What is Augmented Reality - AR?
6th of October 2022 by Maren Framnes
AR or Augmented Reality combines the real world and digital content. The best known use case is perhaps the popular game Pokemon GO, but professional use of AR is also increasing. AR allows us to place digital content such as 3D models or overlays “in the real world”. This is used for a wide range of purposes, such as gaming, remote support for surgeons, training on vehicles or situational awareness.
Most use cases are based on mobile phones, but more complex solutions (such as remote support for surgeons!) are often based on AR-headsets. Up until now, the headsets have been the same size as VR headsets, but this is about to change. Google among others are working on AR glasses that are the same size as regular glasses. They have recently started testing in public.
U.S. Army to use HoloLens technology
The American army is experimenting with a Hololens (Microsofts AR headset) based Visual Augmentation system (Integrated Visual Augmentation System), and are planning to roll out the first 12.000 units this fall. The IVAS will provide US Army with a wide range of capabilities such as facial recognition for hostage situations, overlaying icons on friendly units, objectives, points of interest and threats.
U.S. Army to use HoloLens technology in high-tech headsets for soldiers. Photo: news.microsoft.com
AR adds a new dimension to the real world, and our customers are using the technology in several different ways. Sparebank1 Østlandet use the AR application “Kæsj” for teaching children about private economy and NATO use AR togheter with Hololens (Microsofts AR headset) for operational support on military vehicles.
AR in the future
New use cases for AR are emerging all the time, and we see potential for almost every industry. The processing capabilities in the hardware is increasing and new AR glasses are about to enter the market, but we believe that the real gamechangers for AR will be remote rendering and increased use of AI.
AR gives a lot of opportunities, but the processing power in the hardware is a bottleneck for the complex solutions. Solutions tend to struggle when you use it in different surroundings. Light, shadows and the challenge of placing 3D objects at the exact right spot in different environments calls for more computer power. With 5G becoming increasingly available, we have the possibility to render the content from the cloud and stream it to the device. On 5G networks this can be done without latency, and we expect that this will enable a lot of new use cases in the future.
Testing AR and our platform with 5G. Foto: Valsts kanceleja (State Chancellery)
AR combined with Artificial Intelligence
As mentioned, recognizing environments and objects are one of the main challenges for AR. We believe that AI software can solve some of these challenges.There are already exciting use cases such as automatic design. If you want to see this technology in action, you can test SketchAR. Sketchar allow users to freely draw in AR or let an AI draw for them. Then the objects are placed in “the real world”.
This shows that AI programs are able to design objects in 3D space, and we expect this type of technology to become much more capable over time.
