A self centered society and the introduction of AR

There was a time when people had no choice but to socialize with strangers on trains and on bus stops or waiting in line at the store. These days we are so glued to our devices we are missing many opportunities to not only talk to new people, but talk to the people already in our lives.

It seems that technology has robbed us of the ability to socially interact with people the same way we once did. I believe with the growth of wearable AR devices it will only get worse. These devices may have a beneficial impact on learning, medicine, and other areas, but like many technologies, overuse will only make our day to day social lives worse. According to a Pew study 30% have used their phone to avoid interacting with the people around them.(http://www.pewinternet.org/2011/08/15/americans-and-their-cell-phones/)

I've personally done it. I've seen someone I didn't feel like saying hi to and looked down at my phone pretending to be occupied to avoid the interaction. People could have used a magazine or other sort of distraction in the past, but having smart phones has made it easier. We've become to reliant on these devices, we do not know how to behave without them.

We are, generally speaking, self centered people. We are consumed with broadcasting our positive moments and with taking our selfies and publishing the best ones. I don't know that the selfish and narcissistic behavior is all to blame on technology but our society is much more "me" driven  than it once was and the use of technology to avoid social interactions is increasing. It may not even be intentional.

I've heard of people bumping into things because they are looking down at their phone and not paying attention and we have all heard about how many car accidents happen because people are texting. There are obvious and less obvious social behaviors that are being dramatically impacted by our self centeredness and our distraction.

Augmented Reality Enlisted in the Fight Against Cancer

Written by Joe Stangarone

Often times in the treatment of cancer, surgical removal of a tumor is a necessary procedure. What a doctor wants to do in this situation is remove the tumor plus a small amount of healthy tissue that surrounds it. The latter is necessary so it is ensured that the whole tumor is removed. If even a small amount of the tumor is left behind, it can continue to grow and cause problems, and another surgery to remove what is left may be needed.

Tumor removal can be a very tricky procedure. Tumors are typically three-dimensional in form, irregularly shaped and may be in tough-to-reach places. All surgeons have to go on is what they can see and feel combined with what they can view on radiologic imagery.

With an augmented reality enabled image guidance system being developed by Doctor M. Catherine Lee, however, surgeons will have a new and powerful tool to help them with the process. Working with Doctor Yanhui Guo, Doctor Lee and her team designed a software algorithm that utilizes radiologic imagery such as ultrasounds and mammograms, converting the data into three-dimensional digital images and displaying them on a screen. Then, in a surgical simulation, the researchers piped these images into a set of augmented reality enabled glasses, which allowed the surgeon to view an extremely accurate 3D representation of the tumor directly overlaid on the tumor itself. This could even be viewed before any incisions were made, giving the surgeon what basically amounts to x-ray vision, enabling them to study the problem at length with no additional risk to the patient.

This system has demonstrated its ability to greatly increase the accuracy, efficiency and safety of such tumor-removal procedures. It can be hoped that with wide-spread adaptation, this new technology will minimize the need for additional surgeries, decreasing the cost, discomfort and stress for cancer patients everywhere.

How Augmented Reality May Affect Your Health

 Written by Joe Stangarone

Augmented reality is set to change the ways people go about their daily lives. Greater convenience, greater safety, and easier access to more pertinent information are all things we can expect to experience. No exception to this is the field of health care - both in the personal and professional realms. As the technology of augmented reality becomes more and more sophisticated, there will be seemingly endless ways in which it will benefit both an individual's healthcare and the industry as a whole.

There are a number of ways augmented reality will benefit the health and well-being of an individual. Not least of which is making information about dietary choices more accessible. One other field of developing technology that will play a key role is the internet of things. Imagine yourself in a grocery store where every item is broadcasting information about itself to the nearby area. As you walk down the isle with your augmented reality-enabled glasses, information about each product appears next to it as a pop-up. Surely there wold be almost too much information to keep track of in one isle, but with filtering you could quickly find the information you need. You could say, for example, "Display only cheese ravioli." Once only the chosen items where being displayed, you could narrow it down further by saying something like "Display only the item with the lowest sodium." You could also pre set your device to only highlight items that fit a diet plan, or even have it sync automatically with your health records to help you avoid foods that may cause you trouble.

Augmented reality will also bring significant benefits to the health care industry as well. One area in particular would be the administration process. Wearing a pair of augmented reality enabled glasses, a hospital administrator could see a patient's information immediately and right in their line of sight, eliminating the need to ask for this information and filling out forms. This would greatly reduce the overhead associated with this process and lead to more efficient and accurate patient handling. This could also be cause for a more effective initial examination by a nurse or other health care practitioner. Wearing such a pair of glasses, the entire examination could be recorded - weather it be in the hospital or during a home visit. Also, a doctor could watch the live video, ask questions or request more information - essentially allowing him or her to be two places at once.

