VR and AR: the Future of Design
The new, viral, ‘eye to screen’ magnet Pókemon Go has caught the design community in a whirlwind. Some have been working like crazy to build the next piece of hardware to accompany you and your pocket monsters. Nintendo themselves have even developed an expansion piece to their game. Their portable wrist expansion vibrates when Pókemon are near and allows you to throw a pókeball as well. The company TRNDlabs has developed a miniature drone that can fly to dangerous areas, keeping you safe. I can also imagine that being pretty helpful for hatching eggs as well. The design that has really captured our attention is a revolutionary sneaker by Vixole. Matrix—as the shoe is called—can, not only be personalized with highly customizable images that light up the back of the shoe, but can also be hooked up with Pókemon Go. Yes, this pretty spectacular, and surprisingly stylish shoe, can help you catch Pókemon. As you wander around these shoes can be programmed to vibrate when you are near a Pókemon. Not only that but they also show a moving version of the Pókemon as you attempt to catch it. Quite an upgrade from the light up sneakers you wore as a kid.
While some have been losing it for the next potential physical piece of equipment to be your Pókemon capturing companion, there are those that have been even more excited about the potential future this—not so—little game has been hinting at: a future of designing—in real time—in three dimensions. We can already see things like this in our day-to-day lives, like 3D printing software and the even more tangible, Lix pen. This pen offers the ability to literally draw in 3D. While this pen shows some of the potential 3D printing has to offer, it doesn’t exactly paint a sturdy picture.
Virtual reality has invented a whole new way to see and interact with things, such as gaming, and the less mentionable adult film industry, but what exactly has it done for the world of design. Google’s Tilt Brush, is a pretty amazing piece of equipment. Although it doesn’t allow for supreme accuracy, the Tilt Brush does allow you to paint an entire world in three dimensions. It has even been used—in the advert—for the initial stage of clothing design, but I can imagine it has been used for other facets of design as well. Being able to paint in three dimensions in real time is a pretty amazing accomplishment, but the Tilt Brush, aside from its brush accuracy, is missing one key ingredient to be a major deal for designers; it’s lacking real world compatibility. As a designer you want to be able to be connected to the real world and real, tangible things as you make your next great design masterpiece. This is where augmented reality really stands out.
Augmented reality, allows designers to exist in the same space as there design while being able to digitally add to it. While Google Glass failed and has now been discontinued until further notice, it paved the way for the future of augmented reality in design. As you laughed and said, “I would never wear something that looks that stupid,” Google Glass was building the next step in augmented reality. With hand free video, and small amounts augmented virtual space, Google Glass may have been a little ahead if it’s time. It’s pretty exciting trying to imagine what their redesign might accomplish. Google Glass is also exciting cause it led to the most versatile augmented reality headset for designers: the HoloLens by Microsoft. This augmented reality headset allows for designers to make real world decisions based on both reality and high definition holograms that can be moved around, scaled, and duplicated with the tips of your fingers. While using this device, an architect can zoom into his design and exist in the physical space he designed, and change details in split seconds as he moves through the building. Just check out this video of Greg Lynn doing just that. An augmented reality headset might just be the future of design and life, as we know it.
The future of an augmented reality is… very real, and every day we make steps toward a future where we can design in real time, in three dimensions. So at the end of this post Pókemon Go might seem like a bit of a let down—especially if you’ve been going to the links—but it’s still the first application of augmented reality on a mass scale, which is always a good step for us dreaming designers.
If you want to check out what life might be like completely surrounded by augmented reality, check out this video here. No need to watch the whole video, but definitely skim through some of it and see some pretty amazing potential applications of augmented reality.