[HN Gopher] Show HN: Augmented reality apps made hands-on intera...
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       Show HN: Augmented reality apps made hands-on interactive
        
       Author : jing_qian
       Score  : 40 points
       Date   : 2022-04-22 14:05 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (portalble.cs.brown.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (portalble.cs.brown.edu)
        
       | chaostheory wrote:
       | Really impressive as an independent effort.
       | 
       | For other people, you probably won't have to do as much work
       | since this is already built into Meta's Quest platform
       | (https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/19/23031996/meta-quest-vr-
       | ar...), and I'm assuming that Apple's upcoming Reality OS will
       | have this baked in as well.
       | 
       | Did Google cancel their AR framework? I thought they had a
       | publicly released AR library on Android already.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | moron4hire wrote:
       | Back a few years ago, I had built an "industrial equipment
       | guided-repair" app for the Microsoft HoloLens. We decked out an
       | air compressor with with IoT-enabled sensors for various things
       | (the specifics don't matter as it was just a demo, but it was
       | stuff like temperature, vibration, etc.). The app used 3D object
       | recognition and overlayed live sensor data, graphs of historic
       | data, disassembly explosion animations, and step-by-step guides
       | for performing maintenance (e.g. replacing air filters,
       | lubricating components).
       | 
       | It was such a great use case for AR. The app even won a few small
       | awards.
       | 
       | Then the word came from on high that we needed to redo everything
       | on the iPad. Ultimately, it came down to the parent company of
       | the company I worked for having Microsoft as an auditing client
       | and Apple as a technology partner. So we weren't "allowed" to
       | have a relationship with Microsoft (even though one of the point
       | of not being directly in the parent company was to shield us from
       | those conflict of interest concerns) and we were being directed
       | to demonstrate a relationship with Apple.
       | 
       | Switching to having the tablet in one hand and trying to do
       | things with the air compressor with the other was hot garbage. We
       | had a thing that was glitzy and fun and and _useful_ and then
       | completely threw away every bit of substance in the app.
       | 
       | I tried so many different input modalities with the iPad to try
       | to salvage some semblence of usefulness out of it, including
       | camera-based hand-tracking. You could basically only comfortably
       | view data. Any level of interaction directly with the machine was
       | gone. Worst of all, people concurrently using the app from
       | different devices kept running into each other because they were
       | so tunnel-visioned by the tablet.
       | 
       | I don't think I've ever been so professionally disappointed in my
       | career.
        
       | maybenotafart wrote:
       | minecraft is going to have a field day
        
       | 101008 wrote:
       | I can imagine mixing this with a VR headset and I am sure it'd be
       | a great experience.
        
         | lazyjeff wrote:
         | So I'm a minor contributor to the posted project. And my
         | personal opinion is that phone AR and headset AR will be
         | completely different use cases.
         | 
         | Phones are everywhere because they fit in your pocket. Headsets
         | never will, so will be specialty hardware. Maybe I'm wrong and
         | it'll be normal to walk around with headsets everywhere, but I
         | just can't see it happening.
         | 
         | Phone AR is technologically worse, and the version we released
         | today is performance-wise not as good as the version with extra
         | hardware we released 3 years ago. But it's slowly improving,
         | and convenient form factors often beat more cumbersome devices
         | over the long term, e.g. phones vs desktops. So I they can
         | exist side-by-side, but headsets will be only used in some
         | scenarios, while phones will be used by everyone.
        
           | mherrmann wrote:
           | > convenient form factors often beat more cumbersome devices
           | over the long term
           | 
           | You worked on this so know more than me. As a user, I'd find
           | it very cumbersome to hold my phone constantly for AR. I
           | would much prefer glasses if they're comfortable and look
           | normal.
        
             | lazyjeff wrote:
             | It's definitely a consideration. The way I think of AR is:
             | 
             | AR/VR headset = desktop
             | 
             | AR glasses (2025+) = laptop
             | 
             | phone AR = phone
             | 
             | So phone AR has ergonomic challenges kind of like the small
             | screen and slow speeds that smartphones had when they first
             | came out. You'd use phone AR to throw a pokeball outside,
             | or use phone AR to touch up your virtual makeup / decor for
             | AR selfies like you do with phone selfies (which are
             | similarly ergonomically challenging). When AR glasses
             | become an everyday thing, they'll be the workhorses and
             | you'll take it around with you while traveling or for work.
             | Finally, for dedicated production tasks, you'll get your
             | AR/VR headsets and use it in pre-specified locations.
        
               | mdp2021 wrote:
               | > _2025+_
               | 
               | 2025? Wearing them since 2018... :) I suppose the
               | software from Jing and Jeff should work on them.
        
           | mdp2021 wrote:
           | > _normal to walk around with headsets everywhere_
           | 
           | Not everywhere - more like, in relatively isolated places -,
           | but some of us do.
           | 
           | Have you tried the Epson Moverio? I am tempted to test your
           | software on them.
        
           | randoglando wrote:
           | > Headsets never will,
           | 
           | Not in the current form factor. But in other form factors
           | they could be everywhere.
        
       | haolez wrote:
       | If the NFT crowd finds out about this... :)
        
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       (page generated 2022-04-22 23:01 UTC)