Latest in AR,VR technology take the stage of Augmented World Expo

Global Business

Big tech events like Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference have been showcasing augmented reality. The technology combines virtual images with the real world.

CGTN’s Mark Niu takes us to the recent Augmented World Expo, where it’s getting harder to separate the real world from a virtual one.

Through her virtual avatar, eleven-year-old Belle Forster is interacting with other avatars in virtual space.

“I think eventually they’ll just make it so that instead of going to school, you will just learn right from your home and there will be augmented reality. And there’ll be a robot teacher thing,” said Forster.

Augmented reality is also re-inventing traditional games. Stereolabs has created stereo cameras that attach to a headset and allow you to play mixed reality ping pong.

“The hard part is we see the real world and we added a virtual ping pong table. But it’s not a single experience. It’s a multi-player experience,” Cecile Schmollgruber, Founder & CEO of Stereolabs said. “So both players need to see the same thing and also the third camera that you see here, it must see the same virtual object.”

Software for the Stereolabs headset is also being developed for medical, military and industrial applications. Meanwhile, wearable tech company ODG has even incorporated augmented reality into an oxygen mask.

If smoke fills a cockpit, it will enable pilots to still see and give them a fighting chance to land the plane.
“Usually a wave of computing goes from academia to military, military to work, work to life. And, so I think we’re at that work stage,” said Tom Emrich, Partner of Super Ventures. “Do I believe that all of us will eventually be wearing glasses? Absolutely with 1,000% certainty.”

Emrich is the partner of a fund that invests in augmented reality startups. He gave a talk entitled the Death of Reality, where he made some predictions.
“We’re seeing this already with Snapchat where you can put a filter on. I can become a dog, I can be a kitty, I can become younger, an old man,” said Emrich. ”In the future, if we are all wearing augmented reality glasses, will we have a fixed identity? I think not. I think we will give rise to this notion of embodiment. Being able to be multiple identities.”

Emrich believes mobile apps will show consumers the value of augmented reality. He’s convinced that when fashion, convenience and necessity converge, we’ll feel as though we’re missing out…if we’re NOT wearing our specs.