I am currently taking a Grad class ReMixing Reality: Social Dreaming in MR where we have projects in VR, AR, and anything XR. So the technology I am currently grappling with is Augmented Reality (AR). AR is used at school, for side projects at home, at work, and anything you can basically imagine. It was created because people wanted a way to interact with the world around them digitally. So say you are designing a motorcycle, AR would allow you to see a real life rendering on the motorcycle and let you make changes as you see fit. It will help people envision their ideas in reality and just make fun things as well. AR is the Snapchat and Instagram filters you use, the app that takes a picture and translates it if need be, and an app that can show you where to go while seeing what you see. Some companies that are creating these technologies are Google (Google Glass) and Microsoft (Holo Lens)
AR is different from VR because in VR the creator makes everything in a virtual space whereas with AR you are taking elements of reality and adding visuals to it. A really popular example of AR is Pokemon Go. AR is basically using your phone or another device and creating graphics that interact with the real world. Augmented Reality was coined by a Boeing researcher named Tom Caudell. However, the first AR project was created in 1968, by Ivan Sutherland, a Harvard Professor. He created a project that was closer to AR, but was later helped develop more AR technologies. The first 100% working AR project was created by Morton Heilig in 1957. He invented something called the Sensorama which delivered visuals, sounds, vibration and smells to the user.
Some software that lets you make AR projects are Adobe Aero and Unity. These are software's that are accessible by everyone and anywhere. So, if you want to create an AR project it is definitely doable once you learn the skills. However, if you are visually impaired there is a bias against you with this technology as it is basically all visuals. Furthermore, after more research, I found articles discussing how games like Pokemon Go are somewhat racist as they had less Poke Stops in areas where a majority of people were people of color and more in areas that were majority white. This was due to the fact that Pokemon Go used a map created by Ingress users of where they wanted portals to be. The problem was that. The players of Ingress were white young males. Which shows the bias that resulted from using these maps.
I have never made anything in AR so I am currently learning the basics by myself. It is completely different from anything I have done before. I have experience with 3D modeling and animation but not putting the two together. So, with AR the first step is learning how to do 3D animation. I am currently trying to learn how to use Adobe Aero and Unity to create AR environments. However, it is super frustrating as learning a new technology usually is. Overall, I think it will definitely take me awhile to completely learn how to implement AR but I am enjoying the process of learning.