{"id":672,"date":"2018-02-16T15:37:28","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T15:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.happyfinish.com\/wordpress\/?p=672"},"modified":"2023-05-04T08:53:23","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T08:53:23","slug":"future-mixed-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happyfinish.com\/future-mixed-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future of Mixed Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Glued to your smartphone? Soon it will be glued to you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On average we now spend a whopping 1\/3<\/a> of our waking day looking at our smartphones, staring into those small screens and filtering through an endless stream of content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are addicted and we know it \u2013 over half<\/a> of us check our phones within the first 15 minutes of our day. There are even products out there to wean us off our phones, like this<\/a> latest low-tech device that allows you to satisfy your compulsion to swipe and scroll. It seems we\u2019ve accepted our smartphone dependency and have no intention of going cold turkey. But make no mistake, this addiction will not last forever\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest companies in the world are scrambling<\/a> to find the solution (or evolution<\/em>) to the problem. The tech industry isn\u2019t concerned about the ramifications of our addiction \u2013 to them, the issue with small handheld devices is in the name; they\u2019re small, and they are handheld. Even with the frameless, bezel-free design of newer models, integrating this technology with our day-to-day lives is limited by a phone\u2019s physical constraints. This is based on a wider principle of digital evolution. From the point-and-click of a mouse through to the more intuitive gestures of a touchscreen, each iteration of device shortens the \u2018chain of command\u2019 and in doing so enhances our sense of \u2018presence\u2019 within the digital world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what is the next<\/em> step on from touchscreen? Most are betting on Virtual\/Augmented Reality, or more accurately the all-encompassing term Mixed Reality (MR).          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a brief moment, Pokemon Go seemed to open the floodgates for AR, but the very brevity of the craze meant many regarded the technology as a mere fad. Meanwhile, Google Glass\u2019 failed attempt to lay down the gauntlet in the wearable market seems to highlight the public\u2019s reluctance to be a \u2018Glasshole\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the industry giants aren\u2019t listening. Let\u2019s take Apple as an example. Tim Cook confirmed he believes AR will be the \u2018next smartphone\u2019 in an interview<\/a> with The Independent. In an even bolder step, the tech behemoth recently announced<\/a> they hope to have succeeded the iPhone with wearable MR hardware by as early as 2020. Then there\u2019s the hush-hush hype of Magic Leap; the $2bn funded, ultra-secretive company who have finally unveiled<\/a> their first gen offering, Magic Leap One. When can you have one? Form an orderly queue, if their rate of progress so far is anything to go by we could be waiting a while\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just the thought of our digital and physical lives overlapping often provokes negative reactions. If real blends with surreal, how much autonomy will we keep within our day to day lives? The question is valid, and it\u2019s one that Hyper-Reality (<\/em>a short film created by visionary filmmaker Keiichi Matsuda, see above) answers in a terrifying fashion. This dystopian vision reveals how Mixed Reality could invade<\/em> rather than enhance our day-to-day lives as we follow one person\u2019s struggle through a world of convoluted information. Is this affrontive, ad-fuelled world inevitable? Well, Alphabet (Google\u2019s parent company) is the world\u2019s most powerful organisation and advertising drives 88% of their revenue. Then there\u2019s Facebook, who generated 97%<\/strong> of their earnings through adverts last year. It\u2019s clear that for them the biggest priority is ensuring as many people see their ad content as frequently as possible. Those who have ever found personalised advertising invasive or \u2018creepy\u2019 online may shudder at the thought of this being brought to the omnipresent world of Mixed Reality\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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