Virtual Reality is so 2008 – 2009 hype is Augmented Reality
This statement :
Virtual Reality is so 2008 – 2009 hype is Augmented Reality
sounds awfully wrong and yet it’s something I’m witnessing a lot lately, and I’m feeling uncomfortable about this.
I feel that this kind of hype is only dictated by communication agencies to have their clients make their way to the headlines. It has never had any real bound to the business side of the technology being used as hype vector.
For instance in 2006 there was a huge hype around Second Life and web3D but it’s only now that we start understanding how we can use this as a productivity tool and actually make money out of it in both business and personal use cases. Yet the hype created by the agencies has had a negative effect on the technology that has been soon perceived as outdated and useless.
The same thing is going on about Augmented Reality, it’s being pushed to create funky user interactions for brands and yet no real use case gets out of those trials. Even worse the whole creation chain of augmented reality content (i.e. stamping somehow real “things”, and associating them with 3D content) is far from being ready.
Somehow I feel like there are already so many mature use cases that could be used to value existing technologies (such as advergames web, mobile or console-based) and that haven’t yet been explored to their full potential that I feel like going to the next hype is somehow pointless… and from an end-user prospective it’s just trash-communication where you enjoy being part of a “premiere” but 5 mins later you get bored and trash the application away without creating any bound with the brand.
Hi Alexander, I really enjoyed your blogpost. I’m not a VR expert, but I think VR/immersive virtuality is being used for serious things more than people realize. Like building better airplanes and cars, teaching people how to do repair work, helping to cure phobias. My perception is that the general public associates VR with just games and fun. Augmented reality is another interesting flavor that people are starting to enjoy in walk-through scientific and art/cultural expos. Perhaps the more the general public is exposed to this goodness, the easier it will be to convince industries that such applications will help them to drive business in some way or another. But I think if people & companies are doing a good job delivering interesting content, the public will stop seeing the VR or AR aspect and just enjoy/benefit from the experiences they help to create.