Memo to TechCrunch: Augmented Reality and Virtual Worlds Are Complementary, Not Mutually Exclusive Technologies

Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch asks, "Augmented Reality Vs. Virtual Reality: Which One Is More Real?", which is a remarkably wrong way to frame a question. While it's true (as he notes) that augmented reality has hit a peak of public attention, the technologies are not mutually exclusive, but complementary. As it happens, I first personally heard the concept of "augmented reality" three or four years ago from innovators working in Second Life, who were prototyping ways of using SL for real world applications. Take this mixed reality overlay experiment from 2007, created to demonstrate what a building expansion would look like, when completed:

The reason augmented reality is generating so much excitement now is not because interest in virtual worlds is waning; rather, it's because there's finally consumer-friendly devices which make augmented reality feasible for mainstream use. Namely smartphones, especially the iPhone. However, the thing about augmented reality is you need content to, well, augment your reality. That will require costly new software graphics packages, or retrofits of existing 3D graphics platforms. Including, of course, Second Life. Take this augmented reality project from Georgia Tech in 2008, integrating SL data with real world video:

Read more about it here. The challenge now is for Second Life developers interested in augmented reality to find ways to export their content into portable devices. There is an iPhone app for accessing Second Life which comes with a (rudimentary) augmented reality application. A UK developer by the SL name of Aimee Trescothick is coming up with some cool applications of the Lindens' new LLMedia API, which has even more exciting potential for use with the iPhone.

All this said, it's definitely true Linden Lab needs to actively work on making Second Life much more compatible with augmented reality applications, or miss a massive opportunity. (Then again, so does Apple.) But if Erick Schonfeld thinks augmented reality will supplant virtual worlds, I think he'll be surprised to learn how compatible they already are. And how integrated they probably will be in the near future.

Comments

[Gary Hayes]

Glad you picked up too on this semantic and fundamentally incorrect comparison Hamlet. I am astounded that certain misinformed writers in the technical press feel they can globally dismiss whole media form concepts such as virtual worlds/reality (inferred by calling SL virtual reality) - I think it may actually be part of the writers own strategy to garner interest in their articles (for good or bad) but this is one of the worst examples, more about hype & media zeitgeist than the actual subject matter. The virtual reality and augmented reality industries have been around for much longer than these recent commercial social virtual worlds & even predate gaming, but to also say because SL is waning it will be replaced by augmented reality is akin to saying the Seqway will replace dwindling bicycles?! Has the writer not seen the growth of casual virtual worlds on Facebook for example? I am always clear in my highly cited articles on defining the forms I am comparing for example Augmented Reality here.

Also Hamlet your last few months of posts are getting pretty defensive every time some mis-informed article comes along. I realise we all have a duty to correct these and many of us do, but we start to look foolish and predictable having to correct every missive - is it me or are Linden Lab a silent voice nowadays. Why are they not blogging or putting out statements of clarity? Very odd. One of two of these articles it is easy to dispel but they are regular now, the virus that is "SL and Virtual Worlds are dead" reporting is increasing and this virus has spread into Word of Mouth and beyond. I patiently wait for a resonding Linden statement that shows a strong and growing SL :)

[Paisley Beebe]

Gary I beleive L.L are operating under the same policy as the queen does, say nothing don't dignify it...and only come out and defend once a year, perhaps they feel if they do, they are giving credence to the "where is Second Life now?" meme...It all reminds me of the Monty Python Film "The Life of Brian" with the corpse collector...and the not so dead corpse insisting "Im not Dead Yet!" "shut up you will be soon"....

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I'm torn between thinking Linden Labs is being impossibly obtuse and clueless, or being diabolically clever.

Consider this; if they carefully feed the fanbois just enough to keep them vigorously (and mindlessly) defending everything SL, while not themselves challenging the anti-SL trolls, they could manufacture an environment where there is no real crisis but there is enough perception of crisis to rationalize radical, sweeping changes to the fundamentals of the world (such as the porno ghetto).

I'm not convinced this is the dynamic -- for one thing, I don't think the current crew is all that bright. But it has the right Machivellian flavor for a good conspiracy theory.

[Mark Young]

Many of the labs that were working with virtual reality in the 1980s and 1990s were also working with augmented reality - VR was more appropriate for some solutions while AR was more appropriate for others. Much of the same CG technology was applied. Today's consumer AR hype is interesting but most of it seems like toys that you only play with briefly. A little smartphone screen that can only augment a sliver of your field of view of the world unless you stand still and hold it up to your face? Will see-thru video glasses have a revival?