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Next-gen augmented reality will target human sensorium

Photo: Benjamin Linh VU/flickr

When most of us think of augmented reality, thanks to Google, we think of dorky glasses with an ugly camera mounted on the frame. But what about the other senses? What if all of them were augmented and all those augmentations worked in concert?

That broader view of AR might be closer to what tech companies will be unveiling in the next couple of years. Humans take in enormous amounts of sensory input every second. We make judgements about threats, reactions, choices and pleasures from subtle and dramatic changes in the patina of inputs we're swaddled in. 

Some decisions are made on minuscule cues -- a wink, a flicker at the periphery of vision, a rough burr on a flat surface, a chirp.

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Columnists

Tapping on the window of invisible touch

Photo: Hernán Piñera/flickr

A wink is a single binary bit of information. The eye is either open or closed. But, across a dinner table, or a crowded room, a wink can communicate so much: "I'm in on the joke." "I saw what you did." "I'm on your side, kiddo." The tiny gesture pulls meaning from circumstance, context and relationship, directs its beam and then condenses it into a fleeting twitch of an eyelid.

Social gestures like that put pay to the notion that rich meaning requires high bandwidth. The gentle or painful squeeze of a hand on a forearm is loaded with opposite meaning and, even if delivered by the same person in the same circumstance, the simple variant of pressure speaks volumes.

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We welcome your comments! rabble.ca embraces a pro-human rights, pro-feminist, anti-racist, queer-positive, anti-imperialist and pro-labour stance, and encourages discussions which develop progressive thought. Our full comment policy can be found here. Learn more about Disqus on rabble.ca and your privacy here. Please keep in mind:

Do

  • Tell the truth and avoid rumours.
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  • Report typos and logical fallacies.
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