Virtually Mainstream: the state of Augmented Reality in 2015

Oculus had an incredible year with a mind-boggling amount of commercial activity for a piece of unreleased hardware. We all had fun hoping and praying dev-kit 2 was going to be delivered on-time with all the VR projects that had been promised to eager clients. EBay had so many DK1 headsets for sale, they were practically being given away. Oculus are currently demonstrating the latest headset codenamed the Crescent Bay Prototype to eager tech journalists. With built-in headphones, a lighter form factor, and advanced head-tracking capability this latest prototype looks tantalisingly close to a final commercial release; but there’s one thing still missing and that’s the built-in Leap Motion!

But, just when I thought it was a no-brainer that Oculus and Leap would be getting cosy in bed together: they went and acquired the Nimble VR team. Their intentions for the headset are now looking clearer with skeletal hand tracking being a key part of the Virtual Reality experience in the near future. This is a welcome announcement because it solves one of the main problems with VR, which is the ability to interact with a controller whilst immersed and unable to see your body and the real world around you. The controller becomes something in the virtual world that can be manipulated with your virtual hands - like a steering wheel, floating buttons, or maybe just a huge big axe to wield!

This is where the boundaries between VR and AR start blurring as video feeds, depth sensors and skeletal hand tracking blends the real-world into the virtual to create an augmented experience. Things may get confusing in 2015 and already Microsoft has surprised everyone with the announcement of their Hololens headset. This looks to be very similar to the offering of Magic Leap who has been teasing us with rumours of a new holographic technology that promises magical results. What we know so far is that it uses some kind of fibre optic projection directly into your retina; and if that doesn’t turn you rhabdophobic and force you to immediately throw your laptop to the floor in horror then this article has more crazy speculation on what we may get a glimpse of in 2015.

Pushing boundaries

Whilst AR has been popular with agencies looking to quickly link existing media using services like Layar and Blippar; it is companies like Qualcomm and their Vuforia product that have been really pushing the boundaries with some amazing new AR innovation. Object Recognition without markers does away with image markers altogether and allows developers to add 3D models as the items to be augmented. Clearly this is perfect for toy manufacturers, allowing the customer to pimp their action figures and toy cars; but it could also be used to augment much larger objects like buildings or furniture.

Imagine an interactive instruction manual augmented over an industrial robot, for example. Extended Tracking also allows you to deliver a continuous experience even when the marker is no longer in view. This is great for augmenting that huge full-size CG model of a sofa into your living room.

3D scanning on mobile devices will make it even easier to augment content into the real world and Google’s Project Tango is a very exciting innovation that will revolutionise Augmented and Virtual Reality and open it up outside of gaming and marketing. This technology will allow us to use our mobile devices to 3D scan objects and the environment so we can use the resulting data in apps on the device. The potential uses as an accessibility tool are particularly exciting: imagine how useful this would be for the visually impaired?

Microsoft Research demonstrated something similar called RoomAlive using projectors and Kinect, but with these depth sensors built into our devices we should be able to avoid installing projectors all over our living room. It will be a little while before we all own the kit to justify agencies commissioning content; but it will be interesting to see what experiments people build with the development kits Google will be giving away. And let’s see what Apple pull out of the bag - or who’s bag they buy! Keep an eye on Structure too: they have a nifty little 3D scanner that you can plug into an iPad.

Here are some more standout VR projects from last year that are still being talked about:

Marriott Teleporter. This was a wonderful experiential piece from Marriott Hotels that transported users to one of three holiday destinations. To enhance the experience Framestore built a booth with the mechanics to blow air and spray a fine mist of water on the participant when they landed on the beach or were suspended over the city of London.

Pacific Rim Jaeger Pilot. The film hype was nothing compared to the hysteria generated by this VR experience created by Reel FX.

Interstellar 4D Experience. This VR experience was a more sedate journey in zero gravity through the tunnels and shafts of the Endurance.

Elite: Dangerous. This amazing MMO reboot of the classic BBC Micro game from the 80’s is even more spectacular when played through an Oculus Rift headset. Sadly not quite ready yet, but look out for an official release in 2015.

Eve: Valkyrie. Dogfighting has never been so exciting and futuristic with CCP Games’ soon to be released Valkyrie. As a huge fan of Eve, I’m personally looking forward to playing this one.

Alien: Isolation. The reaction videos on YouTube are enough to convince me that I DON’T want to play this game in VR. But if you do want to be frightened to near death, then you can unlock the VR mode on this game and give yourself a heart attack for the lolz.

Lee Probert is a creative technologist with Southpaw.