Introduction
Most of us have been home recently, but what happens when you get back on the roads? You might have forgotten the way to your favorite Pizza shop. Have you ever had issues finding the correct route to a new place? Did it often involve looking down on your phone to surf Google Maps? Imagine how dangerous it can be to take your eyes off the road. A study based in the US predicts that around 1.6 million road accidents occur due to distracted driving. A fraction of that happens to be due to the reason that they use their phones for navigation.
As most of them do not have phone mounts on their dashboard. Moreover, pilots cannot fly for more than 1000 hours a year. This implication is due to many reasons, but the first one happens to be fatigue
Read More: Applications of AR Glasses in Industry
Thus the current navigation apps fail to cater to the needs of a person navigating his way using a car, a bicycle, or even an aircraft. All this and more can be possible if you start using AR glasses for navigation. Above all, you can simply do away with a handheld device for navigation. Smartphones become inconsequential. The drivers do not have to glance now and then at their smartphone kept on the dashboard. This does not happen to be the first time such an application has come up.
In 2010, to enable hand-free communication, Bluetooth technology came into being. So, after this, many countries made it mandatory to do only the hand-free calling. Thus, the same might become of the AR glasses, too, in terms of navigation. Moreover, these glasses have the potential to prevent traffic accidents. Also, the AR glasses can display stats such as the vehicle speed, the cabin pressure, or the height of the vehicle.
How can AR glasses possibly improve navigation?
So far we already know how AR augments 3D objects into your reality. Google recently improved its Maps to indicate something like that to improve navigation.
This, however, is only a partial implementation. It does not help you get rid of the phone. Google made an attempt with Google Glass to make AR glasses available for navigation. Still, the glasses did not overlay indicators on real-life objects. So, there is a small see-through box on the top right corner. Subsequently, that box helps you to navigate using the glasses. Moreover, the AR glasses should be able to augment and impose digitally such traffic signals into your reality in real-time. It can be something like the image below indicates:
Once, the glasses are able to augment the reality in the way the image displays, only then will we reduce the phone screen time during driving.
Next, we are going to take a look at some of the AR glasses that have been able to get somewhat closer to achieve the expected way of navigation.
Varieties of AR glasses available for Navigation
- VUZIX BLADE: Vuzix Blade glasses help you to perform navigation. The navigation information is not overlaid on the physical objects. Indeed, there is a dedicated portion of the glass that displays the information. Thus, they are not of much use when it comes to using them as AR glasses for navigation. Moreover, they find better use in enterprises where hands-free devices are the need of the hour. Above all, they are ergonomic and vary from providing single eye equipment to a piece of equipment for both the eyes.
- SOLOS SMART GLASSES: Sportspeople like runners and cyclists mostly prefer these glasses for navigation. They help you remain focused by providing the necessary navigation. In addition to displaying the navigation details, they are also capable of displaying your workout stats. This technology helps you to not look at your watch or your phone while you are running or cycling. They are more of a sporty version of Google Glass and will prevent you from keeping your eyes off the road. The glasses were initially tested with the US Olympic team cyclists. So, it is a final product of some of the best riders in the field.
- The display for the AR is similar to that of Google glass and measures smaller than 4 mm. It happens to be smaller than an average pupil size. So, when it appears on your specs, it does not distract you or bother you. The only downside that these AR glasses have is that their arms are not foldable. Hence, transporting them is cumbersome.
- AIRA: Another form of navigation that the AR Glasses resolve for it is the Visually Impaired People. AR Glasses are known to have an immersive experience. Be it for anyone, even a Visually Challenged Person. Aira, an IEA Startup Winner, found in 2015, is providing solutions to the impaired by connecting them with a live agent that helps them navigate. This is done over audio-video conferencing, in such an environment, that the camera mounted on the glass enables the support agent to observe the perspective from someone else’s eyes. This series of glasses, also known as Aira Horizon, features an AI assistant, which even improves navigation. By converting the vision to image and using text-to-speech, the people can understand their surroundings better though Aira has ended support for the horizon glasses for calling. The Navigation support from the AI interface is still usable.
- FOCALS BY NORTH: Yet another exciting feature to talk of is the audio support some of these fantastic AR Glasses offer. Focals by North is an excellent example of the technology the Canadian Startup has to offer. Unlike the bulky weird looking glasses, Focals look more alike standard wearable glasses. The Alexa integration makes interaction with the glasses more comfortable. The flaw with Focals 1.0 is that it needs recalibration from person to person for a comfortable iris synchronization. The latest updates from CES inform us that this issue might be resolved in the Focals 2.0, which is to be launched later this year. Considering navigation, they only support navigation while walking. The glasses disable once driving is detected. So, they might not be suited for regular use during navigation.
- Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2: Undoubtedly, Google is planning the best in the field of Augmented reality. It recently launched AR Navigation for smartphones, which combine the street view and Maps. This provides the user with a more precise sense of direction. While mobile AR is not seamless, contrastively, the Google Glasses are far ahead with navigation features. The realtime directions make it far more effective and easy commute, be it while driving or walking. Google Glasses are far ahead, considering being backed by the largest tech firms in the industry.
Future of AR Navigation
AR Navigation seems to be really on a great path, but the industry has its challenges. The battery life is one such challenge. Keeping the limitations to technology in mind, the innovations are nonetheless. Considering safety, even Google Nest has proven to be hackable. The AR Tech might be in grave danger if we consider malicious behavior. That is, an individual’s data, all tracking information, all realtime data would be available to the attacker. Fiddling with this information can change a consumer’s take and perspective on AR.
Read More: Industrial Applications of AR Glasses
External audio support with visual navigation is yet another challenge. Consider having to put on earphones while driving. It might be a terrifying experience for some people as it increases the chances of accidents. Talking of which, the future of these glasses might be what we have been turning off on our mobiles “Haptic Feedback.” Not only the haptic feedback can help navigate better using small vibrations, but it can also help the visually and audibly challenged to be more precise on the directions using vibrations. We are really excited to see the AR Glasses bringing a change in perspective for everyone.
Conclusion
Glasses are not yet at a phase of seamless integration in our lives. A lot of development and research have made it fit for industrial uses. The future of Navigation through AR Glasses is impressive. Most importantly, the innovations are beyond our imaginations to make it more useful and simpler. As the age of 5G progress, the cloud applications will unfold limitlessly, and the user experience is bound to be more comprehensive. We, at Queppelin, with our years of AR experience, are trying to build an ecosystem. This will enable and ensure coherent and seamless experiences in the daily life of users. Coupled with user feedback and consumer demands, solving real-life problems like navigation and commute is at our hearts.
The future for AR is approaching faster than examined. Meanwhile, multiple AR Headset makers are upgrading their hardware to meet the requirements; the software industry is at no less. The android platform is vast. Mixed Reality is coming to real life with the expanse of developers. The task at hand is to build more scalable applications. The designs are getting comfortable to wear, and we at Queppelin are taking it further with our services. Conclusively, these glasses will be a hands-free alternative to standard screens in lesser time than we realize. Stay tuned with Queppelin to learn how are we changing the future of augmented technology.