technoculture314-09

Watching a recent Star Wars re-run, I wondered what had happened to holograms and virtual reality. I seriously thought by now that everyone would be running around in an imaginary computer generated world a la The Matrix, and people would be talking on videophones. It seems that an answer has sort f arrived, in the form Augmented Reality. It seems that soon the free congenial space that we are so accustomed will be over taken by an overlaying of information, through either the visual capturing capabilities of iphones or the inclusion of technology into our eyewear, and even so far as our contact lenses. Wired magazine ran a great article here, offering to us what the future is supposedly going to be like. The inclusion of information directly fed to us baffles me, but it also made me realize that we actually live in a society that does this already. Feeling pretty cybernetic already, with my iPod, mobile phone, I worry that if covering our eyes in Augmented Reality is going to do more harm than good.

Advertising stands to gain huge amounts from this. I can’t help but think about what Negroponte talks about with bits and bites, the ability to replicate information seamlessly and endlessly, without any degradation in quality form the source. The contact lenses that are spoken about in the above article have tiny little LED’s (light emitting diodes, for you luddites) that can project the most minuscule of images, allowing you and only you to see it. I find it interesting stuff, as the possibilities are endless. In an already media saturated world, does this offer another encroachment on our liberties, a visual space that was once allowed for us and us only to see? I could see some fun to be had though: imagine playing a game in real life, with images overlayed, perhaps like this. Perhaps the Matrix doesn’t exist, but Augmented Reality pretty much comes close.