Most of the buzz in the gaming industry is about virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift or Sony’s Project Morpheus, but some companies are expanding into augmented reality. Microsoft, for example, is making an AR headset called the Hololens that’ll be used by doctors and astronauts in addition to games. Founder of Epic Games Tim Sweeney believes that it’ll be AR, and not VR, that will dramatically change our lifestyles.
In a presentation at the Chinajoy trade show which took place this week in Shanghai (reported by VentureBeat), Sweeney discussed how AR might come to affect many different parts of our lives. His basis for this belief comes from the nature of AR headsets, which let users move freely while still presenting information to them. “I believe that augmented reality will be the biggest technological revolution that happens in our lifetimes,” he said. “Once you have an augmented reality display, you don’t need any other form of display. Your smart phone does not need a screen. You don’t need a tablet. You don’t need a TV. You just take the screen with you on your glasses wherever you go.”
Sweeney went on to argue that AR will come to dominate the technological landscape because of its mobility and potential applications. “With AR, you have a large field of view,” he explained. “Combined with [the] convenience of mobile, and the display is with you everywhere you go and you don’t need anything else. Augmented reality will drive all things like chat, social networking, photos, videos, organizing data, modeling, painting, motion capture, and visual programming.”
At E3 in June, we were able to go hands-on with Microsoft’s Hololens headset, and we were impressed. Microsoft showed off a demo of an AR Halo experience, and it shared some more information and videos about Minecraft for Hololens. However, the headset is limited: recently, a video showed Hololens’ field of view, which is currently very small.
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