Aug - Sep, 2020Media & Entertainment8THE POINT WHERE AR/VR MATURES--INTRIGUING AND UNTAPPED POTENTIAL OF "AUDIO AR" n the emerging field of immersive computing, everyone from social media firms to hardware makers like Magic Leap and Microsoft are exploring new ways to overlay the physical world with digital information. While Augmented Reality gets all the buzz, the sub-field of Audio Augmented Reality or Audio AR is a bridge technology with intriguing potential of its own. For any Augmented Reality application to be useful it needs to fit seamlessly into a person's life. Even the most advanced of the current generation AR headsets, either already in development or available to consumers, are large, bulky and uncomfortable to wear. The experience in many cases falls short of expectations, and even the more forgiving early adopters are finding it hard to integrate AR into daily life.Mobile AR has made some impact on closing this gap with the steady and gentle roll out of "live filters" that use AR to apply special effects to photos and videos. The adoption of filters in apps such as Instagram and Snapchat has exploded in the past few years, and has comes to be an expected feature by users in most social experiences. However, while it's great for taking a 5-second selfie, for most people holding your phone in front of your face for prolonged periods of time is uncomfortable. Mobile AR also has a narrow field view and requires the user to scan their surroundings, which makes the experience feel more like exploration than immersion.Humans are able to process sound faster than sight, making audio an important component to the AR experience. If audio is lacking, this is enough to weaken immersion and lose the user's interest. Masterful IN MY OPINIONLee Simpson, Product Strategist, ustwoByI
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