Ontology in Augmented Reality

Reading through the paper by Azuma I could not help but get a little excited about all the sorts of AR applications we will see within as little as 5-10 years.  I envision video games that allow the gamer to feel like they are directly in and interacting with an environment by projecting it in their house.  I also see travelers wearing glasses and getting a tour of a foreign city without the help of a guide.  However, there are obviously a few limitations before Augmented Reality takes these jumps.  The one I want to focus on is User Interface Limitations.

This essentially comes down to how to display and allow interaction with the massive amounts of data that we have access to.  The amount of information that we could potentially display on a pair of glasses is astronomical in my mind.  But, how do we go about deciding what information to display, and how to display it?  To me, this comes down to an individual’s ontology of space.  Take my previous tour guide example; one person may want to know where all the museums in a city are while another would prefer to have the best bars in the area.  This is a bit of a trivial example, however it highlights how it may become a bit difficult to take this amazing technology and make it equally useful for everyone.  While this is an issue today, I agree with the paper in that there will likely be “significant growth” in the research of these problems.  It is now a matter of putting in the time, effort and money into improving the ubiquitous use of these AR systems.  With the great potential for business growth (e.g.), I do not see this being a problem.

-Geogman15

 

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