Mixed and augmented reality: “Scary and wondrous”

Perhaps the most interesting question about the future of Mixed and Augmented Reality is the nature of the supporting infrastructure. The battle between big iron and minicomputers dates almost to the earliest days of computers. The debate has morphed again and again through the years. Its current incarnation is cloud computing versus microcontrollers distributed throughout the environment. Clouds have the mindshare right now, but I think the tension between centralized and distributed computing will continue long into the future, each approach complementing the other and each becoming more and more awesomely useful. A straightforward way to provide the latency and specifcity that AR needs is to use a huge number of itsy-bitsy computers distributed throughout the physical environment, each one with sensors, self-location knowledge, and near-neighbor wireless access. Ubiquity has always been a catchword of the distributed processing enthusiasts, and each new generation has pushed the idea beyond the horizons of the previous generation. Imagine an environment where most physical objects know where they are, what they are, and can (in principle) network with any other object. With this infrastructure, reality becomes its own database. Multiple consensual virtual environments are possible, each oriented to the needs of its constituency. If we also have open standards, then bottom-up social networks and even bottom-up advertising become possible. Now imagine that in addition to sensors, many of these itsy-bitsy processors are equipped with effectors. Then the physical world becomes much more like a software construct. The possibilities are both scary and wondrous.