What Future May Come

A friend asked the other day what I thought of Apple’s new Augmented Reality (AR) glasses. I’d <a href="https://benbob.medium.com/augmented-reality-the-next-inflection-point-in-computing-6994fde81c8d" rel="noopener">published a blog post five years ago</a> about this class of devices as the next frontier in human-machine interaction and a pivot point, an architectural chokepoint if you will, in the industry. I further declared that AR would be more interesting and lucrative than VR (Virtual Reality) in the long run. I stand by both of those statements. VR, and gaming in particular, will continue to push the limits of hardware — just as it did with the PC generation, bringing about trillion dollar companies like nVidia. AR, on the other hand, with its emphasis on vision and image recognition, will come to define the new GUI to our increasingly digital universe — our Visual User Interface (VUI). Both AR and VR sets of scenarios are valid and can be effectively monetized. VR and AR are not in a zero sum game. Both will win. As they used to say on Seinfeld, “We can have this and we can have that!” Apple will push the limits of user interface design with new and intuitive hand gestures that will feel natural. Our glasses will come to read and interpret our complex hand gestures just like our phones read our fingers today. And you can bet they’ll partner with Oakley and Gucci and come out with ever smaller and cooler (and more expensive) glasses. <a href="https://benbob.medium.com/what-future-may-come-f17e5f9c9cf5">Read More</a>