Here’s the Most Exciting Technology You’ll Ever Encounter
By Christopher Mims
This is the story of the most exciting technology you’re ever likely to encounter, which could transform how we interact with computers in the 21st century. That is a big claim. But I’ll bet that five, 10, 20 years from now, I’ll be able to point to this column and say, “I told you so.” I’m talking about augmented reality, or AR. It’s often misunderstood or mischaracterized, and has been overshadowed by its cousin, virtual reality. Moreover, the best-known example of AR, Google Glass, has largely been a failure so far.
To understand AR, imagine a display that sits, not on your desk or in your hand, but in front of your eyes. Today, these displays are unwieldy, ranging from bulkier versions of safety glasses to something akin to a bicycle helmet. They have other limitations, such as a narrow field of view, relatively poor resolution and problems with lag.
But many technologists believe that within five years, these displays will be able to project a virtual screen on every surface.
Imagine looking at your wrist and seeing a smartwatch—only you’re not wearing a watch. Imagine looking at your hand and seeing a smartphone or a tablet, only you’re not carrying one. Imagine looking at a wall and, with a gesture, transforming it into a giant display—your entire workspace, with you wherever you go. Imagine a world without screens, save the one we bring with us. Nearly every tech giant is working on AR.. and dozens of startups are staking claims
(snip)
Getting there won’t be easy because the technical challenges of AR are, if anything, greater than VR. Really good AR requires an amount of computing power and sensors equivalent to the equipment in a self-driving car, engineers say.
But such computing power already can be squeezed into a smartphone. Many new phones are more powerful than the computer in the car that won the 2005 Darpa grand challenge, in which an autonomous vehicle conquered 142 miles of trackless Mojave Desert.
(snip)
Perhaps AR’s biggest hurdle will be human. As we saw with Google Glass, wearing a computer on your face can provoke visceral reactions stemming from our fears of surveillance and sacrificing our humanity to the machines. The most likely reason my prediction may fail is that people won’t want to wear AR gear except when they have to for work.
AR is sneaking up on us because, unlike the smartphone, its first customers and applications are for businesses. Few consumers have seen an AR system, and fewer still have tried several. But I have, and I’m willing to stake my reputation on this: AR is the future, the dominant way we will interact with computers and the Internet.
Write to Christopher Mims at christopher.mims@wsj.com
http://www.wsj.com/articles/heres-the-most-exciting-technology-youll-ever-encounter-1457928061
= new reply since forum marked as read
All I want is an AI (Robot) to help me around the house. 
I'll settle for the model you describe: cleaning, simple cooking, mowing lawn.
It has to do laundry and make the beds too.
If such a creature can be invented, I will never go to a nursing home.
What would the robot look like, would it talk, can you tell me more about it?
cleaning ( use a rhoomba )
plus dusting...mark valuables or similar with nfc (near field communication) so it hits them with a mild dusting compressed air as opposed to duster
windows..same but a marker strip around it
how would that look? probably r2d2/garbage can with 'arms' (simplest solution)
simple cooking probably simpler to automate kitchen/fridge/stove/freezer/pantry (grocery ordering as well to an inventory system)
then use the main unit as a 'slave arms' ..pick pan location 1, bring to stove, add heat, add butter, add egg, flip egg (or not)
for instance the arms of the main unit would have to have a scale in it
pick up cup, weigh it, add water, subtract weight of cup, amount of water established, pick up second cup, weigh second cup, fill with pancake mix, establish difference, mix the two in a bowl, max x stirrings, grab pan, heat to (eye runs IR thermometer) XXX degrees, add fat (by weight) so on
mowing..fully automated lawnmower no interaction with main unit
http://www.husqvarna.com/au/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/ (couldn't find the US site fast)
laundry ...as long as you thrown laundry into a bin...grab bin when full and throw sort by color (darkness) into machine..
making beds might be harder ..especially if you want quarter bouncers :-p
pure speculation based on what i've seen happening last years
most likely wouldn't look like androids (humans) more like industrial production lines
voice/talking today is easy, smartphone voice control (not perfect) but ...still
we now live in the future :-/ (good and bad)
But yes, I certainly see your point, very interesting.
Human animals are extremely complex creatures in terms of design and function;
it is going to be very hard to replicate even a very basic model.
Much easier to stick with machines that can function in a single purpose way.
If you saw El Machina, didn't the inventor of the AI robots, use Google download as a way
to over come the memory density issue?
Sorry to take up your time with questions and discussion.
Feel free to put me on ignore!
I love the jesuits, the intelligentsia of the church.
So neat to see Pope Francis, a jesuit, in the big seat.
For the love of heaven, you have not see El Machina???
You should watch it, about AI and very interesting from that perspective,
but also a great movie.
I hear you, I had not thought about losing connectivity.
But my iPhone rarely loses its connections, it is always connected,
wouldn't that be the case with my robot? And if my robot stays mostly in my home,
the disconnect would not be that common. I suppose I could not travel with her, or it.
Not sure what to call her.
In the movie, the inventor of the AIs, is a Steve Jobs type figure.
Eccentric, rich beyond belief, he is the inventor of a Google like search engine.
The largest and most well known search engine.
And perhaps I didn't understand what was said, but I thought he said
that instead of AI software he only needed hardware. The software was the search engine.
All of the wisdom of the entire planet accessible to each AI every second.
But yes, the internet goes down, your robot is dead in the water.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/garden/10-home-robots-to-lighten-your-domestic-chores.html
i'll put you on ignore when you annoy me
and so far you aren't close
we are having a respectful exchange of ideas
rare enough in these timesMaybe i can place an order.
Yes I agree, I am enjoying this discussion about robots, I have wanted one for so long.
Ever since I was a child reading Asimov and Heinlein.
Oh yes indeed, makes a very nice change from the primary brouhaha.
both as a kid ..so i dunno...how ever i've worked largely tech ever since
however i see dangers too
feed subliminal data for instance
aka 'hack the wetware'
something advertising companies have been doing for more than the last 30
