Future Timeline

The current applications of consumer-focused AR glasses seem to be confined to entertainment (watching movies and playing video games). The potential of directly overlaying computer vision outputs into our vision seems too promising to ignore.

Our team is working towards embedding AI capabilities into AR glasses for consumers. However, we're having trouble figuring out the most useful applications desired on such devices.

Here's your chance to help shape the future of tomorrow:

• What do you think are the most important applications on AI-powered AR devices?

• What information would you actually like to see on such devices, such that the information access outweighs the costs (upfront monetary cost, potential social stigma, potential aesthetic cost)?

• What is the bundle of capabilities that push AR glasses over the minimum usefulness threshold for consumers?

To prime you for the potentialities, here are some examples:

• Run image diffusion models and modify what you see in real time

• Emotion / intent recognition on people

• IRL Ad-block (turn all ads into art etc)

• Navigation overlay + reviews for places

• Question the world around you (look at an object, ask questions about it)

Curious to see what you all think would be the "killer app" of this new computing platform. Really appreciate the feedback, and will keep you all updated!

aixar wrote: ↑Sat Oct 08, 2022 9:33 pm
Our team

Who are you? This post (and your previous one) feels somewhat like spam, although I'm giving the benefit of the doubt for now. It's pretty unusual for a startup company to do market research on here. My apologies if you're genuine, but I can't help feeling suspicious.

An app that scans the faces of everyone you encounter to see if they match criminal mugshots or publicly available footage of people being uncivil. A match would result in a warning box or something being displayed across your field of view.

The app would also scan for people who were fugitives from the law, and it would alert you to matches and make it easy for you to contact the police, INTERPOL or whatever authority wanted them.

wjfox wrote: ↑Sun Oct 09, 2022 9:20 am

aixar wrote: ↑Sat Oct 08, 2022 9:33 pm
Our team

Who are you? This post (and your previous one) feels somewhat like spam, although I'm giving the benefit of the doubt for now. It's pretty unusual for a startup company to do market research on here. My apologies if you're genuine, but I can't help feeling suspicious.

We're a 2-person team at the moment, both Founders-in-Residence at Entrepreneur First (www.joinef.com), a London-based incubator.

Apologies if it felt like spam! Completely open to feedback on making it seem less "spammy".

We think that tapping into the wisdom of the futurology crowd would help expedite the product design process, and hopefully guide us into creating something which actually provides functional value, instead of a cool toy.

Looking forward to hearing more from everyone here!

aixar wrote: ↑Sun Oct 09, 2022 1:44 pm
We're a 2-person team at the moment, both Founders-in-Residence at Entrepreneur First (www.joinef.com), a London-based incubator.

Apologies if it felt like spam! Completely open to feedback on making it seem less "spammy".

We think that tapping into the wisdom of the futurology crowd would help expedite the product design process, and hopefully guide us into creating something which actually provides functional value, instead of a cool toy.

Looking forward to hearing more from everyone here!

No worries, and welcome to the forum.

An app that kind of "gamifies" the restaurant experience. As you walk around, your AR glasses visually highlight new restaurants for which there are few or no online reviews yet, and it encourages you to eat there. You are rewarded for using your glasses to take a photo of the menu, and for writing a review of your meal. The app builds a database of all menus for all restaurants, which itself could be valuable, and also impels different people to try different meals and items until every one of them has been rated. Again, those ratings are compiled in a database.

The app ends up being able to render highly specific recommendations to users depending on their taste profiles. As in, "Go to Restaurant X to get the best hamburger, and then drive down the street to Restaurant Y to get the best fries."

funkervogt wrote: ↑Sun Oct 09, 2022 7:41 pm An app that kind of "gamifies" the restaurant experience. As you walk around, your AR glasses visually highlight new restaurants for which there are few or no online reviews yet, and it encourages you to eat there. You are rewarded for using your glasses to take a photo of the menu, and for writing a review of your meal. The app builds a database of all menus for all restaurants, which itself could be valuable, and also impels different people to try different meals and items until every one of them has been rated. Again, those ratings are compiled in a database.

The app ends up being able to render highly specific recommendations to users depending on their taste profiles. As in, "Go to Restaurant X to get the best hamburger, and then drive down the street to Restaurant Y to get the best fries."

That's super interesting - thanks for this!

funkervogt wrote: ↑Sun Oct 09, 2022 11:44 am The app would also scan for people who were fugitives from the law, and it would alert you to matches and make it easy for you to contact the police, INTERPOL or whatever authority wanted them.

This app could be paired with small rewards for finding wanted criminals, depending on the severity of their crimes.

Here's an idea I call "Grown Up Friend Finder":

You create a profile and are required to spend a few hours doing personality tests, an IQ test, and answering a bunch of questions about your interests. The algorithm then matches you with other app users who have compatible platonic and romantic chemistry with you. Matches are visually highlighted in your glasses, and a short readout indicates what you two have in common, or how you are compliments to each other. This would make going out in public much more interesting and potentially rewarding.

I think that focussed on the killer app is the wrong strategy at this time. Smart glasses are in the early, gimmicky, not quite right not quite ready for primetime stage in it's evolution. To be more specific, Tik Tok is a killer app, Pokemon Go was a killer app, but they only worked as killer apps because they were on a killer device. Think back to the first iPhone, it wasn't actually the first smartphone even though a lot of people thought and continue to think it was. It was just the first smartphone that was actually appealing, useful, and easy to use. Focusing too much on a specific application is not going to get you far when most people still prefer to pull out their phones for what they need than some glasses they got as a gift from their techy early adopter kid or grandkid that feels more like a toy than something useful.

Smart glasses aren't at the Tik Tok and Pokemon Go stage, they're still at the pre-iPhone stage. You don't want to be the killer app right now because it's too early. Now is the race to be the killer device, the new iPhone equivalent. For that you need to make a device that is stylish, comfortable, useful, and intuitive to use. Make the experience feel the opposite of gimmicky, make it feel natural. Make it as simple and as meaningful to use as pulling out your phone to tell the time, look up directions, read a text, and snap a picture.

Basically you're not competing with other smart glasses makers for the best app, you and all smart glasses developers are still competing with the iPhone for best device and particularly best device experience. Until using glasses can compete directly with pulling out your phone, all these cool little extras are just a gimmick. Make a product as easy and simple and intuitive to use as a phone with all the same or similar use cases, and then build up more to what phones can't do.