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Comment by anonymouse008 | Hacker News Reader

At some point we are going to realize the best Spatial Computing won’t talk specs, resolutions, feeling like you’re there - it’s just going to talk about the lifestyle Spatial Computing enables.

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There won't be a spacial computing "lifestyle" until we have hardware that's far less intrusive, like something close to a regular pair of eyeglasses. Realistically that is probably decades away. Until then, AR/VR goggles will remain as special purpose peripherals that users don for short periods to accomplish specific tasks.

I really shouldn't be the one to doubt, considering the size we've seen computers go from and to. But is it even possible to fit all that in that size? Like as I understand optics limits a lot about how far the screen has to be, even with the use of lenses. And it wouldn't be fully passthrough if they use the Google glass like approach as I understand?

Well it's at least probably not impossible? I think they can avoid using a screen at all by instead using multiple low-power lasers embedded in the goggle frames to directly image on the wearer's retinas. Then the main lenses only have to act as selective shutters to block out parts of the real world. But as of today this concept is mostly science fiction; several major breakthroughs would be needed.

> Realistically that is probably decades away

That’s a century away absent a mass market vr/ar product to act as driver for competition and innovation

A century is... Quite a long time in technology terms, even more given the accelerating nature of technology. A century ago we barely had cars, 50 years ago we didn't have personal computers, 20 years ago personal computers were on a desk, nowadays it's in our pockets.

My guess would be anywhere between 20-50 years, a century just feels too long.

All of the things you listed had incredible drivers for competition

Except it is unclear how that lifestyle can be better than what we have now, and until we have technology that allows perfect pass-through in both directions (as if like glasses) - which may be physically impossible - there are drawbacks that make that lifestyle fundamentally worse than what we have now.

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