
We Won’t See Hard AR Anytime Soon (2012) - activatedgeek
http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-you-wont-see-hard-ar-anytime-soon/
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socmag
I think it's safe to say we won't be seeing truly immersive VR any time soon
either. At least any that doesn't make you want to blow chunks, or has a
compelling and broad raisondetre.

It's interesting to me since I've followed VR/AR for 40 years myself, and what
I can say is if you look at the money and hype that have surrounded HMD's
(especially in the last couple of years), the technology is still just not
there, and neither are the applications.

That said, a lot of very bright people are doing very cool things with
technology in the name of VR/AR. That can only be a good thing.

So keep at it...

Nice article, thanks for resurfacing it.

~~~
illumin8
"If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he
is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very
probably wrong." \- Arthur C. Clarke

Please, keep this in mind... ;-)

~~~
RandomOpinion
" _A witty saying proves nothing._ " \--Voltaire

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simon-am
The Magic Leap is rumoured to be able to create pure black: "Such may be used
to cancel light from the planar waveguides with respect to light from the
background or real world, in some respects similar to noise canceling
headphones." [http://gpuofthebrain.com/blog/2016/7/22/how-magic-leap-
will-...](http://gpuofthebrain.com/blog/2016/7/22/how-magic-leap-will-work)

~~~
AndrewKemendo
Realize, that site is pure speculation and nothing has been shown or
demonstrated by ML or otherwise that can "display black."

In theory it's possible to build a standing wave on the retina, but to do it
with pixel precision with a vrd/fsd is beyond difficult compounded worse by
form factor.

I disagree with the article that rendering black is necessary for wide
consumer adoption of AR.

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NegatioN
What makes you disagree with it? I haven't re-read this post from Abrash since
it was written (so I don't remember the arguments), but I think telling us
more about why you disagree can give valuable input to those of us who are not
in the field. :)

~~~
AndrewKemendo
To be clear his definition of Hard AR is different from consumer adoption. So
really my statement should say "I don't think we need 'Hard AR'" for AR to win
with consumers.

I disagree with it based on my interactions with naiive (not an epithet)
consumers who are playing in AR. They are excited enough about HMD AR when
shown that shadow casting and an AR version of "presence" isn't as much of a
consideration whether they would adopt or not. It comes down to "does this
provide value." Shadows create realism and people are flexible with realism.

That said, "casting shadows" would be a huge benefit and I think it will get
there eventually but there isn't a roadmap to it yet.

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kriro
Since SciFi in relation to AR is mentioned I though a recent episode of Black
Mirror I watched was pretty interesting ("Men Against Fire", S3E5). I won't
spoil it but the general idea was pretty interesting/food for though with
regards to uses of AR.

~~~
iLoch
Likewise I believe S02E01 - the Christmas episode - shares the idea a
similarly dystopian fate for AR.

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rb1
But we've seen "soft" AR and it appears to be fairly popular - Pokemon Go and
Ingress. If you ask players of either of those games, if they would like a
"harder" \- i guess this means more immersive - experience while playing these
games, they'll bite your hand off.

There's also father.io, which looks pretty fun, but I haven't tested that out
yet.

For me, in my uneducated almost ignorant understanding of the situation, AR
has a massive advantage over VR in that it tends to not make you quite as
motion sick.

~~~
mstolpm
But every player of Pokémon Go that really tries to play the game not just for
30 minutes disables the AR camera first to save battery and because it doesn't
add value. People using Pokémon Go with the AR cam enabled are young kids
(it's funny) and Asian tourists snapping photos with Pokémon in front of
landmarks and tourist spots.

I second your remark on motion sickness. And VR cuts the user/player from the
real world, which is a social annoyance outside your own living room.

~~~
moron4hire
The camera isn't the AR part. It's the real world map with game data overlaid.

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alkonaut
The requirements for "Hard AR" are the same as those for "good VR" becasue it
needs to use video so we need e.g. exact eye-driven focusing and super low
latency.

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nartam11
I'm still having a hard time understanding why adding a black pixel doesn't
work. I understand 0x008000 + 0x000000 = 0x008000. But if I were to add a drop
of black paint to a drop of green paint it would surely change the color. So
not sure where that analogy breaks down.

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juliangoldsmith
The problem is, adding a drop of black paint isn't mathematical addition. When
you add two different kinds of paint together, you mix them.

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zznneezznnee
Anyone know what the status is of CastAR? Haven't seen any updates for a while
now...

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abritinthebay
Last I saw from Jeri they were working on getting dev units out to people.
That was pretty recently

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leecarraher
make it small enough, process fast enough, and know every light source in the
frame are engineering problems... ok so why is drawing black not? seems like a
total engineering problem to me, one very easily solved by having lcd embedded
in the display, or e-ink, or well the host of things we've already done to
solve this problem. [https://www.amazon.com/Hanslin-LCD-Transparent-Alarm-
Clock/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Hanslin-LCD-Transparent-Alarm-
Clock/dp/B00BTTDQ6G)

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jcoffland
It seems that black pixels could be achieved using LCD technology. Even of
just to augment the display.

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yaakov34
Not really. At least not in the simple way of having an LCD screen somewhere
near the eye blocking out light from an object in a certain direction by
interposing a black pixel. It seems like it should work, but it would be
exactly like putting some paint on a camera lens and expecting it to block out
that exact part of the picture; it won't - the lens will simply get dimmer, or
if the area of paint is large, there would be darkening - vignetting - of a
part of the image, with a diffuse boundary; but nothing like a sharp mask.

You can easily convince yourself that this won't work for an eye. Of course,
you can use your finger to block out any object - as long as you hold your
finger well away from your eye. Now take a match, and try to block out objects
by holding it a centimeter in front of your eye; it doesn't work - you will
see a diffuse slightly darkened area, but all objects will be visible.

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jcoffland
Thank you for the explanation. I now see why this won't work.

It seems then that the best option would be a device which affects your neural
cortex more directly.

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provemewrong
Ignoring the refresh rate, you could draw black using e-ink screens.

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chridal
Article should be labeled (2012).

~~~
gman83
Which is when they were still actively developing an AR system, before
deciding against it: [http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/18/4343382/technical-
illusion...](http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/18/4343382/technical-illusions-
valve-augmented-reality-glasses-jeri-ellsworth-rick-johnson)

