. Let’s hope AR Industry Leaders act responsibly when recognising, and actualising, the capabilities of such game-changing tech.
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