Forget Geordi LaForge and his VISOR. Don't even think about it, Google Glasses. The future of interaction might not be a bulky sunglasses-like device that we slip over our eyes. No, it might be a contact lens or implant attached directly to our pupils, kinda like the eyePhone from "Futurama."
And going by this eight-minute, science-fiction short film we ran across, the freaky apps of today, such as Highlight and Placeme, might just get freakier. Take a look:
Sight from Sight Systems on Vimeo.
"Sight" does what any good science-fiction story should do, take the technologies of today and predict where they might go in the future, good or bad. Here, augmented reality has become completely immersive and provides a venue for possible freakier apps than Highlight and Placeme. A future where personal information and the ability to manipulate it can be done in the blink of an eye.
Sure, the ending is very disturbing and brings chills to your spin. But Daniel Lazo and Eran May-raz, the makers of "Sight," have also brought to life a future of possibilities that aren't quite so frightening. It shows the good along with the bad. The good being an immersive augmented reality, where data is no longer confined to a device. A future where we are connected to each other in ways that we've only begun to explore. As Daniel told VentureBeat:
We did some research, delved into every kind of augmented tech out there today, and somewhere along the way we thought, "Hey, I wonder how augmented reality would be like without the device or apparatus barrier. What if we could just SEE augmented reality?" So we tried to envision the world and how it would act after this kind of technology is standard, and it rolled on from there.
But it's the dark ending where the male character hacks the female character's device that's caught everyone's eye. Let's face it, all technology will be vulnerable in some way, whether it's a freaky app or the actual device we stick into our eyes, for which, as VentureBeat points out, there will always be a few that will try to exploit it. And a quite a few folks latched onto that theme of vulnerability in the movie, debating how such a technology could expose so much to those willing to take advantage of it.
However, we shouldn't become paralyzed with fear to the point that we're too afraid to push the boundaries of innovation. Nor should it blind us from seeing the wondrous possibilities that tomorrow can bring. And those possibilities are endless.
Hat tip to Zeaun Dot Com.