Why Augmented Reality Will Transform This Year?

The AR industry is gaining more and more traction as the apps most commonly associated with AR continue to surpass expectations. Not many analysts predicted that Pokemon Go would still be the premier AR gaming experience and that major companies like IKEA and Sephora would create engaging and useful AR apps.

The next generation of hardware and AR software

The continued dominance of the technology is poised to make even more of an impact soon as progress continues to develop at a faster and faster rate. This improvement can be seen in the new generation of gaming consoles that are just around the corner which promise to take full advantage of mixed reality technologies.

Even though augmented reality has been around in some form for over a decade the technology is just now reaching the next step in interactivity and complexity.

The next generation of consoles is going to take advantage of massively powerful computing power to generate seamless AR experiences that will captivate audiences and convince skeptics. As the GPUs and CPUs expand for consoles they will also expand for PCs but at a faster rate. The PC has long been the optimal platform for high performance mixed reality and the next generation of hardware is going to be even better.

Smartphones are leading the charge

Augmented reality has found its dedicated audience in mobile smart devices. We barely notice augmented reality with our smart devices anymore. While it may seem like AR has been with us all along, its ubiquity is quite new. Already, Apple is launching its third version of its core augmented reality software development kit for Apple-approved development teams. Augmented photo apps, games, and other interactive software are becoming more commonplace.

Why the explosion of augmented reality-enabled applications? AR is nothing new, but the powerful hardware that becomes ever smaller and ever-cheaper is. Before 2008, smartphones, PDAs, and other smart devices were quite rare and quite expensive. However, it’s not until rather recently that everyday hardware capable of creating AR and VR experiences on the fly. But that is the nature of progress. It marches on. And with this march of progress come new technologies and trends.

As a new batch of gaming consoles and development-ready PCs launch in the coming decade, we can expect the burden of supercharged software to lessen, meaning more powerful and meaningful AR experiences will emerge this year.

AR has a low barrier to entry

Unlike technologies related to film or television, augmented reality tools are available for free (or close to free prices). The barrier to entry into AR and VR development is quite low. Development platforms are available for free, IDEs, both traditional and low-code can be downloaded on any Microsoft or Mac OS for a few dollars at most.

Coding support, tutorials, and manuals are freely available online. Valve released an entire extendible AR toolkit for free and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Much more is available on community-driven code repositories and code sharing platforms like GitHub. Meaning, as digital literacy improves, the rate of AR app creation and integration should increase exponentially, making these technologies quite popular and widespread.

AR as an educational tool

The core of AR development is centered around open source and open involvement. This means that even the most high profile technology companies are releasing their AR source kits as free tools for any developer to use. These free-range tools, if you will serve as an open call to developers around the world to try their hand at developing AR which very well may be the future of entertainment. But entertainment is far from the only application of AR.

Augmented reality isn’t simply a bauble first teens and tweens. It’s an important technology that can be applied to a variety of industries. AR can be an educational tool for medical students, helping illustrate anatomy in a three-dimensional space. It can help simulate eye conditions and provide real-time data overlays to help medical students identify trends. It can even help technicians find veins more easily with AR apps like AccuVein.

Conclusion

Due to the technological strain that AR puts on hardware, companies need to pack as much processing power as possible into a memory stick. However, recent advancements in micro tech make this as simple as buying a few new cards and plugging them into your case.

Nvidia, Intel, and AMD are all working tirelessly to pack more and more power onto smaller and smaller boards. All of this compact power and advancement will lead to AR experiences that are uncanny and unforgettable. However, gaming isn’t the only industry that benefits from this AR explosion as AR kits are going to become much more popular across the board.

Ellie Martin, Co-founder of Startup Change group