Another heavily-funded AR headset startup is shutting down

Personally, I feel the exact opposite.

I don't see VR providing a whole lot outside the area of entertainment. How often do you want to be completely removed from the physical world on a regular basis. Even when you do want immersion a good story or a game with good mechanics is far more important in entertainment than the medium it's delivered though. This is the reason people still read books, why retro video games are still played, and why 3D continually fails. A high tech medium, doesn't improve bad entertainment, but great entertainment can be delivered though a low tech medium. I'm not saying VR has no value, but I don't see it being some giant revolution.

On the flip side, AR doesn't provide immersion, but rather enhances the world around you. AR allows pretty much any information you get from your phone or computer currently to be instantly hands free and always available. If I told you I had a pill that allowed you to remember 20% more than you currently do, I can't think of many industries that wouldn't be improved by giving that to every employee. Once headsets become light enough and cheap enough, that's what AR provides. Instant access to relevant information without diverting focus.

VR seems to me like an extension of 3D technology, AR seems like an extension of the smartphone.

I’d argue the opposite is true. Yes immersion is fun/cool... briefly. I liken VR to a rollercoaster — it’s very fun but very intense, and therefore I don’t want it everyday. Maybe once a year or so is enough. Also don’t forget that a significant portion of the population will experience motion sickness, and there’s nothing you can do to prevent that (there are many techniques that have successfully minimized it, but there still remains a portion of the population that cannot handle it, period.)

AR promises to be much more of a light touch in mixing digital content with the physical. You’re still grounded in reality so the motion sickness goes away (but if not well calibrated/tracked and is overused can still be annoying).

That said, the total number of applications where this is desirable is way less than predicted by those who want a big new product category. You’re still wearing a screen on your face, in a world that’s largely starting to rebel against screen culture. Everyday use has a lot of problems in terms of attention management, leading to dystopia if not done correctly. There are targeted everyday applications that can be useful, although many are hard to justify over the cheaper 2D screen you already have in your pocket and certainly won’t get rid of simply because of both keyboard and the cognitively grounded value of direct manipulation.

I imagine you could just carry around a little keyboard or simply type into any flat surface just as you do now with a phone screen.

They have a demo now???

We collaborated with them to build a demo for visualizing Google Cloud infrastructure thru their system: it was super impressive and fun, made me think of building a whole AR vNOC. Wild times!