The World Has Waited For Augmented Reality - And Now I Get To Be Apart Of It

Whether the world realizes it or not, we’ve been waiting for digital reality perception technology to exist in the mainstream for decades. A whole generation of children, myself included, were raised on the Japanese shonen anime of the mid 90’s and early 2000’s which, given the rise in computer technology that was taking place in that time, wound up having overtly technological undertones. These animes of this magical era included Digimon, Pokemon and YuGiOh. These shows all had their worlds integrated with the technology around them.

I didn’t realise until recently when I started working as a producer on an AR project with a creative media house, SkyHigh Productions, just how much AR technology shaped my perception of the technology of the future, but it did. 

Now that my career has led me to enter the space, I’m looking back on my life and realised just how much mixed-reality has played a part, and, whether I realised it or not, augmented reality has been something my life has been missing.

It All Started With Hitotsu-Me Giant

See the following example. This gif is from the very first episode of YuGiOh which aired on the 16th of April, 2000. 

Seto Kaiba had kidnapped Yugi’s grandfather and challenged him to a game of duel monsters for the old man's life. Yugi agreed and was taken to Kaiba’s state-of-the-art arena where the game took place. Kaiba took the first turn and played the monster, ‘Hitotsu-Me Giant’ (forgot how weird that name is). It rose menacingly out of the ground to challenge our protagonist, assembling from raw code in front of our eyes, and that’s how an entire generation of pre-teen children were introduced to holographic technology.

Holograms and augmented reality are obviously not the same thing. Holograms are a projection of light which simulate objects and people in the real world, while augmented reality is a mixed-reality system that allows us to interact with digitally-generated assets in the world around us. 

Augmented reality is the more practical, realistic and market viable alternative to holograms and virtual reality in terms of people's interactions with their technology. Though the latter two have their place in the world, since AR really boomed, it’s believed to be the world’s future. In fact, the biggest companies in the world, such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sony and Samsung have already pumped millions into seeing what the technology can do for them. CEO Tim Cook of Apple believes it’ll be the biggest shaper of our future, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s already seen tremendous success.

The Obvious Example in Augmented reality

We can’t talk about the impact of AR technology and its ties to japanese media without talking about Pokemon GO, the biggest thing to hit the world - three years ago. It was released in July of 2016 and instantly became a phenomenon, but many glitches and barriers to entry caused a lot of those initial players to drop off. During that first year, however, it is estimated that Pokemon Go generated 2 billion dollars.

Pokemon Go is still played regularly, but these days its fanbase is a smaller, loyal group, with a few people who just drifted back onto the app to see how it had changed.

What’s important to remember about Pokemon GO was that, for the first time, accessible, understandable, enjoyable and - more importantly for future financiers, profitable AR driven technology could be distributed to everyone.

It was the first time that Augmented Reality crossed over into our world. That summer, when Pokemon could be hunted, battled and held in our hands - well - it was like ‘Hitotsu-Me Giant’ rose out of the ground once again. The childhood excitement was at times overpowering.

Let Me Be Clear About AR

I had no idea that what I really wanted when I was younger was indeed AR or some other mixed-reality system. While watching YuGiOh as a 6 year old, I never wondered about the future economic impact of convenient augmented reality apps. I was thinking ‘How is the Dark Magician going to defeat Blue-eyes when it has 500 less attack points?’ and other stuff that stopped me going out and playing with the other kids.

That’s what you have to remember about consumers. They don’t always have to understand how the technology works. The majority of people will never understand how AR assets will be anchored into their environment or what triggers the code, be it a geolocation or some sort of scannable data link. 

What they will understand however is whether it’ll improve their lives and play on their curiosity. Sometimes we know what we want before the technology is even built yet, but we can all feel ourselves moving towards it .

 That’s the beauty of technology. It seeps into our lives and good technology integrates around you. You can see it and feel it in the world, without ever knowing it was really there in the first place. Holograms weren’t a new thing. Star Trek had explored the impacts and functions of holodecks years before, but there was something about growing up with these technologies in our cartoons that made them so real. 

Even before Pokemon GO, I was convinced we’d one day see a game of YuGiOh played out in holograms like on the show. I figured it would take years, but I was hopeful to see it in my lifetime. Now I understand augmented reality is much more likely, and I can see it fast approaching the mainstream, and I’m excited.

The creators of Pokemon GO, Niantic, are far ahead of the curve, but other companies will catch up eventually, and there will be competition in the space.

Elder Labs and Difficulties Funding

Another example from my life, just to show how everyone is looking to AR for the future of their immersive experiences, is my love for the popular roleplaying game, Dungeons and Dragons. 

In early 2018, the game played an important part of the debate when a small team from a company called Elder Labs began a Kickstarter. They planned to create a series of tokens that were tied to an Android and IOS app that would allow the many creatures you could confront and battle in the game to appear on your phone.

Despite the excitement of the project, they fell short of their goal. They managed to raise an impressive 70k in funding on the platform, but sadly set their goal as 250k. That’s, at the heart, what is slowing augmented reality down right now. A lack of funding, stemming from investors being worried about throwing their money at unproven technologies. 

Elder Labs needed way too much capital to get their, frankly, fantastic idea off of the ground. They couldn’t rely on just fans and needed an investor to take the technology to the next level. So where are the investors?

Seriously? Where Are The Investors

Or why isn’t the focus being put on the small creator? The innovators who’re looking at this technology and whose minds are exploding with ideas and are pouring hundreds of their own hours following this passion are the ones who’ll make the biggest leaps. Of that there’s no doubt.

One of the things people forget about the internet was how amazing it was for the small but intelligent creator during the dot-com boom years. Smaller businesses sprung up all the time that took the technology in a new direction. Microsoft, the largest computer company in the world, grew and became as expansive as it did because it acquired 225 businesses like this, diversifying their portfolio with each purchase. Each purchase was a new take on the technology.

The businesses currently funding AR and other mixed-reality systems are all doing it internally. Facebook is just experimenting to see what Facebook can do. Same with Google and Samsung and all the others. Very little of that funding is external, focusing on what the small creator can bring to the table. Thinking of the true limits of AR, instead of just updating a years old concept.

Where I am now with Augmented Reality

I now have a much greater understanding of where our future is going, and many more questions to go along with it. It’s still uncertain, and Augmented Reality is still in its infancy when it comes to its impact on our lives, but the internet was young once, and now society would collapse without it. The potential connectivity augmented reality offers, I personally feel, will be as vital to our world one day as the internet is now.

Augmented reality could be the same as the dot-com boom. The case of Elder Labs prove that small, intelligent creators exist in this space as well, and they are worth investing in. As I make my way into this space, I’m looking at the technology I get to collaborate on and I’m optimistic. 

It might take a while longer for the world to realise the full potential of the AR. When we do finally catch up, the generation to come will never understand how we lived without it. Me? I’m hoping, someday soon, I can summon my Hitotsu-Me Giant.