Within a hospital, and in particular areas where the staff is interacting directly with patients, augmented reality will bring significant improvements in the ever-important concern of safety. Tablets and desktop computers are already commonplace in hospitals, but they pose a danger in that the need hands to operate them. Great efforts are dispensed at hospitals to keep the spread of germs at bay, and cross contamination between staff and patients alike can be a real problem. With the use of desktops, hand-help devices and other medical devices, the very equipment the staff is using is a hot spot for such dangers. With the adoption of augmented reality enabled devices, such concerns will be greatly mitigated. For one, there can be a drastic reduction in communal usage of computer equipment because each member of the staff will be able to enter and retrieve information they need through their own device. No less importantly, surgeons will have all the information they need right in front of them, eliminating the need for them to have to go through the lengthy process of scrubbing out and back in again in order to use a tablet or desktop to access additional information. 

Health is important to everyone. Most individuals and the health care industry alike are always looking for ways to affect it more positively. Augmented reality and the devices that will bring it to life will almost certainly be a game-changer in this arena. And the good news is that the more sophisticated and capable the technology becomes, the more significant the improvements will be.

Current Market Survey for Wearable Augmented Reality Devices

Written by Joe Stangarone

Augmented reality is a field of technology still in its infancy. Aside from a few niche markets, it is something still very uncommon in the larger marketplace of consumer electronics. This, however, is likely something that will change sooner rather than later. 

Lately augmented reality devices have been getting a lot of press because of devices in development that users will actually wear some of - if not all - the time. The most mentioned in this category is indisputably Google Glass, which is the giant search-engine company's first device aimed at the wearable augmented reality market. Google Glass has yet to reach market in full-scale production, but the amount of media attention it has garnered would cause one to wonder if other companies are far behind with their own products. As it turns out, a few are certainly right on the heels of Google Glass with their own prototypes, and the following is a brief synopsis of some options out there.

OPTINVENT ORA

Similar to Google Glass in that it is a set of glasses using retinal projection technology to display data, the ORA-1 is the current developer's model. The company has a Kickstarter campaign in the works in order to develop a new model to take to the broader consumer market. Although very similar to Glass in functionality, the company claims their technology is superior in terms of viewing angle, screen size, contrast and power efficiency. Interestingly, the ORA has what is called "Flip-Vu", which enables the user to switch weather the display is directly in the line of sight or below it. With this , one can choose to have a more immersive experience or keep the info coming in contained to the sidelines. What may be most notable of all, however, is that the planned retail cost will be around $400 - almost a quarter of what the $1500 Glass is currently going for.

TOSHIBA GLASS

Toshiba's Glass is another set of eye glasses aimed at bringing data directly to a user's line of sight. It has an interesting feature in that the image is projected not onto a prism like Google Glass, but rather directly onto the lens of the glasses. In the lens are a set of narrow prisms that then reflect the image into the eye. By doing this, it is very difficult to see the equipment while looking at the lenses. However, it is not difficult to spot the device while looking at the frames. The display is not really its own computer but rather a projector that will be run by a user's smart phone. The glasses then will actually be connected to this phone by a cable out the back. This makes the glasses more of an extended display rather than their own device, and they are catching a little heat because of their non-wireless set up.

SONY SMART EYEGLASSES

Still in the development stage and hence not a lot known about it, the biggest differentiator for Sony's foray into the smart glasses market seems to be that it will have an integrated screen that will serve to be another display of the user's smartphone. Also notable is that Sony has been an electronic giant for a lot longer than some of its rivals in this market, and that is something they plan to leverage in terms of software and optic technology.

BAIDU EYE

Baidu is the Google of China, and they too are throwing their hat in the ring for a wearable device to rival  Google's Glass. Curiously, their version does not include a screen, but rather connects to the user's mobile device wirelessly. This was to extend battery life and increase comfort, the company says. In essence the built-in camera surveys the world around the user and relays any pertinent data about it to the user's mobile device via an app. The model is still in prototype stage and no price has yet been set.

EPSON MONVERIO BT-200

Epson's augmented-reality enabled glasses are one of the few if not the only to have a fully transparent screen mounted in from of each eye. Rather heavy in weight and clunky in appearance, this model is not targeted to the larger consumer market. Instead, it seems that Epson envisions this current iteration to be very useful in industry-specific applications, such as construction or maintenance and repair work.  

