Comment by samwillis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by samwillis | Hacker News Reader

This would make sense if there was any indication that AR is going to happen. I would argue that there isn't even the faintest signal that it will.

People do not want invasive glasses, even if they make them as small at normal glasses. I just don't see it becoming anything other than a niche product.

It's like all the moves to voice/audio interfaces powered by AI. They simply won't take off as audio is inherently low bandwidth and low definition. Our eyes are able to see so much more in our peripheral vision, at a much higher bandwidth.

Some would argue that's an indication that AR will happen, but it's still so low deff, and incredibly intrusive, as much as I love the demos and the vision (pun not intended) behind it.

As far as I can see, the only motivation for the visual overall is that they need something to fill the gap until they have some real AI innovations to show. This is a "tick" in the traditional "tick" -> "tock" development and release cycle - a facelift while they work on some difficult re-engineering underneath. But that's not AR, it AI.

I think the appeal and the value equation of AR would be completely different if it didn’t feel like you were donning a heavy headset to step into the matrix. It’s very likely that there will be innovation in translucent displays and input methods that make AR ubiquitous at some point in the future. I just don’t know if that will be in 5 years or 15 years.

Zero years. http://swiley.net/arglassescroped.jpg

It's just a matter of packaging and selling it the way the palm pilot was packaged and sold as the smartphone.

> People do not want invasive glasses, even if they make them as small at normal glasses. I just don't see it becoming anything other than a niche product.

Wait, are you arguing that consumers will reject something that puts, say, a social media feed in front of their face 24hrs a day? That will allow them to just gaze at an internet site constantly without even having to think about it? That will allow them to have videos in their peripheral vision while they “concentrate” on something else?

AR headsets will not replace computers, they’ll replace phones.

I actually have a homebrew Linux AR setup that I use heavily and absolutely think it will be the future (although it will be similar to the smartphone where you get a combined form factor and paradigm shift that people think are both connected.)

Good AR glasses are already available and combined with modern LLMs you can have normal people thinking about computers the way we do. This will feel less invasive than smartphones do currently while being able to do much more.

I'm absolutely certain Apple will not survive the transition though.

> Good AR glasses are already available

Which ones do you think are good?

I use first generation Xreal glasses.

I genuinely expect that in a few years, Apple will release something that is effectively identical to Google Glass, and that will historically be seen as the real start of wide-spread usage of AR.

Anything less than lightweight glasses is a non-starter outside of gaming and other enthusiasts. The Vision Pro is just too bulky for it to sell serious numbers.

VR / AR will definitely replace desktop / stationary computers, but they need to be as lightweight as headphones. Steve Jobs said it best (also his opinion of the current Vision Pro at the very end): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQECSInWVPY

Some insights/vision lost to history because interviewer needed to interrupt.

This is why I like Lex Fridman style podcast.

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