Augmented Reality: The Next Computing, Information & Entertainment Paradigm

Augmented Reality is a cognitive technology. Going back my nana’s first “colour” television with the corded remote, the delivery of that information into the TV set and then across those two-three metres to her Lay- Z-Boy armchair—into her eyes and mind. Augmented Reality delivers much closer. It is like a 3DMax Cinema experience while you are doing dishes.

Think of the future of Augmented Reality as a laptop, a smart-phone, a tablet, a curved flat-screen TV, a gaming console; all in a pair of (sun) glasses.

If that sounds far-fetched; look at the utility of your smartphone: a calculator, a scanner, a computer, a telephone, a server with thousands of photos and videos connected to the cloud.

The naysayers say that Augmented Reality won’t take off because people don’t like wearing anything. As I type this my glasses are on my head. Available when I need them. I think there is no question they will become the dominant device. There will be many years (ten?) before they become so ubiquitous, lightweight and powerful that they are the equivalent of Mr Job’s smartphone.

What happens with new technology is that by the time it has been around for 10 years - it’s familiar and old. When was the last time your friends and family came up to you and proudly showed you their new phone? In 2007, 2008 and 2009, this was a constant fascination as the early adopters showed their risky investment and evangelised about its utility.

Unlike smartphones which started as a consumer proposition, Augmented Reality has so many work applications and because of the technical challenges of shrinking technology for comfort, this is likely to be the first phase of this technology. If you have a chance to create a use for Augmented Reality inside your business, don’t delay because you need to get your head around it and build a staircase of projects and capability.

However, if you are in a consumer business of any kind, the case is even more solid for you to start experimentation now. Get in on one of the major consumer revolutions over the next 10 years early and build the business case for continued investment and experimentation with Augmented Reality.

Here’s the crux: we are on our way to having all the processing we currently do on our devices through a brain-computer interface over the next 30 years. We will access applications and the cloud through our brain, through thought. In terms of Moore’s Law it is a certainty that we will accomplish this, as far-fetched as it sounds today.

We will also move from external devices to wearable (sun) glasses running Augmented Reality. It is on the path. Remember all the devices that disappeared into the smartphone? Eventually we will disappear all of our current devices into the Augmented Reality (sun) glasses; and then these two will eventually disappear into our iris and brain-computer interface.

I guarantee you have no idea how big Augmented Reality will become. None of us do.

Bio: Simon Small is an Artificial Intelligence pioneer. He co-founded Arria NLG in 2012, which is rated by Analytics Insights as one of the 10 Most Trusted Big Data Analytics companies and also the number one Natural Language Generation company to watch for. Simon spends his time helping CIOs and boards acquire strategic technology companies and as a playwright, he works on numerous creative projects from his home in Queenstown, New Zealand. He also pioneered the use of board portals establishing Diligent in the UK, Europe, Middle East and African markets (now a $2bn business).