In a seminal article on augmented reality (AR) [7], Ron Azuma defines AR as
a variation of virtual reality (VR), which completely immerses a user inside a
synthetic environment. Azuma says “In contrast, AR allows the user to see the real
world, with virtual objects superimposed upon or composited with the real world”
[7] (emphasis added). Typically, a user wears a tracked stereoscopic head-mounted
display (HMD) or holds a smartphone, showing the real world through optical or
video means, with superimposed graphics that provide the appearance of virtual
content that is related to and registered with the real world. While AR has been
around since the 1960s [72], it is experiencing a renaissance of development and
consumer interest. With exciting products from Microsoft (HoloLens), Metavision
(Meta 2), and others; Apple’s AR Developer’s Kit (ARKit); and well-funded
startups like Magic Leap [54], the future is looking even brighter, expecting that
AR technologies will be absorbed into our daily lives and have a strong influence
on our society in the foreseeable future.
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The Rise of Allocentric Interfaces and the Collapse of the Virtuality Continuum
The popular concepts of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality
(AR) arose from our ability to interact with objects and environments
that appear to be real, but are not. One of the most powerful
aspects of these paradigms is the ability of virtual entities to embody
a richness of behavior and appearance that we perceive as compatible
with reality, and yet unconstrained by reality. The freedom to
be or do almost anything helps to reinforce the notion that such
virtual entities are inherently distinct from the real world—as if they
were magical. This independent magical status is reinforced by the
typical need for the use of “magic glasses” (head-worn displays) and
“magic wands” (spatial interaction devices) that are ceremoniously
bestowed on a chosen few. For those individuals, the experience is
inherently egocentric in nature—the sights and sounds effectively
emanate from the magic glasses, not the real world, and unlike the
magic we are accustomed to from cinema, the virtual entities are
unable to affect the real world.
This separation of real and virtual is also inherent in our related
conceptual frameworks, such as Milgram’s Virtuality Continuum,
where the real and virtual are explicitly distinguished and mixed.
While these frameworks are indeed conceptual, we often feel the
need to position our systems and research somewhere in the continuum,
further reinforcing the notion that real and virtual are distinct.
The very structures of our professional societies, our research communities,
our journals, and our conferences tend to solidify the
evolutionary separation of the virtual from the real.
However, independent forces are emerging that could reshape
our notions of what is real and virtual, and transform our sense of
what it means to interact with technology. First, even within the
VR/AR communities, as the appearance and behavioral realism of
virtual entities improves, virtual experiences will become more real.
Second, as domains such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and the
Internet of Things (IoT) mature and permeate throughout our lives,
experiences with real things will become more virtual. The convergence
of these various domains has the potential to transform
the egocentric magical nature of VR/AR into more pervasive allocentric
magical experiences and interfaces that interact with and
can affect the real world. This transformation will blur traditional
technological boundaries such that experiences will no longer be
distinguished as real or virtual, and our sense for what is natural
will evolve to include what we once remember as cinematic magic.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1800961
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10105855
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Symposium on Spatial User Interaction
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 192 to 192
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3267782.3278470
