There’s been all sorts of fantastic scientific advancements this year. Personally speaking, though, I think I’m the biggest fan of augmented and virtual reality. There’s the obvious applications like video games, of course, and VR games have certainly become much more impressive over the last few years. What really fascinates me, though, is not what’s there now, but what could be very soon.
Look, for example, at AR mobile games like Pokemon Go. Through the camera on your phone, you can see 3D Pokemon dancing around in the real world. There’s crazy practical potential in that. If we could create a wearable glasses-like device, as well as figure out some high quality rendering tech, we could see another person who is halfway around the world right in our living room. Yeah, video chatting is a thing already, but there’s a difference between seeing someone on a screen and seeing them right in front of you.
A lot of major technological developments stem not from an intended practical purpose, but rather a simple spark of curiosity. And once we’ve perfected having fun with these devices, we can put them to work for us.
