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Major tech companies like Alphabet ( GOOGL ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) believe the next leap forward in personal computing could be augmented reality glasses, with Microsoft set to usher in the new era on Wednesday. Computerized glasses that overlay information onto a wearer’s field of vision could replace having to glance at smartphones, tablets and PCs for many applications. Some futurists say augmented reality glasses — as opposed to virtual reality — could one day replace smartphones. With AR computer headsets like Microsoft’s HoloLens, users can get visual and audio instructions from remote experts for tasks such as electrical and plumbing repairs. Such glasses can also give people on-screen navigation and directions, deliver alerts and messages, and assist in identifying objects and locations. Commercial applications are expected to be early drivers of augmented reality — aka mixed reality — applications. Many field service, warehouse and maintenance workers could benefit from hands-free smartglasses technology that can be operated by voice commands, gestures or eye movements. “AR will have a profound impact, particularly on how we do a lot of jobs and how a lot of business gets done,” Tom Mainelli, an analyst with market research firm IDC, told IBD. “But it’s very early days.” With the developer launch of Microsoft’s HoloLens on Wedneseday, augmented reality could be starting another hype cycle, Mainelli said. The last hype cycle around AR crashed a few years ago when Alphabet’s Google Glass sputtered during its development. That early version of Google Glass was more of a head-up information display than a true augmented reality headset. It had an eye-level display, forward-looking camera, wireless connectivity and microphone for voice commands. By contrast, Microsoft HoloLens projects images and visual information onto the lenses of its special glasses in the wearer’s field of view. The HoloLens headset also is packed with sensors for integrating the real world with computer data. Microsoft is at first focusing on commercial applications for HoloLens. First out is the Development Edition of HoloLens, which costs $3,000 and is targeted to software developers and enterprises. Microsoft estimates it could take another five years for a consumer version to hit the market. “There is going to be a lot of business use cases for augmented reality before it comes to the consumer market,” Brian Blau, an analyst with research firm Gartner, told IBD. Augmented reality glasses are likely to find early use in service industries, logistics, health care, education and design, analysts say. Confusing matters is the fact that many research firms like to combine augmented reality with virtual reality in their market projections. While both technologies feature wearable displays, VR is an immersive experience that blocks out your surroundings and AR uses see-through displays for adding digital data to the real world. Virtual reality is coming to market sooner, Facebook ’s ( FB ) Oculus Rift starting to ship on Monday and Sony ’s ( SNE ) PlayStation VR expected to launch in Q3 or Q4. Both products, for now, are focused on video games and surround entertainment. Revenue Of … $120 Billion By 2020? Augmented reality is about accessing information and making people more productive. In January, Digi-Capital forecast that AR/VR revenue could hit $120 billion by 2020, with AR grabbing about $90 billion and VR at $30 billion, up from practically nothing last year. Besides Alphabet and Microsoft, other companies developing augmented reality technologies include Atheer, Daqri, Canon, Magic Leap, Meta, Osterhout Design Group, Seiko Epson and Vuzix ( VUZI ). Other companies said to be investing in AR include Apple ( AAPL ), Facebook, Samsung and Snapchat. Apple is likely looking at augmented reality glasses as an eventual replacement for the smartphones, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in research report last week. He predicts Apple will come out with “mixed reality” glasses in the 2021-2025 time frame. “We believe 10 years from now, Generation Z will find reality inefficient,” he said. “Being accustomed to having instant information from smartphones and other devices, Generation Z will see the benefits of mixed reality headsets that augment the world with real-time information as they need it and in their field of view, without needing to look at one piece of information at a time on a smartphone.” For AR headsets to go mainstream, they’ll need to be much smaller and less expensive, analysts say. The experience also will need to improve, with refinements to speed, field of view and resolution. Augmented reality will be in the development stage for the next few years, Mainelli said. AR headsets will ship in small volumes to developers and for proof-of-concept projects, he said. “It will take a couple of years before we start seeing meaningful volumes,” he said. “And even then these will be expensive devices, which is why it will be a commercial play first.” Scalper1 News
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