MR + AI = The Future
The dawn of complete immersion in an engaging and responsive virtual world – viable Mixed Reality – will break within our lifetime. We know that realistic environments that react in not just believable, but thrilling ways, are within our grasp.
The certainty of our accelerated progress has been illustrated by many, most recently Charlie Fink in Forbes Magazine. His argument that Augmented Reality headsets are inevitable is both as blunt a “hockey stick” and as carefully thought out as a TED talk.
While MR (and intelligent MR) are still on the horizon, we are already implementing AR technology in many ways. We’ve talked about it at length here on the Stambol blog. Fink and Pattie Maes both make excellent points that technology has passed the point of no return. Once the Harvard Business Review is preparing managers to implement AR, you know a paradigm shift has already taken place.
In terms of MR’s progress, we believe Artificial Intelligence is what will make graphics and hardware truly come to life. Once we can interact with simulated people smart enough to learn and grow with us, we may be challenged to redefine words like ‘friendship’ and ‘person’ for which most of us have a clear understanding. This will evolve into a world as unrecognizable to us now as the smartphone generation would have been to the world before Alexander Graham Bell.
So, at the moment, the greatest challenge for the VR industry is communicating these concepts to the public without sounding like writers of science fiction. Our readers are still (but not for long) in the position of having to visualize this future. So, we love sharing videos that help this process along.
Mixed Reality for Immersive Escapes
Will intelligent MR be entertaining? Sure. Imagine an interactive movie, similar to the examples above, that tailors the experience to the viewer. We’re not talking about a clunky and predictable choose-your-own-adventure. Or even a stilted one-sided dialogue flow that proceeds as you click through limited scripts. AI-powered Mixed Reality will feel like living within a story, no matter how fantastic or in-depth.
Mixed Reality for Hands-on Learning
Will intelligent MR have something to teach us? Now this is where things get more interesting. Simulations could become amazingly effective training tools. Anyone from law enforcement officers or psychotherapists to doctors, nurses, and teachers may one day participate in virtual training as real and dynamic as the jobs they will perform.
Artificial Intelligence for Real Virtual Life
AI has become a somewhat spooky topic depending on who is speaking. Are there any caveats for developers as we move forward? The answer may seem to be an obvious yes. We want to take a moment to remind all our readers that what makes NOW such an exciting time to be a part of immersive technology is that we are in the ideal position to get this right. We have the power to shape what MR and AI can do together, and how we use them, both as a society and as individuals.
Ask Stambol about where this technology is going, where it can take your business – and how our experts can help you get there.
Photo Credit: Willyam Bradberry / Shutterstock
