Co-founder, Kokoromi
"In a few years' time, these legacy terms will be artefacts. The underlying question is, to what degree does a digital immersive experience require us to either tune out, or engage with, the physical world? As designers, we'll be able to dial that up or down to suit the situation. Meanwhile, the systems themselves will become much more context aware. I look forward to the day when I won't worry about tripping over my cat while in a virtual space, either because I can see the cat through the display, or because the system steers my movement around her - or perhaps even brings her into the action."
CEO, Vuzix
"Without a doubt, AR is where it's at. Although VR will be big, there are limits to what you can do when you're isolated from the real world. AR, on the other hand, connects the digital world to the real world. This will enable amazing use cases in enterprise and the mass market. Even now, use cases for AR are already proving that. For example, look at how quickly Pokémon Go took off. Analysts are claiming that, together, AR and VR will be a £120 billion market by 2020, yet 90 per cent will be made up of AR users. AR is already changing the way we work and live."
New Market Development Manager, Epson
"While VR provides an immersive, exciting experience, it's aimed at very different audiences to AR. There's a strong buzz around VR - it's cool, trendy and consumer-facing. Its strong gaming association captures the imagination. AR has broader applications. These range from drone piloting, live theatre subtitles, enhanced museum exhibits and customer retail improvements to increasing industrial safety and efficiency. The ability to interact with the surrounding environment means there are no limitations to AR's usage."
Director, Augmented Environments Lab, Georgia Tech College of Computing
"The value in AR and VR is not the A or the V, it's the R. The most exciting possibilities are tied to our physical reality, like education, long-distance communication and new approaches to games and storytelling. AR/VR are two sides of the same coin, presenting in media some 'representation' of reality. Future displays, platforms and applications will support both, letting people choose how to mix media with different representations of reality depending on their situation and preferences."
CEO, INITION
Read more: Listen up: augmented reality is coming to your ears
"Both AR and VR are aspects of the continuum between real and virtual worlds. In future, the hardware allowing the visualisation of such mixed-reality projects will smoothly switch between AR and VR. Saying that, VR's power relies on its strong ability to engage at an empathetic level with the viewer due to its power in creating remote presence experiences and the feeling of disembodiment. Its natural applications are in areas that rely on that strong connection, like entertainment, medical and health. At least, for now, that does set a higher barrier of entry."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
