

Ask HN: practical uses for augmented reality? - zxcvvcxz

Say you&#x27;ve got a pair of computerized glasses that can augment your vision, not just by overlaying, but by projecting 3D models onto your environment.<p>While I think this tech is really cool, I&#x27;m having a hard time seeing what industries could benefit, or how one could make a business out of it.
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josephpmay
-Modify your surroundings:

Don't like the bare walls and blue doors at your office? Use the glasses to
put pictures up on the walls and change the door colors.

Don't like your husband's shirt but don't want to insult him? Have you glasses
display a nicer shirt on him.

Can't afford a nice couch because you're a starving start-up founder? Get a
cheep one on Craigslist and use your glasses to make it look like it's made of
leather.

Don't want to pay for a TV in every room, or a second monitor for your
desktop? Use your glasses glasses to virtualize all of those.

-Business uses:

Need to tour the new building but don't want to fly halfway across the globe?
Tap into a co-worker's glasses' feed to get a real-life virtual tour.

What to do A/B testing on physical devices? Virtual models are even cheaper
than 3D printed ones.

-Education uses:

Teaching students about the functioning of a cell? Let them actually enter the
cell and explore how it works themselves.

Want to give students an impression of how huge dinosaurs actually were? Put a
life-size virtual model of a T-Rex inside the classroom.

------
LoganCale
Teachers knowing names and information of each of their students just by
looking at them.

Virtual stores occupying empty physical space.

Guides on how to do just about anything—learn to play instruments, repair
things, emergency first aid.

Navigation overlays and guided tours with Wikipedia information popups.

~~~
zxcvvcxz
"Teachers knowing names and information of each of their students just by
looking at them."

Maybe for substitutes.

"Guides on how to do just about anything—learn to play instruments, repair
things, emergency first aid."

Here are some of my thoughts on instruments. For the piano, you're much better
off creating a keyboard that lights up the right keys at the right time so you
just place your hands on top of them, and build muscle memory faster that way.
For string instruments (including the guitar), you're not really able to look
at your own hands, and looking at someone else's hands in a reversed view is
confusing - and can be done with a video overlay vs. any augmented reality.
Could I be overlooking a teaching mechanism here you had in mind?

"Navigation overlays and guided tours with Wikipedia information popups."

Yeah I generally think overlays are better uses for computerized glasses.
However my question was targeted specifically at augmented reality, which I
consider different from straight-up overlays such as Google Glass showing you
a map. Perhaps I should have clarified better.

"Virtual stores occupying empty physical space."

This I like. I was actually tinkering with software to make a marker-based AR
haunted house. Basically there would be QR-code-like markers everywhere, and
as you'd look at them through the Glasses, something scary would pop up =)
Regardless, the haunted house idea seems like a novelty. And the virtual store
thing seems to imply that lots of consumers would have computerized glasses -
or the store could own them and lend them out, but then how many do you need
to buy, and is it really worth it?

~~~
LoganCale
Regarding teachers, I'm thinking of lecture classes with 100 students. A
similar feature would be great in other opt-in environments like parties or
other situations where one wants to meet people.

Regarding teaching mechanisms, for instruments the advantage of AR over custom
hardware is that you don't have to buy a special learning piano or guitar, you
can just use the one you've got with your AR glasses.

------
dakotasmith
Guide someone through repairing a car or some other device.

Assessing volume and packing a truck or car optimally.

Making it look like someone's zipper was down.

~~~
zxcvvcxz
I don't understand the value proposition because I believe most of these
problems (with the exception of possibly the last) can be solved more easily.

Video instructions - even if overlayed in Google Glass, let alone a nearby
phone or tablet - will do this fine. This is the most compelling AR demo I've
seen that realizes your first idea:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVV5tUmky6c](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVV5tUmky6c)

While it's super-cool tech, I really feel that a video screen or overlay video
does the same job just fine. It's still digital content consumption, at the
end of the day.

So then there's digital content creation. Well, you can try sculpting or
designing structures with your hands some virtual 3D models all day, but I bet
(and please correct me if I'm wrong) that it will _never_ be as efficient as
using CAD with a screen and qwerty keyboard.

"Assessing volume and packing a truck or car optimally." Hmm, this sounds like
an interesting use-case. Could you give an example of where this might save
people tons of time and/or money?

~~~
dakotasmith
As a glasses wearer, I feel like replacing my lenses with screens eventually
is a forgone conclusion.

Imagine something with LIDAR, scans the engine block to know what model year
you are working on and pulls up the Chilton Manual 3D app and suddenly you
know exactly where that vacuum hose is that you want to replace.

The packing one is just because I'm moving right now, and again, what I want
is, something to scan the boxes and the vehicle and let me know how to fit the
most stuff in. It wouldn't have to be glasses, but it wouldn't bother me.

You bring up input devices and such, and I really just think of it as a
display, plain and simple. I would much rather manipulate interfaces that I
already know or are made for manipulation. But I don't need to carry around a
screen all the time, either.

tl;dr I don't want to wave my hands around like an idiot OR hunch over staring
at a screen.

