Ensuring a positive reception for Augmented Reality
1. Ensuring a positive reception
for Augmented Reality
Principal, Delta WisdomChair, London Futurists
David Wood
@dw2
2. IEEE: 4 scenarios for AR in 2020
A Facet of Modern Life
Information at User RiskSkeletons of Empires
The Great Leap Forward
http://standards.ieee.org/events/multimedia/arin2020.html
4. Page 4
@dw2
Rate of
pace of
change
increasing
Foresight…
… getting harder
Complex
convergence
of technologies
and
convergence
of risks
Opportunities
Threats
So we need to get better at it!
5. Page 5
@dw2
Threats
Product failures
• Battery life too short
• Software too slow
• UX non-intuitive
• Motion sickness
• Users can’t get dates
Users dislike the products
• (Technological solutions)
• (Plus design skills)
• (Plus smart business models)
Political failures
• Users fear the products
• Users campaign against them
• Ecosystem falls apart
• Product development falters
• ?!
• Technological solutions?!
• Design & biz model skills?!
• Political & marketing skills!?
6. Page 6
@dw2
Technologies with adverse political reaction
http://www.kabntr.org/plasticsucks/april-showers-bring-may-gmo-laced-flora-fauna-and-food/
http://honestlyhealthyfood.com/2014/03/11/gmos-genetically-modified-organisms-alkaline/
7. Page 7
@dw2
Technologies with adverse political reaction
http://www.kabntr.org/plasticsucks/april-showers-bring-may-gmo-laced-flora-fauna-and-food/
http://honestlyhealthyfood.com/2014/03/11/gmos-genetically-modified-organisms-alkaline/
http://worldink.org/2014/02/15/genetically-modified-everything/
10. Page 10
@dw2
Surveillance society
• “We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher”
• CIA Director David Petraeus
– “Items of interest will be located, identified,
monitored, and remotely controlled through
technologies such as RFID, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers,
and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation
internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing”
– “Transformational is an overused word, but I do believe it properly
applies to these technologies, particularly to their effect on
clandestine tradecraft”
• Not to mention smart cameras everywhere, plus computer vision
www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/petraeus-tv-remote/
13. Page 13
@dw2
“Is your connected car spying on you?”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29566764
14. Page 14
@dw2
Existing CCTV cameras
• Already pervasive
• 5.9 million CCTV cameras in the UK
• 750,000 in “sensitive locations”
such as schools, hospitals, and care
homes
• Monitored only by “trusted
authorities” (?)
Augmented Reality cameras
• Everybody can wear them
• Unclear when glasses (etc) are recording
– Cameras may be on mini-drones
• Unclear who is looking at the data
• Other sensors too! (not just cameras)
– Eye tracking
– Heart-rate monitor
• Faster (bewildering) rate of change
• The straw that breaks the camel’s back?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10172298/One-surveillance-
camera-for-every-11-people-in-Britain-says-CCTV-survey.html
15. Page 15
@dw2
Privacy battles
Information leaked or stolen
– About our finances
– Our health (and insurability)
– Our business deals
– Who we are interviewing with
– Who we socialise with
– Our political beliefs
– Our vulnerabilities
Demands for privacy systems
– That are Reliable
– Affordable for all
(not just the rich)
– Easily understood
(transparent)
Powerful arms race
– Hackers vs. protectors
16. Page 16
@dw2
Existing CCTV cameras
• Already pervasive
• 5.9 million CCTV cameras in the UK
• 750,000 in “sensitive locations”
such as schools, hospitals, and care
homes
• Monitored only by “trusted
authorities” (?)
Augmented Reality cameras
• Everybody can wear them
• Unclear when glasses (etc) are recording
– Cameras may be on mini-drones
• Unclear who is looking at the data
• Other sensors too! (not just cameras)
– Eye tracking
– Heart-rate monitor
• Faster (bewildering) rate of change
• The straw that breaks the camel’s back?
• Resentment against premium info flow
received by wealthy owners of AR
– In age of increasing tech unemployment
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10172298/One-surveillance-
camera-for-every-11-people-in-Britain-says-CCTV-survey.html
30. Page 30
@dw2
Conclusions
• The successful future of Augmented Reality depends on a lot more
than raw technology
• We should anticipate a potential societal backlash, against tech in
general, and against the ubiquitous use of micro-cameras
• We need to talk through the issues in advance, in a balanced
programme of education
• Explain why the AR security systems can be trusted
– And if we can’t explain them, we should re-design them!
– Relying on “security by obscurity” is a recipe for major political backlash
• Encrypting our own data isn’t sufficient, since we will be observed by
cameras and sensors outside our direct control
– Are there technical methods to detect & prevent unwanted filming?
– Are there political methods to avoid increasing sense of alienation?
31. Ensuring a positive reception
for Augmented Reality
Principal, Delta WisdomChair, London Futurists
David Wood
@dw2