Augmented Reality – while most of us don’t know what it is by name – we can recognize examples of it that we have already seen.   Don’t confuse it with its cousin VIRTUAL REALITY where you wear the headset and are transported to some other place – 100%.   The Sights and Sounds – sometimes there are even fans set up so you can experience the air flow around you.

Here is footage of Juliana Fay playing a Virtual Reality Game – and you can literally feel like you are in another place – and the first time you take off the goggles – you will fee like you are instantly transported back to reality.  That alone is an incredible experience.

Now I have talked about some very intriguing people that I know – this week I would like to talk about my Buddy Edward Robison the III.    He’s not just a guy with an impressive name – he is a brilliant photographer, and a Developer and a few years ago he embarked on a really ambitious project – he wanted to bring Augmented Reality to his photography.

Edward – created this back when it wasn’t common at all.   You would download the AR app to your phone and then when you point it at one of the pictures in your book – the image would either rise out of the book as a 3d model or it would launch a video sequence.

You know Snap Chat can be VERY ENTERTAINING – the way it morphs what we look like into another Character.    That is phone based version of AR.

Then of course you have    Pokémon Go?   RUN THE VIDEO.
The Public is ready for this – but holding the phone out to see the effects (yes its amazing) but holding the phone gets cumbersome.

So the Race is on to make the best AR Glasses.   They want to make your smart glasses something that will take the place of your phone.   And then can you imagine playing something like Pokémon Go – then?  You can participate in a Virtually enhanced environment that is your own!   Pokémon won’t be limited to wear you hold the phone.   The whole experience will be much more lifelike.
You will start to see added AR features on your phone with future updates.

Take Google Maps – Google has recently added machine learning and visual positioning.  Google has already mapped the world and now using the landmarks on the map as anchor points – they can provide an augmented reality experience to the world.

Now – if you are selling things on line – the one thing you cant replicate thru the computer is the experience of going into a brick and mortar store and touching, feeling and trying on merchandise.

Now with AR – Do you want see what you will look like with those eye glass frames will look like on you?

And now the Games are getting more incredible.
Pokemon was revolutionary but the images were very flat.   Now developers and really pushing the limits not just making them look 3 dimensional but also Contextually Aware!  What this means is – if you are playing a game shooting zombies and they are coming at your thru your living room and you want to buy some time – move to the other side of the dinning room table so that they have to walk around it to get to you.   Here comes that artificial intelligence!

So these books by Edward Robison show the infancy of where Augmented reality is going.   He is going to work on a project for a national park to develop an AR app – and they want to map out the park where there used to be a military fort.   And people that visit the park will be able to rent a special Ipad and walk around the park and see what the fort used to look like when it existed in that exact location!

Robison told me that when Augmented Reality really breaks thru it will change almost every aspect of our lives.    Look at how living in a world of Facebook, Instagram, and snap chat has drastically changed the world.    Well get ready!    Augmented reality will let you live in a fantasy world of your choosing.

When you go to a friends house and you hate the color of their walls – you can change the way it looks.

When you go to a restaurant – open the menu – you will SEE THE FOOD – maybe take that sandwich apart and see how its made?

In the Future of Reality won’t have to imagine what something used to look like or what it could look like.   This could really advance education.   As a student – I didn’t learn well when I was told to read something and remember the data – but when the same information was delivered in a conversation I retained the information.

Now if we want to teach the kids about the human body – you could have  a student lay down and the teach could reach in and take out his brain or heart.    Do you think the kids will be paying attention?

So the bottom line is – the Race is on.   Most of the biggest names in Big Tech are racing to create smart glasses that we wear everywhere and that may replace our phones.   Apple has acquired 4 AR companies already – and there are rumors about what the Apples Glasses will look like.

Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Snap, Facebook Apple, Magic Leap and others are all working on some form of smart glasses or headset that will change how we view the world around us.

There’s a race to be the first to make a set of glasses that everyone will wear, which means they have to be fashionable and sleek enough to wear all day and everywhere you go. Advocates of the technology hope that you’ll one day be able to replace every screen in your life with just one pair of smart glasses.

If glasses replace common gadgets like our phones or computer screens, it will mean big business to the company that comes out on top.

But we’re likely years away from that. Today, most AR headsets are too big, too expensive and simply too weird-looking to make sense for everyday use. That’s not keeping tech companies from trying though.