Fact and fiction have always been dominated by alternate realities. From the use of augmented and virtual realities in air combat training to sci-fi stories and novelistic tales of looking into a crystal ball, these surrogate realities have often helped humankind operate better or deal with the harsh realities of the real world.

Virtual reality and augmented reality can be used in our daily lives. The combined market for augmented reality and virtual reality headsets is expected to grow tenfold over the course of the next ten years.

Woman wearing augmented reality glasses checking her digital tablet.
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The future of the internet will not be straight-line. The metaverse is an example of the astounding use of buzzwords. We no longer want to look at screens as much as we used to because we want to look at reality. This desire can be satisfied by technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality.

Virtual reality experiences deliver us into an entirely new realm compared to augmented reality experiences. Exposure can be exciting at first, but can become alienating as we lose touch with reality. If used for a long period of time, virtual reality experiences can make us nauseatingly confused.

It is possible to bridge the gap between reality and a continuous virtual reality experience. augmented reality only adds to our experience with the real world through additional information that isn't readily available. We don't have to withdraw ourselves from the reality that we live in.

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We can use our phones to look around. It's possible to point our cameras at food or road signs in a foreign language using an app. We can get step-by-step navigation with either Apple Maps or Google Maps.

Despite being equally entertaining, helpful, or impressive, the latter seems to be a more prospective replacement for our phones. There are more reasons to support this argument.

Convenience of use

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A light and easy to use augmented reality headset adds some aspects to the real world instead of creating a completely new virtual world. The quality of graphics from an augmented reality headset is not tied to the display's resolution because we still see the real world. Because the display on an augmented reality headset must render and process fewer elements, it can use less demanding hardware. A pair of glasses is required for most augmented reality headsets.

The companies have projected that augmented reality headsets would be extensions of their phones. Even if we are a few years off from that happening, positioning augmented reality headsets in our lives is the more natural course of evolution.

Familiarity

Digital concept Smart Glasses close-up with Graphical User Interface.
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According to the Vision Council of America, over 200 million people in the US wear glasses for corrected vision. Humans have had an intimate relationship with glasses for hundreds of years.

People tend to gravitate towards products that are familiar to them, and this familiarity with glasses could be a significant driving force for the adoption of augmented reality glasses. Enthusiasts and professionals who use it for gaming, experience the multiverse, or learning are the only ones who can use it. The number of people using augmented reality was 1.5 times greater than that of virtual reality as of 2020.

A young man shows his 'Spectacles'-glasses.
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The use of filters on social media apps is one of the main contributors to the use of augmented reality.

Wouldn't it be great to hear someone's name in a social setting and not forget it because your glasses remember it and flash it in front of your eyes? An evolution from phones to augmented reality glasses is possible.

Your daily surroundings, amplified

Machine learning and artificial intelligence will benefit from the growth of technologies such as augmented and virtual reality. Computer vision is expected to improve in the near future if A.I. does not become sentient. The likelihood of A.I. analyzing the world on our behalf as we look at it through our augmented reality glasses is very high.

Computer vision can be used to identify objects, faces, gestures, poses, and the general optical flow. With cloud computing and computer vision, companies can make use of their augmented reality glasses.

Imagine being able to see the world in a different way. Humans will attain a superpower that phones will never be able to duplicate with the advent of augmented reality glasses.

Big tech’s growing interest in AR

A man tries out AR glasses.
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Apple touches become hot as gold, according to evidence. Apple is expected to release an augmented reality headset in the late 20th century, but its interest in the technology can lead to a new direction for the industry. According to a celebrated Apple analyst, Apple will replace the iPhone with augmented reality glasses in the next decade. The growth of technology makes that plausible.

Before Apple, we see lesser common brands demonstrating the use of augmented reality glasses as extensions to phones. If we replace the phone with a cloud-based processing system, we should have a custom-made augmented reality headset that ties you to a walled garden.

Meta's augmented reality glasses could hit the shelves months before Apple. It is almost certain that the company's success with augmented reality and metaverse experiences will be achieved.

The expertise with computer vision that the companies have will allow them to offer augmented reality experiences that are compatible with the most used operating systems.

Problems that AR glasses won’t solve

people immersed in using their smartphones on a subway train.
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Problems associated with phones today could be passed on to future technologies if augmented reality dominates our social and personal lives in the future. People might expect the same rush when they get a phone. It might be easier to zone out or block certain aspects of reality than it is to retreat from a realistic reality.

There are significant challenges in front of engineers when it comes to developing time-tested augmented reality glasses. It would take an extensive infrastructure of sensors and wireless networks to map and calibrate augmented reality. Establishing a pervasive machine-to-machine mesh network will be the best way to solve this problem. Every object, building, and even natural elements in the world will need to be supplemented with sensors. Every device will be able to broadcast its information instead of having to use the augmented reality glasses. It will be a huge task. We don't have time to investigate security and privacy issues.

Engineers will have to eliminate biases in A.I. Computers don't experience emotions like humans do. It will be difficult to teach them to respect human values.

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