How do you define Augmented Reality?
Over the last year, I've heard a lot about the magic of augmented reality, myself working in a couple of hackathons to build augmented experiences. At the same time, as an avid science fiction geek, I continue to hear stories from the future about what life could be like if we welcome it fully into our bodies, homes, and public places. Throughout all of this, the one reoccurring thought bouncing through my brain has been "...well... define augmented".
When most people think of augmented reality today, the first thing that comes to mind is using one's smartphone as a magic looking glass that turns ordinary objects and images into 'augmented' experiences. These can be visual, musical, interactive, game-based and so on, but all share the 'looking glass' approach to modifying reality. Whether the looking glass is a phone-screen, heads-up-display (Hololens, Meta), or some hybrid (Google Glass), they all concentrate on uncovering hidden information about our interactions with objects in one's visual range.
I think this approach makes sense given the almost ubiquitous adoption of smart-phones and the range of sensors, GPS tracking, and cameras they contain to power the experience. However, I think it is important to question two important concepts when we think about A/R in this way.
1. Should personal-devices be the core technology for A/R?
I think that we will break out of this design pattern in the future. While it makes sense to use personal devices today since experiences can be tailored to an individual, they are easy to interact with and provide standardization of tools and apps needed, I wonder if there is a danger of heterogeneous reality that emerges from this design. What I mean is that reality is arguably being fragmented today through a disconnect between observable fact and public opinion driven by the polarization of media outlets. Now reality seems to be whatever an interest group wants it to be, if a fact doesn't fit in, it must be fake news.
While this is somewhat limited by how we receive our media today (text, audio, maybe a video on a screen), imagine if these alternative and conflicting viewpoints could be overlayed onto the very experience of the everyday. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of tailored reality in some senses, especially as presented in Vernor Vinge's Rainbow's End but I think there is a real danger in allowing the forces of markets, consumption, and capitalism to define our perception of physical reality. Already our movements and preferences are subtly steered by the UI choices in apps, preference filters for rating sites, and even the maps we use to navigate. What would a future look like where everything you see, hear, and even smell might be manipulated in this way?
Perhaps we should think about A/R that is driven by public space itself, providing some sort of shared or collaborative reality outside the force of market capitalism (although tbh, this will probably drive the spaces anyway). How might we reconsider the 'commons' as a design pattern for verified, collaborative, and non-manipulative 'augmentations'?
On the bright side, I think decentralized technologies like blockchain could provide solutions to mitigate this experience, allowing for shared and verified realities to be created.
2. Define Augmented...
To augment is defined as: " to make greater, more numerous, larger, or more intense. To supplement." (Merriam-Webster). So Augmented Reality would, therefore, mean to create things that make reality itself greater, more intense, or supplemented in some way.
In my mind, to augment also means to make better. While not part of the word-by-word definition, this meaning is implied every time we use the word. However, I question whether adding certain types of 'augmentations' would be better in any way. Arguably the advertising, embedded social profiles, and gamification in Keeichi Matsuda's Hyper Reality make reality overwhelming, somewhat meaningless, and terrifying.
Are we really 'augmenting' reality by adding things to it? Are we re-enchanting a mundane world with beautiful and creative experiences, or are we overlaying the pervasive digital information cloud onto the one remaining refuge that remains to us, the real world?
Perhaps this needs to be an important design question for those building augmented reality experiences before the hype and sensation turn our world into an inescapable projection of competing corporate ideologies and dazzling marketing ploys.
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