ProgrammerJoe (Joe Ludwig) writes:
My discouragement has less to do with Layar specifically than it does with the entire category of tricorder augmented reality. The view through the mobile phone and its camera is less useful than a top-down map would be for every piece of data I have seen so far. For my layer in particular, the rider is very likely to know where the stop is. In situations like that where location is unimportant, both the Reality View and Map View actually get in the way.
This experience has led me to two conclusions. First, augmented vision is pointless until head-mounted displays are available. I already felt that way, so now I am just more firm in my belief. Second, filtering data to a useful subset for display is actually the hard problem. Job listing sites, travel sites, Ecommerce sites, and review sites already knew this, which is why they spend so much effort on search. Turns out the problem is the same for mobile location-aware services.
The problem here is that we’re looking at a entire toybox and trying to figure out which game to play?
Some people are looking at markers, interpreting a video display and displaying mini-Darth Vaders or animated coloured cubes. Other people are drawing information from GPS, compass, accelerometer, comparing to built-in databases and overlaying graphics on them. There’s minimal consideration for user interface, for the appropriateness of content – there’s just the hype and the fear of being left behind. There’s too much focus on graphics on screen and, as a result, the use case is people being led around the streets by their phones without consideration of the arm strain, eye strain and the possibility of not noticing the quickly-approaching hatchback car as you cross a road.
At the moment, I’m disappointed that every AR press release is mee-too-ism. There’s a hype storm and the winds are buffering us even as we sleep. We’ve even seen the backlash from folk who are starting to realise that it’s not the panacea. AR is not a useful technology in itself – it becomes useful when you include context – whether that is time, location, heading or any of the data that input into the device.
There’s more to AR than cramming icons onto a tiny screen. Who wants to view the world through a 3.5″ screen anyway? It’s not even about icons on screen! Where’s the innovation in haptic and audio AR?