These were the concluding paragraphs to the paper I wrote last term on the future of augmented and virtual reality. This paper was part of the inspiration for my augmented reality thesis idea.

Imagine a hypothetical future wherein these technologies have both greatly developed. Joe gets up in the morning and starts getting ready for school. While doing this, he gets an update on his favorite news sites and email through images transmitted directly to his view by augmented reality technology. He goes to school and is taught with the newest technology, allowing for an interactive experience with digital objects that give a better understanding of the subject. On his way home, his friends contact him, getting in contact as if they’re right next to him despite being in a different country. They invite him to meet up later at the usual place. After getting home and doing whatever work he has to, again with the help of digital technology, Joe kicks back and grabs for a special visor. Before he knows it, he’s in a virtual world, surrounded by bustling townspeople. There, he meets up with his friends’ avatars and they go off to explore the latest area added to the ever expanding virtual horizon.

This could very well be the future with the rate different reality technologies are going. Augmented reality is poised to continue to improve our day to day life and interactions, in essence trying to perfect our own reality. Meanwhile, virtual reality, with its more personal focus on escaping our reality and new possibilities of networking through companies such as Facebook, has the potential to surpass the modern internet. Web2.0 was marked as a stride forward in web design when it added new interactivity and freedom of design options, so virtual reality could possibly take that a step further, becoming a possible Web3.0 wherein we are actively immersed in the web. Augmented reality making our world a better place while virtual reality creates a whole new world of nearly endless possibilities. That just one of the possible futures with the rapid advancements in these technologies. Of course, such radical changes will come with their own breadth of ethical and moral issues, from the problems of overuse of VR to the invasive properties AR could have. These just mean that as these technologies emerge, society must keep a constant eye on them and their changing environments. As long as attention is paid, these technologies seem like they will lead to very bright, promising futures.