Augmented Reality = Groovy
By now, most people have heard of and used augmented reality tech. If you don't know what I'm talking about, imagine looking through a pair of glasses at the world and when the glasses are powered on, they can project information onto the image of the real world shown. A really basic example of this is the well known app Pokemon Go™!
As you can see from the image, a man with a hand is holding a phone and is currently struggling to catch a rocky rope called onyx™. In all seriousness, you see a normal view of reality through the camera, but there is also a graphical user interface available and some fun activities to take part in.
Don't get me wrong here, Pokémon Go™ is pretty awesome, but augmented reality tech in development has the potential to do some groovy stuff. Personally, my favorite example of AR (Augmented Reality) tech currently under development are the RideOn™ ski goggles. They combine skiing and augmented reality in an amazing way and have some really neat and especially groovy features.
If you want to, watch that video. It doesn't really explain much, but it does showcase some of the awesome features that are planned for this sweet new gadget. If you're not the video watching type, then have no fear, I'll delve into some of the awesome planned features anyways.
One of the features included with the goggles is the "interact" feature. If anyone near you is friends with you on the RideOn™ app, then you can see them clearly marked through the goggles. You can even look at them at send a preset list of basic messages that you tend to say a lot while skiing like, "follow me," "Where too next?" and "Lets meet back at the lodge!" You can send all of these messages hands free simply by looking at the message of choice for a couple seconds. You can also call other users hands free through the same method.
Another groovy feature is the "navigation" feature. When skiing, it can be pretty easy to miss a turn and end up on a super spooky and scary double black diamond. If this happens, you pretty much have two options: 1. Puff up your chest, realize the inner potential for skiing that you have deep within, and ski down like a pro, or 2. Instantly realize that you are one of the least powerful beings in this realm and slide down the slope on your gluteus maximus in order to avoid gaining speed and going down the slope at about mach 7 and inevitably wiping out super hard at the lodge while a crowd of onlookers laughs, mocks, scoffs, goofs, and spooks at your misfortune. Personally, I usually stick with option 2. All of these terrible things can be avoided by using the goggles' navigation feature. The goggles keep track of where you are on the slopes based on resort maps, and actively show which way you need to go to stay on track. It's pretty neat.
One of the features included with the goggles is the "interact" feature. If anyone near you is friends with you on the RideOn™ app, then you can see them clearly marked through the goggles. You can even look at them at send a preset list of basic messages that you tend to say a lot while skiing like, "follow me," "Where too next?" and "Lets meet back at the lodge!" You can send all of these messages hands free simply by looking at the message of choice for a couple seconds. You can also call other users hands free through the same method.
Another groovy feature is the "navigation" feature. When skiing, it can be pretty easy to miss a turn and end up on a super spooky and scary double black diamond. If this happens, you pretty much have two options: 1. Puff up your chest, realize the inner potential for skiing that you have deep within, and ski down like a pro, or 2. Instantly realize that you are one of the least powerful beings in this realm and slide down the slope on your gluteus maximus in order to avoid gaining speed and going down the slope at about mach 7 and inevitably wiping out super hard at the lodge while a crowd of onlookers laughs, mocks, scoffs, goofs, and spooks at your misfortune. Personally, I usually stick with option 2. All of these terrible things can be avoided by using the goggles' navigation feature. The goggles keep track of where you are on the slopes based on resort maps, and actively show which way you need to go to stay on track. It's pretty neat.
You may be wondering why there is an image showing Facebook's™ new "Live" feature. I simply put that logo there so I would have a better segue into the next feature of the RideOn™ goggles, the "Engage" feature. You may have noticed that the goggles actually have a camera built in to the side of them. This camera gives you the ability to record in HD for up to 3 hours at a time (based on storage[16GB], not battery life) and also gives you the ability to instantly stream video right to Facebook. This feature is one my personal favorites, because you no longer have to wait a few days to show your friends how hard you can shred the slopes. Now you can show your shredding abilities right away.
The last feature listed on the website is the "Play" feature. We aren't told much about this feature, but the video does show some virtual gates being placed on the run in order to add a bit more fun and challenge to skiing. As if skiing wasn't already fun enough, now we can crank the fun up a few notches with augmented reality. Wow, I feel like I'm living in a dream world.
Obviously, these aren't your run of the mill goggles. They definitely aren't priced like run of the mill goggles either ($1179.00, €1105.69, ¥8118.48). So if you really wanna shred the slopes in augmented style, be prepared to drop some serious change on some serious goggles. Otherwise, keep shredding the slopes with goggles on that don't augment the reality around you. They haven't been officially released yet, either, so it's hard to tell how great they will be. They come out on December 20th just in time for Christmas. Even if they fail, I am genuinely impressed with the innovation and creativity demonstrated and would love to get to use something like them in my lifetime.
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