Computer on your nose

- In just half a century, the computer is reduced from room-filling machine to a device that you constantly lose between the cushions of the couch. Good news is probably not a problem in the foreseeable time. Namely the computer sitting on your nose and adds useful things to the realities increasing.

The boundary between the real and the digital world is quite clear: what happens in front of you, is real, while everything on one screen is virtual. That line, however, will become increasingly blurred in the coming years, in which a point is conceivable that we constantly can mix virtual with the real thanks to smart glasses.

Walking through an unfamiliar city and know exactly where you need along because you're right on time at corner of your eye can see where to turn. Never forget groceries because a list appears when you walk into the grocery store. You need to see a separate house for sale or the price and main features appear directly in front of you.

How looks the new bank is actually in the house? One conjure up a virtual version to see if it already what appears before him orders.

These are just some examples of how these so-called augmented reality (AR), which is adapted reality, can be useful. The concept itself is not new: for decades to be made in science fiction books and films reporting eyewear that more than just showing the reality. But now that computers are getting smaller and more powerful, it has finally arrived.

For example, Microsoft already has a pair of glasses that would handle the examples: the Hololens. These glasses, currently available only to developers, can project a convincing 'holograms' in the visual field of the wearer. Although it is anyway an impressive technique, the Hololens distinguishes itself from the competition in that it takes into account the environment of the wearer.

That is, the device are built with depth sensing cameras 'knows' where walls, tables, chairs, benches and other objects and ensures that projections are not placed transversely through those objects. To do so would break the illusion.

Currently sticking quite a few disadvantages to the Hololens. He is quite large and the battery goes only about three hours with a single charge. A whole day walking around it is not yet possible.

'It will take two to three years before we can buy such a smart glasses at the store,' predicts Ate van der Meer, co-founder of software developer Snakeware. This Sneek-based company is one of the first Dutch companies engaged in software for Hololens. 'Both the size and the battery life are problems which will be solved by itself.'

That Hololens time being is not on the market, has to do with the fact that Microsoft's wise lessons seem to have learned from the debacle around which other famous AR glasses Google Glass. Here everyone thought that this would become the new tech toy, a kind of new iPhone. The next step in the technological revolution. Carriers could retrieve maps, video chatting and more while the phone was left in your pocket.

The version finally came out, but appeared to have little of the promised features. You could call it, without video, and read text messages, and answer them. Also you could perform online searches using the built voice recognition. A handful of companies made apps, but nothing that justified the asking price of $ 1500.

Van der Meer: 'They were just too fast with Google founder Sergey Brin wanted to show the unit, and immediately throw on the market, while it was still far off..' In early 2015, the company announced its production strike.

Anyway there is still interest in the art after so publicly descent, is proof that carry computer speaks greatly to the imagination on your nose. It's easy to fantasize about a world where you always have right in your field of view the right data, whether it comes to direction signs or the price of a house. To say nothing of playing a game in which evil robots literally get stomped by your own walls, something that can show the Hololens.

Definitely tech enthusiasts begin thinking watering all possibilities. However, they will have to be patient. 'You see that firms and institutions put their teeth in AR,' says Jeroen Vermeulen, founder of IT company Winvision. The company in Nieuwegein is working with augmented reality applications, but currently only focused on business.

So Winvision has developed a concept for the building industry. Vermeulen: 'Construction and renovation plans are now all created digitally, we have devised an application that lets you load such a blueprint in Hololens Then you walk with those glasses on a building, you can see exactly how things are after.. the renovations will look like. '

Vermeulen and his team are full of ideas. 'Imagine, a hospital has a problem in the electrical system. Now first a mechanic look for a folder with drawings, then he should look where the error is and then he has to look at the ceiling to where it went wrong. That could take hours! But take some smart glasses which you can load the instructions and then the technician can just walk through the building to see where the kink in the cable. '

Microsoft is not the only one dealing with this technique. An American company called Magic Leap is also working for some years on a similar specs, though this little publicly displayed. Investors, however, are very impressed: the company would be worth already $ 4.5 billion.

Because Magic Leap, however, does so mysterious, the rumors are flying left and right ears. So it would have figured making the virtual objects still would seem then seemed far as possible an innovative technique. At the same time the company have trouble narrowing the technology that fits this fact in glasses. We are waiting for an official product announcement.

More interesting perhaps is that iPhone maker Apple has paid into the AR-fight. Director Tim Cook called the technology 'very important'. Also from acquisitions and vacancies clear that at least several hundred people working on the technology inside Apple, suggesting that the company on fairly short notice will announce something concrete.

Van der Meer of Snakeware looking forward: 'If Apple is going to participate, it will be interesting, this is a company that never really comes first with a new technology, but if it does something to a particular technology, it is almost always much!. slicker and better finished than the competition. '

It looks like we will all have a hip tech glasses. That in any case one big advantage: all that stares on those screens is past.

In addition to augmented reality, many companies diligently to virtual reality. While at AR intended for digital things to add to the reality, you immerse yourself in VR into a fully digital world. In 2016 published some quality VR goggles like the Oculus Rift by Facebook and HTC Vive.

With such glasses and two controllers in the hands a carrier can completely escape the real world. Move your head to the left and in the game you look to the left. The digital world feels lifelike.

Despite the fact that such VR goggles in stores, consumers will not have to. The high price (the Oculus Rift will cost € 700) prevents them. 'A few years ago, you received a gift 3D glasses if you bought a television,' said Ate van der Meer. 'All of which are now gathering dust. For some groups, a VR glasses certainly fun or convenient. Gamers example cash over and it also works in the educational sphere.' As school children with a Google program virtually at school.

It seems that VR and AR will coexist in the future. Maybe buy a pair of glasses that can handle both techniques over five years. One that you can escape from the world, but your morning also says that your train is ten minutes late.

The Commodore 64 was one of the most popular home computers ever, especially used as a games machine. A huge keyboard containing the computer was processed able to conjure images of 320 by 200 pixels with 16 colors on a TV. The new iPhone 7 Plus 1920 lost by 1080 pixels and millions of colors on the small 5.5-inch screen.

Tremendous progress in just under 35 years: it was predictable thanks to Moore's Law. This theory, developed by Intel founder Gordon Moore, states that chip at a steady pace to be smaller and more powerful thanks to new technological inventions.

As a result, a powerful chip fits into a pair of glasses in order to send it to a complete computer. The Hololens contains a chip that is also used in laptops, but this will probably be replaced in future versions by a smartphone chip. This also attracts another less power, enabling longer battery pack.

Although the chip industry eventually runs up against the laws of physics, it is not inconceivable that glasses in the future is not even necessary. Smart lenses seem not even that far away.