Skyview

Saturn and Moon

Overview

The app that I used for this assignment was Skyview. It is a free application on the Play Store which using augmented reality to show the world around us. When we look up at the sky on a starry night, we see stars and planets that are thousands of lightyears away. Mankind has tried to travel far and deep into space to some success but a majority of the galaxy is not within our reach. We are able to see objects in the universe yet feel so far away from them. This is where applications like Skyview come into the picture. Since it is impossible for us to reach the stars, Skyview brings the universe to us. It is a very simple augmented reality application that provides massive functionalities. It uses the phone’s orientation, the gyroscope to plot points to represent the stars, planets and moons of the galaxy. Just imagine a situation where you and your friend are stargazing one night. It is almost impossible to show your friend one particular star that you are looking at. However, with this application you can physically point at the star that you want you and your friend to observe. I was truly amazed by how such a simple application can provide so much information about the world around us.

Skyview With AR glasses

I can imagine that this application will just add to the value of the information with the help of Augmented Reality glasses. With the help of glasses, the entire experience will become more immersive. While the phone only gives a narrow range of view at a time, we will be able to observe a lot more with a completely immersive experience. For example, while I was using the application, some of the constellations were too big to be shown on the phone display. This issue will be resolved with glasses as it allows for a wider field of view. Since the all the data in the application is mapped to the orientation of the stars and planets that we see in real life, we will virtually be able to touch the stars, planets and other celestial bodies through the AR glasses. It is also really hard to follow the stars through the sky as the Earth rotates due the the immense clutter of stars in the universe. This is where the application comes in handy as it shows the direction of movement of the celestial bodies. With the help of glasses, this application will basically be a handheld planetarium. The visualizations help the laymen figure out various constellations that they would have never been able to figure out by just looking at the sky.

Other Data Sources

With the help of augmented reality, almost any data source can be used to show and visualize a virtual world. In the medical space, there are many times when a doctor makes an incision with just hunch of where to make it. With the help of AR and mapping the data available, the doctor can see exactly where the incision needs to be done and this will help with precision. Augmented Reality is opening up opportunities in all fields since it adds a sense of gamification. Another interesting area of augmented reality is in travel. Imagine being able to travel the world from your couch. Just stepping into various portals will let you see the world and understand all the information around you. I remember going to the Louvre museum when I was younger when the age of tour guides was still really popular. From then, mankind has slowly transitioned into audio guides where an audio plays through the entire tour of museums, churches or tourist attractions. With the age of augmented reality, this guide can be through the AR lens and identifying different objects will display information about the tourist attractions. Augmented reality in sport is another interesting aspect. In many sports, it is impossible to make some decisions with the human eye. This is where augmented reality comes into the picture. By taking the data of trajectories or velocity and other features, a computerized, accurate decision can be made.

Conclusion

With the age of AR on the cusp of humanity, there is no field that will not benefit from the use of augmented reality technology. Humans have an innate admiration for advanced technology and augmented reality and virtual reality showcase a way for humans to explore the world in virtuality. Ofcourse, other advancements in technology like deep learning and data science is impressive but that part of technology advancement can only be understood by people in the field whereas augmented reality and virtual reality can be enjoyed by each and everyone of us. With just a phone, people can step into a world that gives us information about the world and our surroundings without having to search for it.