“Imagine if the line between the virtual and the real simply didn’t exist.
Your classroom could become the cosmos.
The past could be as vivid as the present.
And the familiar could look like nothing you’ve ever seen.”
Source: https://www.apple.com/in/ios/augmented-reality/
 
The expectation from the tech world has increased rapidly in the past few years. The millennial users want to experience the world by living within four walls. They want an experience that could get them to the edge of the seat while playing a game or take them into virtual worlds.

ARKit

​Apple has recently released iOS 11 that gives the user the experience of augmented reality. Apple’s SDK – ARKit has moved beyond simple 2D camera overlays and moved on to 3D images that uses visual inertial odometry.
What does visual odometry do? It estimates the position of a moving camera in three dimensions relative to its starting position, i.e. it tracks a bunch of interest points (corner-like pixels in an image) across images in a video and uses 3D projective geometry to estimate their relative positions.
It is said that ARKit could give Google a run for their money and take Apple to the next level when it comes to giving the user an augmented reality experience on their phone. 

Technology in Real Estate

Real estate is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and technology is helping its growth rate. In 2017, more than $5bn was invested in real estate technology (Forbes). This significant increase in investment was majorly driven by the use of technology in the industry, allowing apps like Airbnb to compete with some of the largest and most established real-estate companies and hotels. Now, the use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) is also helping improve an average homeowners experience.
 
Augmented Reality in Real Estate
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The advantage of using AR is that information that is traditionally visualized in 2D can now be depicted in 3D for any user with a fair amount of intractability.
 
The first area AR can help in is finding actual listings for real-estate properties. Commercial Real Estate built an app that allows users to overlay listings for properties onto their camera, so they can see which properties are available in a crowded area such as downtown quite easily

Recently, there has been an economic downturn in the mining industry, companies are looking to be as efficient as possible. This means there is a need for innovation to increase efficiency and lower operating costs. Companies are looking into various technologies that could help them improve their processes. 

​Augmented Reality (AR) was identified as a technology, along with Virtual Reality to help solve this issue. Companies are looking to merge the real and virtual word, in a space called Mixed Reality (MR). All aspects of the real and virtual environments are encompassed in this MR, as pictured on the right.
 
While companies researched into Augmented Reality, they thought of conceptual applications of this technology in the mining environment. There was a great focus on applications that would optimize the mining process by reducing costs, improving efficiencies, increasing productivity, and enhancing safety. Another factor was how easily these technologies could be incorporated into current working environments such that there were minimal amount of human resistance and implementation costs. 

Augmented Reality in Drilling

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​Public transportation in Vancouver is an area that is going to see large growth over the next decade. Over the past twenty years, there has been an increase of around 800,000 people who use TransLink’s services and metro Vancouver is the fastest growing in terms of ridership numbers in Canada and the United States (source). Furthermore, the number of licensed drivers as a percentage of age group has been decreasing, showing that private car ownership has decreased (source). While there has been a large growth in demand for public transport in metro Vancouver, transportation is the second largest pain point in Vancouver, with over 85% of people agreeing that they would not accept a job due to an inconvenient commute (source). Moreover, 50% of commuters in Vancouver agree that public transportation services have worsened over the past half-decade, with 90% of people wanting an improvement in bus services (source).

​Humans are not very far from making you realise that you might be living in the magical world of Harry Potter. Technology is reaching new heights especially since the last decade. Augmented Reality is one such spectrum of technology that is transforming the user’s experience like never before. This transformation started a few years back with Virtual Reality 

​So what’s the difference or similarity between VR and AR? Let’s find out!

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
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Virtual Reality (VR) is basically, a three-dimensional experience which is generated by the computer which makes you feel like the environment you are in is real. For instance, watching a 3D movie makes you feel like you are amidst the scene. VR puts a user in an isolated reality, i.e. it creates a fantasy world for the user.
Augmented Reality (AR) is also a three-dimensional experience that combines digital information with your own environment. AR uses the existing surroundings to create a 3D reality user experience. The computer algorithm in AR uses sensors and markers to spot a real-time position of an object and determine the location of a stimulated one.