The Augmented Future of Entertainment.
- sugandindesilva
- May 3, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 6, 2021
We all remember that one movie right? No. I’m not talking about your typical horror film of a girl jumping from a ring. Or the celestial being disturbing the pleasant man attempting to get his beauty sleep.
I’m talking about that one movie where it is so etched in the realm of possibility that it is genuinely terrifying!
For me, that movie was ‘Minority Report’. I still vividly recall the day I watched Tom Cruise attempting to save himself from the warped justice dished out by a dystopian hell. I gaped at a world where your iris was your digital fingerprint, and contact lenses were worn to deliver information and advertising directly to your eyeball.
With smart eyewear, this world of instant visual digital download is no longer a theory. Products and patents exist in the market today to bring about a new, radical technological wave that is sure to revolutionise social norms. Whether it is for the better or worse is yet to be seen.
Still, the fight back against smart glasses is strong! This raises some question marks about the future of wearable augmented contact lenses.
So, why exactly have smart glasses failed to capture the heart of a technology hungry generation? Surely, blending human vision with an augmented virtual visual world sounds thrilling right?
A few valid reasons exist…
Direct neural contact with carcinogenic radiation.
Unclear value creation for the every day customer.
Technology wasn’t able to deliver on the marketing promises.
Just plain ugly!
Does this mean it’s time to shelf the notion of popping on contact lenses, grabbing your popcorn, and watching the new episode of your favourite sitcom?
Not necessarily! The recent pandemic saw an increase in both the sale and innovation of smart glasses. With smart glasses helping relieve health care burden in countries like Netherlands, people are are starting to warm up to the funky wear. Augmented reality technology also garnered greater interest during months of working from home.
More companies are starting to recognise that smart eyewear may have a place for us everyday regular folks, not merely the niche market of avid gamers.
The CEO of Pokemon Go, a craze in 2016 with the wider public, recently teased of their first augmented reality glasses. Other companies within the entertainment industry not limited to gaming could very well follow suit.
Increased consumer adoption is achievable if smart eyewear were to offer these 3 cutting edge benefits:
(1). 3D printing that blends smart technology & vision correction.
(2). Optical comfort. Again the go-to solution is 3D!
3). Make smart eyewear a fashion statement. This is where implementation of clever marketing strategies come in.
What do you think?
Once kinks around functionality, wearability and safety of smart eyewear are sorted, would the public at large join forward thinking businesses and early adopters?
Will smart eyewear become the brand new way we see this fleeting world?
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