Augmented Reality – AR is able to change the user’s experience in real time, by integrating digital images into the view of the real world, unlike virtual reality, which creates a totally artificial environment.
Imagine being able to have a medical device that projects images of a patient’s veins onto his skin, to help doctors better aim injections, or imagine being able to see if a couch would fit into your living room before actually buying it, that would be cool, isn’t it?
Well…each of these scenarios and many more already exists.
Here’s 6 examples of how businesses use Augmented Reality.
1.VeinViewer
With using near-infrared light and other patented technologies, VeinViewer, a mobile vascular-imaging system, allows healthcare providers to clearly locate subcutaneous vasculature and project its image directly onto the surface of the skin in real time.
2.AR IKEA App
in 2013, IKEA launched an AR app for iOS and Android that enables customers to add a virtual IKEA furniture and see through their phone how it would look in their homes.
All the customer needs to do is to put an IKEA catalogue in any space within their home, activate the app, and they can see exactly how a virtual chair, table or sofa fits into their living room.
3.Remote collaboration
Imagine, the majority of your employees are teleworking and you need to planify an important meeting and you don’t want your remote workers to be detached from the group or become easily distracted. AR can significantly improve the way employees connect even if they are geographically dispersed. It will be as if everybody is in the same room. The meeting will then become more engaging including every member, physically present or not, to the discussion.
“Augmented reality for business offers promise both in communicating with customers, and within the organizations themselves for work functions” said Gareth Price, technical director for Ready Set Rocket. “AR brings the internet from being contained on a screen to becoming part of the fabric of the world around us, which will benefit businesses with a physical presence.”
4.Microsoft’s HoloLens
Microsoft takes us straight to the future with its HoloLens glasses. You can see the world around you with 3D objects floating in midair, virtual screens on the wall and your living room covered in virtual characters a bit like in “Star Trek” or “Minority Report”. The device has a plethora of sensors to sense your movements in a room and it uses this information along with layers of colored glass to create images you can interact with or investigate from different angles. These glasses could be very useful from a personal as well as a professional point of view, for example they can be used for cinema fans or also for architect plans.
5.Word Lens
It is an augmented reality translation application from Google. Word Lens use the smartphone’s cameras to quickly scan and identify foreign text in the street or on a menu for example, and then translate and display the words in the choosen language on the device’s display.
Practically all the languages are available: From English, to Chinese to Zulu…
6. Pokemon Go
It is a location-based augmented reality game developed by Niantic in 2016. The players use a mobile device’s GPS to locate, capture, battle, and train “Pokémon” creatures who appear on the screen as if they were in the same real-world as you.
As you can see, Augmented Reality begins gradually to integrate our daily life, going through games, medicine, furniture and so on.It is not about creating a completely new reality, that’s the role of Virtual Reality (VR); AR is about enhancing what already exists. When the virtual is well fitted with the physical and interacts with it, that’s when Augmented Reality magic happens.
