Introduction to Augmented Reality
Our augmented reality future is just off in the gap, and our heads are stuffed with dreams. We can bring up the data we’d like, watch TV, play games, get easy directions to anywhere we would like to go. It’s a phenomenal, exciting dream. But while we dream about augmented reality, the technology has been around for many years in less consumer-y versions. That’s right: augmented reality has been around us for a very long time, making tons of individuals’s lives far easier.
Real-World Cases of Augmented Reality
But how is it doing that? Well, let’s take a stroll through real-world cases of augmented reality. From the military to the medical field, augmented reality is getting used in various ways to make our lives easier.
F-35 HMD
The F-35 fighter jet is probably the most expensive planes ever made, coming in at over $100 million per jet. That advanced – and controversial – fighter also comes with a $400,000 helmet. The helmet is built to work with the F-35, because the jet has cameras on the skin which are continually monitoring around its space. When it sees a possible threat, it pings the pilot on his or her head-mounted display on the helmet. The helmet can even project a video feed onto its display in order that the pilot can get a full 360-degree view across the plane – that’s right, no blind spots.
Sportsvision’s First-Down Line
An early use of augmented reality that’s so widely available that it’s boring. Back within the Nineteen Nineties somewhat company called Sportsvision partnered up with Fox Sports and the NFL to present viewers a straightforward option to discover the all-important first-down line. They got here up with augmenting the image with a yellow line. However, that yellow line all the time appears if it’s painted on the sector, slightly than imposed on top of the image and pasted over the opposite players.
Construction
The world of construction has formed a cushty camaraderie with AR. We often only see the ultimate products of years of design and construction work, and unless you do a stint at Habitat for Humanity you won’t see the quantity of detail that goes into making a constructing – from insulation to water pipes to electrical work and many more. Autodesk has teamed up with Mortenson Construction and Daqri to trial an AR system that can let construction teams use AR headsets to view what is happening at a construction site.
Medical Uses
Sometimes during a surgery a health care provider can have to navigate through an area of your body they’ll’t directly see. In movies and TV shows, you’ve likely seen them use cameras they place contained in the body to get a greater view, but there’s a greater option: augmented reality. InnerOptic Technology’s Magic Loupe integrates with ODG and Microsoft HoloLens to get a more accurate have a look at where their tools – on this case, very long and scary needles – are headed towards in your body. AccuVein is geared toward solving the issue of finding veins with somewhat rudimentary augmented reality. It’s a hand-held device that projects a map of your veins onto your skin, allowing nurses to see exactly where your vein is and when’s the correct time to inject you with some dead viruses – or slurp up some blood sample.
Car Repair
This 12 months Porsche rolled out a brand new method for its mechanics to cope with automotive service and maintenance called Tech Live Look. A Porsche service engineer will placed on some ODG smart glasses and dial into Porsche’s Atlanta-based service HQ. Once that’s done, a distant service team can follow together with the mechanic while they work on the automotive. They can immediately send video tutorials, documents and more for the mechanic to view from their glasses while working on the automotive.
Measuring Things
When ARKit first went live, there was a rush of developers to place out measuring apps – for good reason. It seems that augmented reality could be used to make measuring every kind of things much simpler. You just point your phone at something, move it around a bit and – bingo – you get a measurement. This will certainly shoot up in popularity when Apple makes its AR measure app available, once iOS 12 is live and brings ARKit 2.0 together with it.
Logistics
If you’re working in a business that should be efficient to beat the competition, like shipping, then you definately’re going to prioritise efficiency over almost the whole lot else. Shipping firms like DHL use technologies like Vision Picking, which tell employees where items are, what number of they need to choose off a shelf, and where they have to be placed on trolleys and carts. They also won’t need to scan anything since the glasses pick those up mechanically.
Gaming
Pokemon Go isn’t the identical sensation it once was a pair years ago, but it surely did make popular a brand new variety of game. It uses the facility of augmented reality to mix our real world with a more fantastical one – where we are able to roam around with friends and capture imaginary creatures. Since then, there have been more takes on the concept. There’s one based on the Jurassic Park franchise that permits you to find dinosaurs, and Pokemon Go-maker Niantic can also be working on one based on Harry Potter.
Fighting Fires
With devastating forest fires a continuing summertime threat in California, Cal Fire needs all of the tools it may possibly get to fight fires. Its latest tool is the Simtable, which is uses to plan learn how to attack a growing blaze. Seemingly inspired or built off technology from UC Davis’ AR Sandbox, the Simtable is built off a sand base. It then projects information onto that sand base depending on the sand’s form. Cal Fire then projects a fireplace onto the sand, simulating the way it has or could grow.
Conclusion
Augmented reality isn’t only a futuristic dream, but a reality that’s already getting used in various ways to make our lives easier. From the military to the medical field, construction to automotive repair, and gaming to fighting fires, augmented reality is getting used to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and safety. As the technology continues to evolve, we are able to expect to see much more revolutionary uses of augmented reality in the long run.
