Watching and reading the news will seem like a quaint memory once augmented reality technology goes mainstream, one of several expected innovations that will transform the way we consume and dispense information in the coming decades.
Instead of just viewing a nightly newscast, you’ll likely experience current events in the form of 3-D video and holograms that turn living rooms into fully immersive virtual realities.
No longer will audiences watch the president on a flat screen delivering the State of the Union address. Instead, viewers will feel as if they’re sitting in the House Chamber — and can turn to see every reaction from first lady or first husband and their honored guests up in the gallery. Look behind you to see who’s paying attention, who’s snoozing and who’s sneering impolitely.
Microsoft’s HoloLens, a headset that projects holograms onto your surroundings and lets you interact with them using gestures, has already been released to developers, bringing us a step closer to this sea-change in content consumption.
“We’ll use them for work, play, shopping — and of course, to experience the news,” said Jay Wright, senior vice president and general manager of Needham-based PTC, a 3-D software firm. “Instead of experiencing photos and videos with news content, viewers will be able to experience 3-D versions of this content in the space around them.”
PTC is behind a new platform called Vuforia, which helps developers create augmented reality applications for HoloLens. Even today, the Vuforia platform could be used to create a app to allow news photos spring to life as a three-dimensional object — such as the latest renderings of a new skyscraper in the Seaport Innovation District.
The technology may exist, but that doesn’t mean it’s ready for the mainstream just yet. Investments from the health care and energy sector will be needed to help drive down the price, along with pushing further innovation, making it more accessible to the media.
“We should also expect significant evolution of camera technology that can be used to capture this content in 3-D,” Wright said.
How you learn about current events is going to change dramatically as nearly every device imaginable becomes wired to the Internet. The umbrella term for this is the Internet of Things, and it renders moot the morning ritual of checking the day’s headlines. Everything from your refrigerator or coffee maker could deliver the day’s top headlines to you — because more devices than ever are becoming “smart.”
And the way those headlines are chosen won’t just depend on which publication you subscribe to, but rather which the artificial intelligence assistant that you’ve chosen to learn your habits.
Let’s say you’re planning a vacation to the Caribbean, but a massive hurricane has just been spotted. Knowing that information is extremely relevant, your digital assistant would push that breaking news alert to you on your smartwatch and ask you if you want your spouse to be sent the same alert.
Speaking of the weather, what if you’re the one caught in a storm? A decade from now, when nearly every idle device can be made smart, a simple voice command will let you upload your feed — everything you’re seeing and hearing — straight to your local news organization. The term citizen journalist will almost be redundant because it will apply to everyone — and everything.
With these innovations on the horizon, we’re on the cusp of a time when every inanimate object can generate data and every sentient being can receive it: an era in which the opportunity to experience the news via holograms and virtual reality could usher in the greatest media renaissance we’ve ever seen.
