This is just a random note for those who are interested- I followed Magic Leap pretty rabidly in the mid/late 2010s when they were a hot topic. They interesting pivoted from more of a consumer angle to a corporate-focused product. Just an intriguing thing to note, probably influenced by the semi-collapse of the AR/VR industry as the tech in the late 2010s just wasn't good enough for mass consumer adoption. I wonder with the recent advances in the tech (think Apple's product) if they'd return to more of a consumer focus? Would be fascinating to watcH!
caelinsutch
Another random tidbit but over 5000 Hololens were recently purchased by the army (https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/13/23871859/us-army-microsoft-ivas-ar-goggles-success-new-contract-hololens) last year and we're spending over $21.9 billion on the project to implement these into our armed forces by 2025.
rcorona
One application of AR headsets that I find very interesting is the use of headsets to collect datasets of egocentric video. There's a number of efforts in ML research nowadays aimed at visual understanding of human activities from the wearer's perspective, such as Meta's Project Aria (https://www.projectaria.com/).
One of the aims is to one day have AR headsets that are capable of serving as assistants to people in accomplishing certain tasks, such as cooking or tool-use.
OnceLim
I worked for a start-up company that worked with Magic Leap where they basically made blueprints of architectures into reality. An interesting thing we did was that since I did not have experience developing on AR, I was first trained to develop on VR using Unity. When I started developing on Magic Leap, I was intrigued by testing tool called Zero Iteration. It is because even if I didn't have their Magic Leap goggle at the moment, I could debug using a basic world they create for us.
RishSharma7
I looked a bit more into the Microsoft Hololens because it seems (or seemed, at the time) like a completely new take on AR at the time. Found this really interesting research paper that delves into how the Hololens was applied into different industries over the past few years, thoroughly analyzing its most useful features and all of its shortcomings to be improved soon, if anyone's interested.
rishiskhare
The AR headsets seem so much smaller and less cumbersome than the VR headsets. VR seems to require a more immersive experience, though I'd imagine that VR technology might pick up more relevance and popularity if they were made lighter. From checking on online sources, AR glasses are typically lighter, so I wonder which additional technologies in VR result in more of a heavier headset compared to AR, besides the immersion of a headset that fully covers the eyes.
rishiskhare
Is there any way to combine AR and VR capabilities in one headset? I.e. is there a way to make AR more immersive by mirroring the surroundings in a VR headset? It seems like this might make AR more immersive, though it might also lead to accidents if the VR display doesn't accurately depict the surroundings or depth isn't accurate and people try to move around.
This is just a random note for those who are interested- I followed Magic Leap pretty rabidly in the mid/late 2010s when they were a hot topic. They interesting pivoted from more of a consumer angle to a corporate-focused product. Just an intriguing thing to note, probably influenced by the semi-collapse of the AR/VR industry as the tech in the late 2010s just wasn't good enough for mass consumer adoption. I wonder with the recent advances in the tech (think Apple's product) if they'd return to more of a consumer focus? Would be fascinating to watcH!
Another random tidbit but over 5000 Hololens were recently purchased by the army (https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/13/23871859/us-army-microsoft-ivas-ar-goggles-success-new-contract-hololens) last year and we're spending over $21.9 billion on the project to implement these into our armed forces by 2025.
One application of AR headsets that I find very interesting is the use of headsets to collect datasets of egocentric video. There's a number of efforts in ML research nowadays aimed at visual understanding of human activities from the wearer's perspective, such as Meta's Project Aria (https://www.projectaria.com/).
One of the aims is to one day have AR headsets that are capable of serving as assistants to people in accomplishing certain tasks, such as cooking or tool-use.
I worked for a start-up company that worked with Magic Leap where they basically made blueprints of architectures into reality. An interesting thing we did was that since I did not have experience developing on AR, I was first trained to develop on VR using Unity. When I started developing on Magic Leap, I was intrigued by testing tool called Zero Iteration. It is because even if I didn't have their Magic Leap goggle at the moment, I could debug using a basic world they create for us.
I looked a bit more into the Microsoft Hololens because it seems (or seemed, at the time) like a completely new take on AR at the time. Found this really interesting research paper that delves into how the Hololens was applied into different industries over the past few years, thoroughly analyzing its most useful features and all of its shortcomings to be improved soon, if anyone's interested.
The AR headsets seem so much smaller and less cumbersome than the VR headsets. VR seems to require a more immersive experience, though I'd imagine that VR technology might pick up more relevance and popularity if they were made lighter. From checking on online sources, AR glasses are typically lighter, so I wonder which additional technologies in VR result in more of a heavier headset compared to AR, besides the immersion of a headset that fully covers the eyes.
Is there any way to combine AR and VR capabilities in one headset? I.e. is there a way to make AR more immersive by mirroring the surroundings in a VR headset? It seems like this might make AR more immersive, though it might also lead to accidents if the VR display doesn't accurately depict the surroundings or depth isn't accurate and people try to move around.