In What Ways Will AR Impact Our Lives? Augmented reality has an abundance of use cases, we’re sure that you’ve experienced or at least heard it before. Focusing on product visualization to provide businesses with the ability to show virtual products in real-time in their real environment, augment is certainly emerging out to be a bleeding-edge technology.
Poised to change life in a number of ways, AR will benefit everyone from consumers to business owners. Here’s how:
Urban Exploration Strongly tied to navigation, AR will undoubtedly help in improvising navigation through mobile devices and manufactured vehicles. It may completely revamp how we navigate the world, both indoors and outdoors. New age cars will use AR to paint a clear depiction of directions without having to look away from the road.
Overlaying information along the way with directions that lead you through your environment is how augmented reality will revolutionize exploration. For instance, a fun way to explore your city — or any city — is to overlay 3D maps that show what the city looked like at any point in history.
Safety and Rescue Operations One of the most consistent use cases of AR is in safety and rescue operations. In rescue operations, ideally, first responders will be presented with a detailed overlay of information of the environment. AR could provide a 3D map of the area to equip first responders with the most informaZtion possible; bringing a never-before transparency to the scene of the incident. AR companies like Daqri are focused on assisting on-site manufacturing and construction workers. There’s a dire need for safety in these environments and with Daqri’s AR-enabled smart helmet, workers can see relevant and actionable data anytime, anywhere. One of the prime capabilities of the headset is overlaying augmented work instructions to show workers (live) how something should be fixed or assembled. This lends itself to many uses within production and manufacturing that would otherwise require multiple steps.
Improving Ecommerce
Buying different types of items online can be a tough job since some products simply need to be seen up close before we’re ready to commit to buying. With AR, that may not be the case any longer. World-famous Sephora has already started using AR tech to offer their ecommerce customers an app that lets them “try on” makeup over a selfie. IKEA, too, has released a similar platform through which users can superimpose images of furniture and fixtures over their immediate surroundings. This, undoubtedly, makes it much easier to see what a product might actually look it in your home or office. As more and more companies begin to recognize the potential of this technology, it’s likely that more will embrace it.
Customer Service
Who likes to call customer service — to be put on hold and stuck listening to a script recited by a rep? Probably no one. AR has the solution to this as well. In the future, if you're having trouble setting up your TV, or your cable are cuts off, you can have customer service come to you. For instance, AR software would access the user's camera, so if you're setting up technology at home and having problems, the support team can access the camera and in real-time, overlay instructions through the camera. Thus, instead of hearing generic instructions, like "Unplug the red cord" and "double-check the port," someone could walk you through the process and see the things you're seeing, enabling the customer service rep to point things out in a more detailed, visual way and helping problems get solved in a more efficient manner.