The Potential of Augmented Reality

The word “Smart” is all around. Whether we refer to Smart Cities, Smart Factories or Smart Health Systems, it is clear that smart technologies are knocking more and more on our door. The promise: connectivity, efficiency and more information. The big trends zooming around the “Smart” concept are Internet of Things (Iot) and Big Data. Just have a look at the events in the innovation and startup ecosystem of Barcelona and it´s apparent that nobody wants to miss this opportunity. But there are more promising technologies, in which both trends can be combined. Therefore, in this article I would like to draw the attention to the potential of augmented reality. From science fiction to reality.

Augmented Reality enables us to be in touch with the real world, while interacting with virtual objects. It changes consumer interaction and information seeking habits. The unique value is seeing more. It is related to the top emerging technologies as body adapted wearable electronics (see smart fabrics article)  and screenless displays, as announced by the WEF in 2014. Various sectors are already using it or conduct experiments; retail, architecture, education, automotive,  tourism,  health…  It offers them benefits to receive information ´just-in-time´of need.  Apps are created every day and the market is expected to grow to $1.5 billion in 2015. To give you an overview of the potential of Augmented Reality, check the slide share presentation.

Interested in learning more on Augmented Reality? Barcelona has a Augmented Reality Meetup  with regular events , where you can test, discuss and explore the possibilities.

Wearing your Glass and walking on the street, do you already imagine every object providing you not only its information, but also data? So far the visual part. Expectations are that also other senses will be touched by augmented reality; taste, smell, feeling…

In this series, the next article will be on the potential of 3D printing.

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