VUZIX M100

The Vuzix M100 is a stand-alone, wearable computer that mounts on to glasses or a headset. Similar in functionalities to many of its competitors, the main difference is that rather than projecting the display to a clear lens or prism, there is an actual, very small screen in front of the user's eye. The device appears to be fully adjustable so a user can position that screen to their liking, but it wouldn't have the see-through element that seems to be popular among similar devices. That being said, it does have a major advantage in being the only such device released to the consumer market.

Currently there are many different ideas being tested of how best to enable users to wear augmented reality devices. Being such a new technology, it is difficult for anyone to know what will be the best option, as only time will tell what makes the most sense for the average consumer in the real world. One thing seems to be certain however, and that is that many companies - big and small - believe that there enormous market potential with this technology. With that it is safe to say we all will be seeing a lot more of augmented reality in the future, wether or not its through our own glasses.

The future of retail: Augment Reality Dressing Rooms?

Bringing augmented reality into the dressing rooms is something retailers have toyed with for some time now. A few challenges face them before this technology can help convert more shoppers into buyers. Be it online or in retail locations, the idea that customers can try on clothes without going to a fitting room is key, but another important aspect is the ability to share with friends real-time.

Retailer Topshop tried the virtual dressing room in a location in Moscow and it seems although the idea is cool it is far from ready to replace the real fitting room. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/11/kinect-dressing-room_n_860740.html)

Some other retailers who have introduced the virtual fitting room to their online stores are seeing that consumers prefer to see the clothes on even if the experience is not perfect. Before these AR rooms, shopping online was a little more risky. Now customers can see how a ring would look on their actual hand, on their skin color. Customers can get a general idea of how a garment would look on them, making it a better experience and reducing returns.

There seems to be hope for the idea of virtual dressing rooms, even if it is far from perfect yet. A few places for improvement are sizing, keeping clothing aligned with the user as they move, and the fabric texture and detail.

Augmented reality, in general, is in its early stages, but it shows a lot of potential for the retail industry. Buying clothes or accessories online on in stores can benefit a lot from this technology and we have yet to see to what extent.

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Augmented Reality's Effectiveness in Treating Phobias

 Written by Joe Stangarone

Augmented reality holds a lot of promise for the future in terms of convenience and productivity. It also stands to be very beneficial in many areas of medicine as well. Given augmented reality's immersive experience and ability to blend the real world with the virtual, the field of psychology will by no means be left out of the many benefits augmented reality has to offer.

One area of psychology in particular that may benefit from augmented reality is the treatment of phobias. Treating people with certain phobias can be a daunting task. This is especially true when it comes to dealing with phobias that involve insects or other animals. Treatment at some point will involve exposure to the phobia, and in the case of live animals, that exposure can be difficult to control. Animals, especially insects, can be very unpredictable. Because of this, therapist can run into trouble during the exposure phase of treatment - which can be a critical time for the patient's progress in overcoming their phobias. The animals may not act in the patient's best interest and there is a real element of danger for the patient in some cases. Furthermore, the exposure can involve gaining access to difficult or impossible places to reach, or the exposure sometimes may have to be in a public setting. All of which can make this portion of the treatment more difficult than it needs to be.

Fortunately, augmented reality can help mitigate all these issues, as a promising program developed by M. Carmen Juan, Mariano Alcañiz, and Carlos Monserrat at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Cristina Botella at the Universitat Jaume I and Rosa M. Baños and Belen Guerrero at the Universidad de Valencia has shown. With this program therapists were able to overlay virtual insects upon the real world. Not only were the therapists able to control the number and actions of the virtual insects, they were able to do it in the environment of their choosing with no danger introduced to the patients. This augmented reality system also holds an advantage over fully virtual reality systems because with it the patiences see their actual hands, arms and surrounding environment. Because of this, the experience of being exposed to their virtual phobias feels more real, hence advancing the treatment more efficiently.

This program holds a lot of promise for the future treatment of phobias. This was stated not only by the individuals responsible for its design, but by the patients as well. Anxiety scores were greatly lowered after the treatment, and the time needed to reduce the patient's fear was shorter than other VR experiments. Furthermore, a questionnaire filled out by all patients in the study showed that they felt completely immersed in the experience, with feelings of anxiety equal to what they would have experienced had the insects been real.

Augmented reality is a technology in its infancy and  is already showing great potential for the treatment of phobias. With this and other areas of health, it is not hard to predict that augmented reality has the potential to make the real world a better place for many people.