He’s ba-aack. Julian King, who was previously featured for his knowledge on virtual reality, is here to tell us a thing or two about augmented reality. Just when you didn’t think a human could possibly be smarter, Julian continues to wow and amaze.
You can catch our interview below:
Me: What was the first use of AR technology that you know of?
Julian: The father of contemporary Augmented Reality /Virtual Reality/Mixed Reality was Ivan Sutherland, in the 1960s there was no delineation between each of these areas. The headset (if you can call it that) was called the “sword of damocles”. We attribute a ton of the research and progress made in AR today to the early experiments Sutherland conducted.
Me: What do you use AR technology for?
Julian: I personally use AR as a platform for designing new types of interaction, right now the technology is very new and most of what I do is theorize and test how people will interact with the technology and vice-versa.
Me: Can you briefly explain your thesis, and how it applies to AR technology?
Julian: My thesis is focused on designing a new product to assist people transitioning from 2-D interfaces to 3-D ones, by streamlining and improving their overall experience and comfort.
Me: Which do you like better: AR or VR? Why?
Julian: I do not have a preference, I believe both technologies have there own particular merits and as they advance we will see each begin to corner their own industries. Eventually technology may reach a point where we have products that can produce AR/VR/MR experiences all from one device. That doesnt mean however that any one of these will replace the other though.
Me: What, in your opinion, does the future of AR look like?
Julian: The future is bright for AR, I am an optimist in terms of believing we are on the cusp of the biggest change in personal computing since the smartphone, I firmly think that AR will usher in a new age of technological interaction, so for me it is not an if but a when. Many companies are investing a large amount of money into developing AR headmounted displays. I also believe the future of AR will be worn on the head not on a phone screen, I really do not like mobile-phone AR.
Me: What’s your favorite project/product/design/game/thing right now that utilizes AR technology?
Julian: Currently there are a ton of projects coming out that I am excited about, I have had a close eye on Magic Leap a highly secretive start-up which has secured billions of dollars in funding pre-product for an AR product system. I also really like the similarly named (but no relation) Leap Motion, the precision and smoothness of their gesture tracking technology is incredibly impressive.
Me: How long have you been working with AR technology?
Julian: I have been actively researching AR for about 10 months with probably half of that being primary research and testing.
Me: What type of AR headset do you own and what are its benefits?
Julian: I own a Meta 2 development kit but have worked a decent amount with Microsoft Hololens and I foresee myself ordering a Magic Leap 1 the second they become available. The Meta’s main benefits are its cost and accessibility from a development perspective.
Me: Is it possible to play video games in AR?
Julian: Definitely, although I would say VR makes for a more immersive gaming experience, AR offer the opportunity to create collaborative gaming experiences that can actually interact with our world. There will for sure be some highly popular AR gaming experiences that come out with the more consumer accessible AR experiences.
Julian sure does know his stuff when it comes to emerging technology! Hopefully we all were able to learn a little more about AR and what it is capable of. Thanks, Julian!
Gamer girl 