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Noted Sydney based futurist and author Craig Rispin states that “futurists are reverse historians”. Looking back at the history of media consumption and distribution of mass media we have a few significant stations to stop at namely; cinema, TV, PC and most recently mobile phones. The three trends happening here are:

1. The screens are getting smaller

2. The screens are getting closer to the eye

3. More so, the content is becoming personalized, commonly niche driven and highly targeted

The evolution of line of sight in mass media and the inevitability of augmented reality eyewear

At Explore Engage, experimenting and designing with Augmented Reality as we do with deep consideration for user experiences, our strong conviction is that these trends will continue in the same direction and result in profound popularity of augmented reality eyewear. We do not believe this needs to wait until 2015 or perhaps even 2014… we see 2013 being a significant year for augmented reality eyewear. That is why we have been working towards creative and hardware development of see through augmented reality glasses for the last two years. Whilst we see legitimate excitement for the head mounted displays like Google and Oakley, offering a “dashboard” experience, our energies are being spent on the various use cases that benefit from see through lens head mounted display augmented reality glasses… (and won’t it be good to shortcut that name and description so the common man knows what it is without sounding or looking like a Welsh township).

There are various factors that require augmented reality eyewear to be successful and pass 1 million units per year, one of which is data speeds in mobile networks. Whilst there is an obvious pattern with the above mentioned trends, what happens when we enable greater data flows, ever shrinking complimentary componentry, more intelligent developers, greater number of developers in the developing countries and a world hungry for constant change and improvement? Hazard a guess? Perhaps the greatest limitations in some parts is merely attitudes to change. Attitudes “for” change seem to be dominating where necessary. From the New York fashion runways to the skies above San Francisco, to London, Sydney, Paris, Berlin, Mumbai, Moscow, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo – we see the enthusiasm for augmented reality eyewear across blog sites, youtube comments, Google + profiles, facebook profiles.

“The cellular industry took 20 years to reach 1 billion connections, three years to reach 2 billion connections and is on target to reach its third billion in a period of just over two years,” said Martin Glover, Director of Wireless Intelligence. Mobile World Daily published these infographics in the official newspaper of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain earlier in 2012. The figures bode well for the introduction of wearable technologies including augmented reality eyewear.

3G is an enabler of communication, commerce, equality and more sophisticated augmented reality services and experiences

What is your forecast for 2013 and 2014? What type of electronic eyewear are you more likely to indulge in? What would be your price point? Across your friends, what percentage of them would buy such a product in the next 12 months?

Source: https://wirelessintelligence.com/analysis/2012/03/infographic-2-billion-3g-connections-will-be-reached-globally-in-2012/324/

To find out more follow us @exploreengage on http://www.facebook.com/exploreengage or call +61 9690 1225