Augmented Reality: Meta, Apple and The Future of Enhanced Experience

Current State of AR Development

In the 1980s PCs began to gain widespread adoption, beginning a revolution where individuals could have access to vast hordes of information and long-distance communication. In the 1990s this evolved even further to the extent where we could have pocket-sized smartphones that could give you convenient access to communication and, by the 2000s, access to the internet. This has brought us to today, where everybody carries around advanced and highly-capable computers in their pockets, and where work and social interaction is becoming increasingly digitised. Yet we are now entering a new era of computing, one that connects the digital world with the real world, allowing for greater convenience and usage. We are entering the era of augmented reality where digital objects and applications can be seemingly integrated with the real world. Recent developments by companies such as Apple and Meta are seeing augmented reality gaining traction in the form of glasses and headsets. These allow augmented reality to play a key role in the digital worlds of users which can be integrated with the real world for work, entertainment, socialisation, etcetera. Furthermore, like any new computing development, augmented reality is becoming increasingly adopted for specific tasks in the commercial world, such as retail as is being done by Ikea. Ikea’s app, called Ikea Place, allows you to visualise furniture in your house by placing the digital image in the real world via the app – giving you the opportunity to see what fits and what doesn’t. Yet how does this brilliant emerging technology work?

AR Technology

Augmented Reality is a combination of virtual reality and the real world, allowing digital integration in your everyday life. These can work in the form of glasses or headsets which you look through or a screen, such as for a phone, using its camera. For instance, the popular game Pokemon Go is a simple example of augmented reality where you move around your camera to find pokemon, which are digital objects added to the real world image captured by your camera. This, and all other forms of AR, fundamentally works by using Lidar (laser imaging, detection, and ranging) and cameras to create a 3D map by measuring depth and distances. From this 3D map, the system will then place a pre-rendered digital image into the correct positioning in the 3D map, whether that is according to the software (such as with Pokemon Go) or to the user (such as with Ikea Place). Yet this is only the basic technology, and further development of AR is bringing increasingly greater complexity and capabilities.

One popular and emerging application of augmented reality lies in the realm of AR headsets, which make use of much more advanced technology. These headsets make use of eye and hand tracking to navigate and interact with the digital objects and applications, such as for positioning them in the right areas of the room. Furthermore, these headsets make use of advanced lenses to add significant 3D depth to digital applications, creating panoramic views such as for entertainment or educational uses. For instance, the Apple Vision Pro allows users to have digital recipes floating in the air while they cook, which they can move around, scale and scroll through using their eyes and hands.

Meta and Apple’s Emerging AR Ecosystems

Augmented reality seems set to be the next stage in the evolution of computing, and in a variety of domains. Although we will see its usage adopted in a plethora of specific functions, its key development leaders and likely most popular and widespread usage lies in glasses and headsets, which are primarily being developed by Meta and Apple. Yet even with these primary companies leading the way, their approaches differ and we will likely see their adoptions in different domains, one of which will set the expectation – just as Apple has for mobile phones. Overall, the technology is very much the same and the key differences are to be found in the design, one being a headset and the other glasses.

Apple Vision Pro Headset

The headset, as is being developed by Apple, has clear advantages in the overall experiences, with the full eye coverage offering undisturbed and panoramic visual experiences, and the wider head coverage offering a greater omnidirectional audio experience. Yet Meta, unsurprisingly coming from their greater social focus present in both their leadership and experience with Facebook, may have the key advantage in terms of gaining widespread adoption and setting the standard for the future. Although not as immersive, glasses reign supreme in social acceptability and will thus have far greater success in the everyday world. They will allow for tasks typically done on your phone to be carried out in a more convenient way, as well as adding increasing digitisation to everyday aspects of your life. For instance, rather than using your phone for GPS, you would be able to walk about the streets and interact with the world while seeing a virtual marker at your destination, as well as audio guidance. On the other hand, as we continue to develop purely digital worlds, particularly in regards to the metaverse, headsets will likely gain widespread adoption and will be the primary means of accessing the metaverse, as well as in experiencing deeper immersion in entertainment and education (yet this is a topic for another article). Overall, it seems clear that AR glasses are set to become the new mobile phone.

The Future of Augmented Reality

Visualise a world where you're walking around with a regular pair of glasses, yet where you can interact, solely with the movements of your eyes, with all the digital applications that you're familiar with. You can take pictures and videos, use GPS navigation, play games, make phone calls, write, read, and so much more in your glasses. Moreover, imagine having your own artificial intelligence integrated with this system which you can use, with speech and simple gestures, to navigate the realm of augmented reality. Not only would this bring about a seamless integration of the digital and the real world, but it would allow increasingly greater efficiency, where sending a text can be done in seconds and with minimal efforts. This is the promise of augmented reality, and the world that is nearing, an ever accelerating convergence of the virtual and actual world.

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