There are a few topics that I’ve been planning to write about for months (if not years). One of them is the role sports enthusiasts (joggers, swimmers, bicycles fanatics) may have in the adoption of augmented reality head up displays. The recent onslaught of hi-tech ski goggles was the push I needed to finally do something about it.
Instead of writing a long post (which many won’t read), I’m trying something new here. I’ve created a short presentation with only a few words that describes my views. I would be very happy to hear your comments on this format. If you like it, I’ll create more presentations on other subjects.
What do you think? Am I completely off my mark here?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: head up display, opinions and reflections |
Games Alfresco 
The format sums it up nicely.
I’ve always been rather skeptical of the “looks silly” argument personally – cost and practical vs usefullness is going to be the main factors driving a technology. (Plenty of people looked silly with old brick style mobiles, and still do today with talking-to-themselves bluetooth stuff)
But, that said, sports *is* a perfect market. People are willing to spend decent amounts of money on it, the usefulness is clear and easy to explain.
In many ways its a little like WiiSports, and eventually theres going to be market overlap there.
I mean, running bores me. But running with game-play too? sign me up.
Sounds about right to me.
Personally I think “looks silly” is going to be a bonus for the earliest of early adopters.
Indeed I think that the clumsy use of mobile phones for augmented reality is one of the main reasons that it does not really catch on yet. Holding your expensive smartphone in front of you means that you can accidentally drop it on concrete and break it. It is not hands-free (and in fact you often need to use both hands for stability), you may also get mugged or robbed if using augmented reality in public, and the field of view is often painfully narrow.
I believe that decently designed unobtrusive camera glasses with see-through displays could solve many of these problems, and a wireless link to the mobile phone can let the phone do all the processing and remote connection work. The design will need to go way beyond some modded ski goggles though to be acceptable for daily use.