1.Wait… You Mean Like the Snapchat Dog Filters?
Yes and no! I’m sure by now we’ve all seen young people play around with Snapchat and Faceapp, altering their appearances to produce some admittedly funny results. It may sound silly at first, but Augmented Reality is actually Billion-Dollar industry! Simply put, Augmented Reality projects computer-generated visuals onto images in real time. So far, we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible with this fascinating technology.
2. What’s the Hype?
AR is a mega-versatile technology, with diverse use-cases across many different industries. The technology enhances our natural perception by superimposing an informational layer that recognizes and corresponds to objects in the world. This technology is being developed and used in industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, retail, education, military and music to name only a few.
3. Billion with a B?
AR market predictions vary depending on who you ask, but one thing can be certain: It’s going to be huge. Uncertainty can likely be attributed to growth being dependant on supporting-hardware platforms, like the AR headset teased by Amazon recently. I put together a handy chart below, comparing some industry predictions:
Sources:
BusinessWire, Statista, MarketsAndMarkets, MarketWatch, TechCrunch, GoldmanSachs, Consultancy.UK, Orbis, Zion, BIS
4. Cool! What now?
Augmented Reality is a rising star in the tech world, and is already being taken advantage of in NASA, the US Army, Walmart, Boeing, and Google to name just a few. It’s worth noting that one of the challenges with AR is building the infrastructure around the core technology. High-technology companies are working diligently to bring AR to new heights, developing new software and hardware for the AR revolution right around the corner.
Lee Kaplan, Edgybees
