Pokémon Go has brought augmented reality – the technology that allows digital content to overlay the real world – to the masses. But, explains artist and director of New York University’s Mobile Augmented Reality Lab Mark Skwarek, this is just the “tip of the iceberg.”
Instead of just video chatting with someone on the other side of the world, what if you could strap on cameras and sit in the same room? Instead of watching a video of how to fix your car, people could soon have that information overlaid on an actual engine. “You could have something like an industrial revolution take place with something like this,”Skwarek says. But he’s not all optimism, predicting that in as little as five years people could be grappling with digital overload – and even addiction. “Things are gonna be weird,” he promises.
