ESSAY FEEDING

ESSAY FEEDING THE SENSES AS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND AUGMENTED REALITY ADVANCE, WHAT COULD THIS TECHNOLOGY HAVE IN STORE FOR OUR FUTURE DAILY LIVES? WORDS: Ian Pearson ILLUSTRATION: Mario Wagner Augmented reality (AR) is coming to a compact visor on your forehead soon, mixing computer imagery with what you see in the real world. The big IT companies are investing heavily in this new kind of display, because mixing the real and virtual worlds is perhaps the biggest advance since the web. It will also make life more varied and fun, so your world will never look the same again. Virtual overlaying will affect everything. You could change the appearance of the vehicles and buildings around you to suit your tastes, and replace strangers on the street with your favorite celebrities, cartoon or gaming characters. Life around town could be far more interesting with zombies wandering about. If you’re looking for calm, the street could instead act as an art gallery extension. Some people will use avatars from their favorite computer games, but this can have much more practical uses too. For example, you might also be able to see if there is a doctor nearby when there is a medical emergency. Companies will also use AR to improve health and safety, with graphics illustrating correct actions in a maintenance procedure, or marking danger zones when there are robots or machine parts moving around. Safety gloves might squeeze your hand hard to warn you against something dangerous like a 15,000V capacitor. Your AR gloves could be fully networked, so that you can squeeze your partner’s hand even though they are miles away in their office already, or try out a gadget online before you buy it. When you meet someone via a dating app, you might feel a tingle as they get close, though you might have already noticed the virtual glow around them, heard the romantic music and watched the hearts flowing from them. Some people will even use augmented reality makeup, changing kaleidoscopically as they wander down the street, or perhaps decorate the front of their homes even more garishly for holidays or family parties and events. We’re likely to have assistant androids before long, and even if your android stays at home to do the housework, their cloud-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) can tag along everywhere with you. You can spend a trip chatting with them, and if you’re visiting as a tourist, they could guide you around like a local. With AR you’ll be able to see them too, sitting beside you, and even hold their virtual hand. They could look and talk like anyone you want. There may be little difference between talking to your AI using AR and talking to your real android assistant. Your AI can accompany you through the day, facilitating things, doing any boring administration or enabling some special offers. It will be a perfect personal assistant and the perfect companion. Since it will be fully connected, it will link to your AR and let you see through shop walls and highlight anything interesting as you pass by. Augmented reality could even let you fight off aliens on your way up the escalators to make shopping a bit more fun. Around 2030, tiny circuits on the skin will link through to nerve endings, letting you record sensations and replay them again and again, making your vacation videos a full sensory experience. You could relive that romantic walk on the beach, the feel of the sand and the breeze on your skin. That will totally blur the boundary between the real and online worlds. Internet sites too will offer full sensory experiences that blend functionality seamlessly with both gaming and socializing. There is one thing to bear in mind though, your AI will know everything about you, so make sure you get one you can trust! Futurologist Ian Pearson studied mathematics and physics before becoming a rocket scientist. In 2007 he founded the Futurizon consultancy, advising companies on future trends. 76 THE JAGUAR

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