As the metaverse buzz continues to heat up, discussions about the technologies that will power it are also becoming more common. In a previous article published by VentureBeat, Gary Grossman, senior vice president of the technology practice at Edelman and global leader of the Edelman AI Center of Excellence, said that AI, AR, VR, 5G, and blockchain can all converge to power the metaverse. . However, other experts like Louis Rosenberg, CEO and chief scientist at Unanimous AI, believe that augmented reality (AR), not virtual reality (VR), will be at the heart of the metaverse.

A new chapter in the AR conversation is the AR smartphone, which allows everyday users to interact with the virtual environment. Many companies in the space are turning to AR as a tool to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of virtual sales processes. According to Gartner, current trends show that 75% of capital-intensive industries will use AR as a key component to reduce and avoid costs among frontline workers.

AR and VR solutions for enterprises are evidence of the ever-increasing power of AR, with Google’s Project Tango and Apple’s IR sensors showing the potential of AR to turn simple devices into genius supercomputers capable of understanding, predicting and anticipating the use of space. . The promises of AR are exciting, but the cost of the devices and the expertise it requires make it difficult to develop and deploy at scale.

While AR appears to be gaining traction in the enterprise, Jeff Huang, an academic researcher and professor of computer science at Brown University, told VentureBeat that the company is an escape route for failed AR consumers. Huang said that certain Chinese manufacturers will release wireless AR glasses in 2024-2026 that will be more affordable than any big-tech enterprise-grade AR.

However, Huang and other contributors to Brown HCI’s Portalble concept believe that smartphone AR will become ubiquitous and want to help in the race to a digital-first future by open-sourcing the project, which the research team has been building. during years. The open source mobile AR hand-object interaction library currently runs on phones, without the need for any additional hardware, but Huang said there will eventually be a more premium version with a Leap Motion controller accessory.

As an open source documentation project, Portalble allows developers to use its code in their projects. Without the necessary gadgetry that usually accompanies the use of AR, Portalble allows a regular Android phone to become a hub for AR action.

Time is ticking for a convergence of worlds

With AR, users can interact with an object in augmented space using their body parts. This creates a distinction from the metaverse, where all experience occurs in a space outside of the physical world as we know it. Perhaps the AR experience reveals the need for a convergence of worlds, a change from the norm, but merging technologies and uniting devices to upgrade the experience is often problematic.

Aleissia Laidacker, global director of creative technology at The Mill, wrote in a Forbes article that, due to cost, there is a long way to go before people can fully harness the potential of AR. But Huang seems to think the time for consumer AR is closer than we think, and she points to 2025-2026 as the year consumer AR becomes awesome for everyday use. However, he noted that we won’t start seeing AR everywhere until 2029. He cited the problems of technological advances and the need to build and adapt devices for a seamless overall experience as part of the hurdles that need to be overcome before AR can. become. vulgar. Not only that, but she also noted that light field cameras will become part of AR goggles to enable better tracking in the near future.

This timing is in line with the experts’ predictions for the flourishing of the metaverse. Gartner predicts that the metaverse will not be fully mature before 2030 and advocates immediate testing of devices and technologies that are mission critical to the metaverse. AR is one of those technologies. Similarly, a Forrester article identifies a mix of VR, mixed reality (MR), and more importantly, AR as the keys to unlocking the best of the metaverse.

With time ticking away for the convergence of different technologies into the building block of a bold new world, Huang is confident that the scope of work done on Portalble is enough to fit it into the metaverse discussion. Although he points out current challenges with battery, overheating and field of view (FOV) need to be resolved before it can be upgraded.

AR for everyone

Portalble AR can turn any Android phone into an AR portal, allowing users to transcend the real world and move virtual objects by hand. Various actions such as drawing, manipulating, and throwing objects can be performed, as demonstrated on the Portalble repository page. The difference between what Portalble offers and what’s popular right now in the AR space is that Portalble allows for direct interactions with objects, rather than the usual hand-in-the-air gesture.

With the open source nature of Portalble’s AR infrastructure, security could become a concern for developers and researchers. Open source is a double-edged sword: while it serves as the backbone of digital innovation, it also poses unique threats. However, Huang defended the decision to open Portalble, arguing that the project is best left as it is, in the spirit of academic research and a fair belief in the untapped potential of all other researchers in the space. He hopes that one day, other researchers will be able to build on the work that has already been done.

Huang said that while there are other players in the space like Manomotion, he claims that Portalble is the best hand-object interaction technology for phones alone. He said that one important advantage that Portalble has over other AR projects is that it allows developers to take advantage of the Portalble framework and include it in their games and applications. Huang’s goal is to make AR available everywhere, knowing that others are building it for other devices, so AI for mobile phones has been a considerable focus for the company. Developers who are interested in Portalble’s AR solutions can check out the GitHub repository.