When it comes to technology and glasses, the majority of people will think that the world stopped innovating when contact lenses were invented. After all, have you seen any other type of glasses related innovation happening, or seen anything on the news?
And while it may be fair to think that technology has become stagnant in this field, the opposite is true. Much has been happening behind the scenes!
AR – Augmented Reality
Have you ever seen kids pointing their phone at an empty table? How about looking through their phone screen at a tree with nothing in it? What about a tourist looking at an old building using their phone?
Why were all of these people looking at the real world through their phone screen?
It called Augmented Reality, and it’ here to mix the virtual world with the real world.
In the above examples, where what was really happening:
- The kids were playing with virtual robots battling it out on the picnic table.
- The person was using their phone to identify the type of bird they were looking at.
- The tourist was using their phone screen to overlay a picture of what a historic building used to look like, right on top of the real-life image on their screen.
That’s right! AR brings the virtual world right into the real world with a multitude of possibilities that go far beyond these three examples. For example, imagine that you are in a boutique and you see an item for sale. For example, imagine being able to view the Groupon Coupons page for Walmart and being able to do your grocery shopping in a virtual aisle from the comfort of your couch!
Snapchat Spectacles
If you haven’t’ heard about Snapchat, it is an app which allows you to record short videos, add animations, and text, and then share them with the world. While it may seem silly, the app is insanely popular amongst teenagers.
The company who created the app have also created a pair of accompanying spectacles, called Snapchat Spectacles. At a glance, these look like regular fashionable sunglasses. However, if you close attention you will notice that they have a tiny camera lens on the front with a small button. When the button is pressed, the camera leaps into action and immediately starts to record what the viewer is seeing.
While it can seem like a bit of a gimmick, it’s actually the powering technology which is the most exciting. Regularly, when you record a video, you either record it in portrait or landscape mode, depending on what you are recording.
However, with snapchat spectacles, the camera records a full circle of vision. While it may seem strange to read, it means that, while playing a video on your phone, you can swap between landscape mode and portrait mode to see more of what is happening in the video!
As you can see from reading about just two products that technology and glasses have been playing nice for some time now, and are working hard behind the scenes to bring you the technology of the future, today.
