屏幕无处不在。现在你正在看一个屏幕。它可以在手机、平板电脑或台式电脑上。现在，想象一下，如果屏幕的数字世界不仅仅是现实世界中的一个物体。相反，数字图像和数据被叠加并集成到您周围的空间中。不是虚拟现实，是增强现实(augmented reality)(augmented reality)。
在本文中，我们将探讨什么是增强现实，以及这项技术是否可以取代我们今天所知的所有形式的屏幕？
什么是增强现实？
“增强现实”一词的意思是它所说的。你正在用一些额外的信息来扩充你周围的现实世界。现代汽车或喷气式战斗机中的平视显示器是一种基本的增强现实。您正在看世界，速度或高度等信息会投射到您的视线中。
如今，当人们使用“增强现实”一词时，它通常指的是更复杂的东西。例如，它可以是一张栩栩如生的电影海报，也可以是一个复杂的模拟，让它看起来像是鱼在房间里游来游去，就好像你周围的空气突然被水取代了一样。
增强现实如何工作？
现代(Modern)增强现实有两种形式：基于标记的和无标记的。基于标记的增强现实需要在现实世界中准备好某种对象，告诉软件何时何地投射虚拟图像。
标记可以是任何东西，但通常是卡片或印在杂志上的特殊二维码。许多较旧的 AR 游戏，例如PlayStation 3游戏The Eye of Judgment和(The Eye of Judgement)Nintendo 3DS附带的 AR 游戏都使用卡片标记来实现其 AR 机制。
如今，由于有了更先进的技术，实际上并不需要标记。先进的机器视觉技术可以让您了解周围的世界。例如，它可以识别桌子等平面和墙壁等垂直表面。将数字图像准确地投射到它们上。有许多AR 应用程序(AR apps)可以很好地做到这一点。
增强现实软件在后台进行所有数学运算，以使图像的视角看起来正确、坚实并在现实世界中扎根。如今，他们甚至可以记录房间内当前的照明，并使投影图像与之融为一体！
扩展现实频谱
可以改变你对现实感知的技术开始成倍增加。它们种类繁多，这意味着我们的语言必须适应它们。这(Which)就是为什么我们有术语“扩展的”现实。
扩展现实描述了整个范围，从您对世界的正常、自然视图开始，然后从增强现实转向混合现实，最后以完全沉浸式的虚拟现实结束。今天，人们倾向于交替使用增强现实和混合现实，但混合现实通常是指更高级的体验，将现实世界的空间和周围的物体结合在一起。
现实生活中的增强现实
您现在可以尝试增强现实！如果您有Android或 iOS 手机，您可以下载Pokemon Go等游戏，看看投射到现实世界中的数字游戏角色是什么样子。
Android 使用一种称为ARCore的技术，而 iOS 使用ARKit。两者都让应用程序只使用手机的摄像头来执行复杂的 AR 技巧。
如果你手头有一大堆现金，你也可以试试微软 HoloLens(Microsoft HoloLens)之类的东西，它很可能是现有的最先进的增强现实耳机。
增强现实的未来
有许多令人兴奋的增强现实项目正在开发中，它们可能会让我们对增强现实在未来的样子有所了解。最大的变化是将增强现实从你的手机屏幕转移到你戴在头上的显示设备上。
头戴式增强现实技术最有利于技术的蓬勃发展。这将是使用该技术的最自然的方式。现代增强现实的一些最令人印象深刻的应用使用耳机。问题是这些耳机又大又贵。你不能一直穿着它们。
为了让增强现实真正发挥作用，它至少需要缩小到与标准眼镜相似的尺寸和形状。您可能还记得Google Glass项目，它使用一个微型投影仪在您的视野中显示非常基本的信息。未来的 AR(Future AR)至少需要如此紧凑，同时提供适当的混合现实体验。
虽然没有人知道这是否会发生、如何发生或何时发生，但我们可以做出一些有根据的猜测。我们希望该设备的计算机大脑要么由云端供电，要么由本地计算机盒供电，例如你口袋里的智能手机级设备。
显示单元本身可能会使用非常小的摄像头进行环境跟踪和直接视网膜投影，以将图像实际输入您的眼球。视网膜投影技术已经以各种形式存在，并且有利用它的 AR 原型。
从长远来看，我们可能会看到通过类似于 Elon Musk 的Neuralink设备的设备交付增强现实，但这还很遥远。
增强现实(Reality)作为通用显示设备(Universal Display Device)
那么，增强现实能否取代您今天使用的每一个屏幕？简短的回答是肯定的。原则上，它可以成为您需要的唯一数字显示系统。毕竟，你有能力在任何你想要的地方召唤虚拟“屏幕”。需要一台巨大的 100 英寸电视？只要有一个出现在所需的位置！
事实上，增强现实技术可能会彻底打破屏幕的概念。也许您实际的现实世界桌面也可能是您的计算机桌面。应用程序可以以最有用的任何形式在您周围的空间中自由浮动。有些人可能更喜欢他们的闹钟应用程序看起来像坐在桌子上的实际物理闹钟。其他人可能希望时间读数更抽象，并且简单地显示为漂浮在他们视野中的数字信息。
从长远来看，我们会发现自己生活在一个“AR 世界”中，如果没有 AR 显示器，此时此刻我们会觉得很奇怪。没有 AR 眼镜，就没有广告牌，没有广告，没有标志，任何东西上都没有标签！就像现在每个人都应该拥有智能手机一样，你可能需要一个增强现实耳机来绕过未来的日常生活。
然而，要实现这一点，我们需要 AR 头戴设备来承担许多不同的角色。首先，它需要提供令人难以置信的高分辨率图像。它还需要使用尚未开发的通用无线显示标准。这样任何设备都可以与之交互。它还必须小巧、轻便且舒适。它必须迎合普通用户和专业用户，尽管可能不在同一个模型中。
最重要的是，它需要有效地从你的意识中消失！这是一项艰巨的任务，但这将使增强现实世界成为可能。
What Is Augmented Reality and Could It Replace All Screens?
