Augmented Reality and the Novelty of New Technologies

Having the pleasure of presenting about the future of augmented reality for this class, I like to think that I found in a little insight on the technology. In researching for the presentation, I downloaded several iPhone apps to see just how real augmented reality is. What we talk about in class is exciting and fascinating, but as the iTunes store showed me, those potentials just aren’t quite realized yet in the commercial market. The apps I demonstrate in class are pretty much the best I could find.

So why the hype if the tech really isn’t at Minority Report level yet? Are we really just so excited by AR that we will willingly pay for novelty and impractical apps? In my opinion, yes that’s exactly what AR is right now. Here’s your average tech life-cycle: concept, crappy applications of said concept, practical uses of the concept, media overexposure,  replaced by a new crappy application of another novelty concept.

For example, let’s look at video games and their use of motion technology. A few years ago, when the Wii was released, it was the big new thing. I would call GameStop everyday to see if they had a Wii in stock until I finally got one. This Fall has seen the release of Playstation’s Move and Xbox’s Kinect. The reason non-gamers probably haven’t heard of Move is because it’s really just a refined version of Wii for the PS3. But consider the Kinect. I haven’t played it, but from what I’ve seen, its really just a novelty. There’s no games really worth indulging more than a couple hours in. Yet, what is the big seller this holiday season?

So with AR, even though there’s not much use in it now, we’re all wowed by the possibility of where it could go. We try to get whatever taste of it we can, and we’re briefly amused by the novelties, and then we convince ourselves that it’ll totally be awesome next time. The catch is – by the time we get to “next time,” the novelty will have worn off and we won’t be quite as excited by it (while Move is certainly a technical upgrade from the Wii, nobody really seems to care…).

So as designers, how do we account for the fickleness of audiences when it comes to new technologies? Well, consider Apple. When they released the iPhone, it worked out of the box doing everything they said it could. They didn’t bother releasing it when the touch controls merely worked, they released them when the controls were perfect. So when people got their iPhones, there was no real sense of “oh hey, this is cool, but it’ll probably get better in the future.” No, the iPhone was already cool. And when it did get more features and applications, that was just another reason for the same users to repurchase another phone.

But too often, companies don’t have the restraint of Apple. They throw it out there because they want the profit margin now. As far as AR goes, we’ve already got our taste of what the tech can possibly be do. But as for me, I think I’ll wait until they manage to actually deliver what they’re selling.

Tags: augmented reality, response, technology