Depending on who you might ask, augmented reality (AR) – the bits and pieces behind the popular Pokémon Go and soon-to-be-released Minecraft Earth games – is either the future of interactive experiences or the Magikarp of the technology industry: full of potential but too much of a thankless grind for it to be truly viable.
That latter point may explain why, in recent months, AR seems to have fallen out of the public consciousness and into the realm of the truly niche. However, the quest for AR’s audience continues beyond the confines of the gaming industry, with applications found in medicine, logistics, the military and, increasingly, in parking assistance.
Real-world Imagery
AR is already more ingrained in society than many people may realise. With its range of filters, the social media platform Snapchat makes extensive use of AR functions, as does the IKEA furniture app, which, via a smartphone camera, places 3D models of products within users’ homes.
Similarly, people who play live casino online at Paddy Power may find parallels between the technology from the tables and other displays superimposed on top of their view of a blackjack or roulette table. At the same time, these are not unlike overlays we see on television, in the news or even live sport coverage. What is similar to AR in these cases is this very concept of overlays, although AR helps enhance the gaming experience by augmenting what our eyes in particular would be seeing, rather than what is shown on a camera in a studio somewhere in the world.
AR-based parking apps will, therefore, offer something familiar to gamers and social butterflies. However, it’s worth noting that this modern take on parking assistance is quite different from the onboard Intelligent Parking Assist System that was developed for Lexus and Toyota Prius vehicles in 1999. Instead, it uses using mobile phones to overlay instructions onto real-world imagery.
Parallel Parking
For instance, AirMeasure, an app that uses AR to measure objects and distances, recently adapted its software to serve as an aid to parallel parking, a technique that topped a 2018 Accident Advice Helpline poll for the most difficult driving manoeuvres, ahead of reversing into a parking bay and reversing around a corner.
Via a kind of gamification – that is, turning mundane tasks into more objective-based experiences – the driver is guided backwards by a second party onto four targets, which are representing the car’s wheels. AirMeasure also gives warnings if the parking space is too small for the car to fit.
Source: Pixabay.
This kind of experimentation by creators is central to the spread of AR into real-world scenarios, and the release of development software like Apple’s ARKit has done much to demonstrate the potential uses of augmented reality.
The backbone of the aforementioned IKEA app, ARKit also has PinDrive in its catalogue. Aiming to remove a burden many drivers carry but few like to admit – namely, finding a parked car again once you’ve left it – PinDrive guides users to their vehicle via a ‘pin’ placed in a smartphone camera’s viewfinder. The app can even light the way at nighttime using the camera’s flash.
Sadly, for developers, at least, AR-based parking technology may already be a redundant industry, as car manufacturers like Tesla and Audi begin to take self-driving vehicles more seriously. The era of news, maps and social media feeds displayed on AR-capable windscreens may have only just begun, however.