I foresee a “near” future where VR and AR are achieved on the same device. It’s a matter of whether you show the real world or not, but the tracking and rendering would remain the same. I think a dead simple way to achieve this in a prototype is by adding electrochromic glass to a well rounded AR unity.
Let’s start with that and make something more sophisticated after. Let me see the real world, or let me not see the real world. Current AR solutions cannot do opaque pixels so I think an electrochromic filter would be the first step to merge the two platforms.
I’m really excited for a future where the VR world you play in is mapped 1:1 with the real world. So all of the physical walls in your house are remapped with artificial textures. Same geometry but different skin.
If you were to play a game where 100% of what you see fits the physical geometry of your home, but also 100% of what you see are virtual textures, is it Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality at that point?
I feel like it deserves its own word but I dare say the M(ixed) word considering the garbage marketing that Microsoft has used to taint that name.
VR is a stepping stone, and after that I’ll also say AR is a stepping stone. I think VR/AR/MR is a matter of what pixels you see as real or artificial. When you have the fluid choice between real world “pixels” and virtual pixels to comprise your vision you can start to invent and witness some pretty amazing stuff.
daggasoft.wordpress.com 