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When properly used AR could be valuable in industry, education or even household uses, such as displaying recipes over the field of vision while cooking or keeping important information in the line of sight while working on something without having to look away at a computer.
AR is a way of amplifying the actual or physical reality to enhance information – enhancement created through the provision of additional contexts and content. AR offers data enrichment through direct superimposition onto the physical world and thus provides an interactive framework that has the potential to beneficially affect all aspects of daily life.
AR has in the past few years started to confront more robust problems and is providing solutions to real needs in the engineering, manufacturing, retail and medical fields. For instance, the Smart Reality app by JBK Knowledge enables engineers and architects to see their 2D designs and plans projected as 3D models through smartphones or tablets, which help them to get a better feel of the spatial dimensions before construction commences.
In the medical sector, AccuVein is an AR hand-held device that allows nurses and doctors to scan a patient’s body to make a vein appear visible. AccuVein led to a 45 percent reduction in escalation calls, while 81 percent of nurses reported that using AccuVein resulted in an improved ability to cannulate (the procedure to introduce a thin tube into a vein).
Just as the concept of the memex portended the technology of today, AR offers a similarly historically relevant leap towards the technology of the future.
Although the memex is not a direct conceptual precursor of AR, it is an example of a concept that has shaped the very building blocks of how digital devices for communication, data interaction and information enhancement have changed the fabric of our society.
Augmented reality has the potential to impact our future just as much as the memex.
Professor Louis C H Fourie is a futurist and technology strategist. Lfourie@gmail.com TENCENT Holdings’s Riot Games said yesterday that Nielsen Holdings would measure the value of sponsoring Riot’s League of Legends, the most-watched e-sport in the world, throughout next year. Quantifying the value of brand exposure gained through sponsorships of League of Legends teams, games and leagues could help the multiplayer online battlefield game, abbreviated as LoL, draw more sponsors. While other publishers have also worked with Nielsen on sponsorship measurement, fans have watched more LoL matches than any other game, totalling 347.4 million live hours in 2018 on Twitch and YouTube Gaming, said gaming analytics firm Newzoo. LoL has 13 regional leagues with more than 800 players on 100 professional teams globally. The game has drawn big companies – even those not endemic to the e-sports universe – including State Farm, Mastercard and Nike. E-sports – where throngs of fans watch competitive professional video-game matches live and online – has become an important funnel for brands to reach younger, more affluent and digitally savvy audiences who watch less television. “As e-sports continues to gain momentum with brand marketers and advertisers, the need for independent, third-party verification of audiences and brand exposure is crucial,” Nicole Pike, managing director of Nielsen E-sports, said in a statement. I Reuters BILLIONAIRE Xavier Niel’s €250 million (R4.06 billion) bet that mega-campus Station F would help Paris become a global tech start-up hub may be starting to pay off. Entrepreneurs working out of Niel’s institution have collectively raised more than €567m since the June 2017 inauguration, more than half of which arrived over the last financial year, Station F director Roxanne Varza said in an interview. And in a move similar to WeWork’s expansion into communal residences, Station F is now adding housing for members, with three buildings opening to host 600 entrepreneurs with competitive rental prices. “France’s image is changing and starting to be perceived as more business-friendly,” Varza said, adding that 41 percent of the 1 000-plus start-ups on campus have now tapped investors. Built on the site of an old train station and financed by Niel’s own money, the 34 000m² venue has expanded from desks for rent to host venture capitalists and corporatebacked programmes for entrepreneurs, from Facebook’s data-focused “startup garage” to an artificial intelligence programme by Microsoft. Station F’s growth comes as co-working giant WeWork snaps up real estate at a rapid clip in Paris (it has eight sites in the French capital, with seven more listed as opening soon). I Bloomberg