Screens arе all around us. Right now you’re looking at a screen. It could bе on a phone, a tablet оr a desktop computer. Now, imagine if the digital world of the screen wasn’t just an object in the real world. Insteаd, digital imagery and data are superimposed and integrated into the space around you. It’s not virtual reality, it’s augmented reality.
In this article we’ll explore what augmented reality is and if this technology could replace all forms of screen as we know them today?
What Is Augmented Reality?
The term “augmented reality” means what it says. You’re augmenting the real world around you with some sort of additional information. The heads-up display in a modern car or a jet fighter is a sort of basic augmented reality. You’re looking at the world and information about things such as speed or altitude are projected into your line of sight.
When people use the term “Augmented Reality” these days it usually refers to something more sophisticated. For example, it could be a movie poster that springs to life or a sophisticated simulation that makes it look like fish are swimming around the room, as if the air around you was suddenly replaced with water.
How Does Augmented Reality Work?
Modern augmented reality comes in two flavors: marker-based and markerless. Marker-based augmented reality needs some sort of prepared object in the real world that tells the software where and when to project the virtual imagery.
A marker can be anything, but often it’s a card or a special QR code printed in a magazine. Many older AR games such as the PlayStation 3 game The Eye of Judgement and AR games that shipped with the Nintendo 3DS made use of card markers for their AR mechanics.
These days, thanks to more advanced technology, markers aren’t really needed. Sophisticated machine vision technology can make sense of the world around you. For example, it can recognize flat surfaces such as tables and vertical surfaces like walls. Accurately projecting digital imagery onto them. There are many AR apps that do this quite well.
Augmented reality software does all the math in the background to make the perspective of the images appear correct, solid and grounded in the real world. These days they can even take note of the current lighting in the room and make the projected image blend in with it!
The Extended Reality Spectrum
The technologies that can alter your perception of reality are beginning to multiply. They come in all varieties, which means our language has to adapt to accommodate them. Which is why we have the term “extended” reality.
Extended reality describes the entire spectrum starting with your normal, natural view of the world and then moving from augmented reality to mixed reality, ending with fully immersive virtual reality. Today, people tend to use augmented- and mixed- reality interchangeably, but mixed-reality usually refers to the more advanced experiences that incorporate the real-world space and objects around you.
Augmented Reality In Real Life
You can try augmented reality right now! If you have an Android or iOS phone you can download a game such as Pokemon Go and see what a digital game character projected into the real world looks like.
Android uses a technology known as ARCore, while iOS uses ARKit. Both let applications do sophisticated AR tricks using nothing more than the phone’s camera.
If you have a small mountain of cash laying around, you could also try something like the Microsoft HoloLens, which is quite possibly the most advanced augmented reality headset in existence.
The Future Of Augmented Reality
There are many exciting augmented reality projects in development that might give us some idea of what augmented reality might look like in the future. The biggest change would be moving augmented reality from your phone screen to a display device that you wear on your head.
Head-mounted augmented reality makes the most sense for the technology to flourish. It would be the most natural way to use the technology. Some of the most impressive applications of modern augmented reality use headsets. The problem is that these headsets are large and expensive. You couldn’t wear them all the time.
For augmented reality to truly come into its own, it needs to shrink down at least to a similar size and shape as standard glasses. You probably remember the Google Glass project, which used a tiny projector to display very basic information in your field of view. Future AR needs to be at least that compact, while offering a proper mixed-reality experience.
While no one knows if, how or when this will happen, we can make a few educated guesses. We expect the computer brain of this device to either be powered from the cloud or by a local computer box, such as a smartphone-class device in your pocket.
The display unit itself will probably use very small cameras for environment tracking and direct retinal projection to actually get the images into your eyeballs. Retinal projection technology already exists in various forms, and there are AR prototypes that make use of it.
In the very long term, we might see augmented reality delivered through devices similar to Elon Musk’s Neuralink device, but that’s far into the future.
Augmented Reality As a Universal Display Device
So, could augmented reality replace every screen you use today? The short answer is yes. In principle it could become the only digital display system you’d need. After all, you’d have the ability to conjure virtual “screens” anywhere you want. Need a massive 100-inch TV? Just have one appear in the desired spot!
In fact, augmented reality technology will probably break down the concept of a screen entirely. Perhaps your actual real-world desktop could also be your computer desktop. Applications can float freely in space around you, in whatever form is most useful. Some people might prefer their alarm app to look like an actual physical alarm sitting on a table. Others might like a time readout to be more abstract and simply appear as digital information floating in their field of vision.
In the long term we could find ourselves living in an “AR world”, where without an AR display things would look pretty strange to us in the here and now. Without AR glasses there would be no billboards, no advertising, no signs, no labels on anything at all! In the same way that everyone is expected to have a smartphone these days, you might need an augmented reality headset to get around the everyday world of the future.
For this to happen however, we need that AR headset to fulfill a lot of different roles. It needs to provide incredibly high-resolution images for a start. It also needs to use an as-yet developed universal wireless display standard. So that any device can interface with it. It has to be small, light and comfortable as well. It has to cater to normal users as well professional ones, though perhaps not in the same model.
Most importantly, it needs to effectively disappear from your awareness! A tall order, but that would make an augmented reality world possible.
