Looking back at the development of the computing industry, about every 10 to 15 years, a subversive change is brewing. New platforms breed new applications, and new applications make the platform more valuable, thus realizing a positive cycle. In 1981, IBM released the PC and realized the popularization of personal computers. The Mosaic browser released in 1993 ignited the upsurge of the Internet. The iPhone was born in 2007, and the smart phone swept the world. What will the next platform be? The answer is augmented reality (AR).
Goldman Sachs believes in its industry report that AR has the potential to become the next computing platform, just like PCs and smartphones, new markets will be formed, and many current markets will be disrupted.
What are the new features of AR content production and transmission in the future? Large bandwidth, low latency, and large amount of computation. Complex scene understanding, massive 3D information, real-time virtual-real interaction, AR cannot guarantee a perfect experience in the existing network environment, but in the 5G era, these limitations will be eliminated one by one, boosting AR to truly become the next generation iPhone.
Let’s take a look at the capabilities of 5G: Compared with 4G networks, 5G networks have higher frequencies and larger bandwidths, with a peak rate of 20Gbps, 20 times that of 4G, and a user experience rate of more than 1Gbps, 100 times that of 4G. Latency is drastically reduced, by a factor of 5-10. The device connection density is increased by 10-100 times, supporting the connection of 1 million devices per square kilometer, and the number of supported device connections is at least 100 billion. The most intuitive feeling is that users can download a 4K-definition movie in just a few seconds under the 5G network, while under 4G conditions, it takes at least an hour.
Obviously, 5G will bring revolutionary changes to AR, and even become the “number one player” in the next era. So what are the surprising changes in AR in the 5G era?
1. Terminal changes: lightweight AR
With a user experience rate of more than 100 megabits and an end-to-end delay of only 20ms, the arrival of 5G has made more imaginary applications a reality, and has also spawned more abundant terminal forms. AR is a part that cannot be ignored.
The current AR devices are generally too large and heavy, which brings many experience limitations. With the advent of 5G, AR glasses will become smart devices that are no different from ordinary glasses. The speed of 5G has achieved cross-level improvement, and the transmission speed exceeds that of optical fiber. AR terminals will no longer need strong local computing performance, and the cloud can complete most of the computing. “Cloud computing” not only gives AR glasses more room for imagination, but also saves hardware requirements for local storage and computing, greatly reduces the size and weight of equipment, and improves product form. AR glasses have become A portable product that can be worn for a long time.
From bulky to lightweight, the user experience of AR glasses tends to be perfect, and at the same time, the cost and price are further reduced, making AR from a niche high-end to a universal popular, just like a smartphone that everyone has now. According to China Mobile, 5G will officially enter commercial use in 2020, and the price of smartphones will drop to around 1,000 yuan. Presumably, AR glasses will also become affordable smart products with the popularization of 5G and the improvement of the supply chain.
But it must be admitted that the complete civilian use of AR glasses will still go through a certain period. From Motorola’s production of Big Brother to Jobs’ release of the iPhone for more than 20 years, the breakthrough of AR is not only dependent on the development of the network, but also a proposition of the industry chain. In the past one or two years, mobile phones will be updated with the commercial use of 5G, and the AR supply chain will also become more and more perfect. It is very likely to produce a new product form that combines AR glasses and mobile phones. The large-scale popularization of AR glasses has laid a foundation for users.
2. Changes in Interaction: Human-Centered
The change of the terminal will inevitably bring about the upgrade of interaction. In the next-generation computing platform, we need a brand new human-computer interaction interface. Unlike keyboard tapping, screen touch, etc., AR products require more natural human-computer interaction, and use a more efficient and friendly way to interact with computers. communicate.
Looking back on the past, the increase in 3G speed has made mobile Internet access a reality on the one hand, and on the other hand, 3G has met the minimum speed requirements for online graphic interaction, enabling graphic interaction to be realized on mobile phones, and then setting off a wave of mobile Internet. The same is true for 5G. The low-latency feature allows speech recognition, gesture recognition, and visual tracking to achieve higher response efficiency, improve the fluency of human-machine dialogue, and solve the problem of current interaction.
A deeper change is that the interaction center has shifted and transitioned to a “people-centered” interaction method. The human-machine interface has experienced the command language interface based on the character method, and has developed to the Windows window, and then to the current graphical user interface. From the information dimension, the way of human-computer interaction has developed from one-dimensional to two-dimensional, and now it will develop towards three-dimensional, realizing harmonious and natural interaction between human and computer. In the human-computer interaction mode of AR, the traditional dialogue relationship of “human operation-machine passive response” has been changed, and people have become the center of interaction, and the “human” factor has been continuously paid attention to. The traditional desktop disappears, and all you can see is the operation interface, which changes with the change of the real space. Human-computer interaction does not require special learning, and only needs to use daily skills, such as dialogue, gesture control, vision, etc., the efficiency of interaction is greatly improved.
3. Changes in content: 3D web
1G only has cellular voice, while 2G mobile phones can access the Internet, but the rate of 9.6-14.4Kbit per second can only support sending short messages. In the 3G era, the network speed has increased exponentially, and the download speed has increased by more than 30 times compared with 2G. We can browse pictures or watch some low-definition videos on the Internet. When it reaches 4G, the web page loads faster, the video buffering time is shorter, and the picture quality is higher. We began to get used to short video sharing and watching online live broadcasts, 2018 WeChat alone has more than 400 million video calls every day.
When the 5G era comes, content will be redefined, breaking through previous limitations and developing towards three-dimensional, multi-dimensional and multi-directional interaction, thereby building a 3D Internet. In the 3D Internet, the digital world breaks free from mobile phones and computer screens, and integrates with the real world. The form of content changes from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, and the interaction with content changes from one-way to multi-way. 3D Internet not only brings changes in content form, but also makes the Internet world evolve into a space that can be shared, interacted and collaborated. Taking communication as an example, after experiencing the update and replacement of cellular voice, text, pictures, and videos, we will leap to holographic communication: just wear AR glasses, you can communicate face-to-face, communication is no longer limited to a small screen, Rather, it is comparable to a real face-to-face interaction. This scene once appeared in “Star Wars” in 1977. Princess Leia used holographic projection technology to communicate with people through time and space. Now that the 5G era has arrived, imagination has become a reality.
In addition, the amount of content will also usher in explosive growth again in the 5G era. First of all, the biggest feature of 5G that distinguishes it from the past is its “big connection” feature. Whether it is “connection of people” or “interconnection of all things”, massive amounts of data will be generated anytime, anywhere. Taking map navigation as an example, 5G’s super-multiple connections can obtain more accurate data, and combined with Beidou, the positioning is accurate to the centimeter level. After integrating AR, it is upgraded to real AR navigation. Secondly, under 5G conditions, the content transmission of AR is fully guaranteed, providing a more immersive experience combining virtual and real. AR needs to upload and download a lot of data, some of which are high precision, high frame rate, and even stereo, high dynamic range or 6 DoF content. The network transmission speed of 1Mbps that we commonly use to transmit pictures or workflow can also be achieved, and if we want to transmit 6 DoF video, we need 200-5000Mbps, and the requirements are increased by hundreds or thousands of times. 5G greatly expands AR transmission data capacity. Third, the threshold for producing content will be further lowered. In the past, only a small number of people wrote on BBS, blogs and other places. Later, with the rise of the mobile Internet, taking a photo is to create a network content. Now 90% of people can use short videos to record their lives. The upgrade of the network makes content production easier and simpler, and the content of AR will increase significantly with the maturity of production tools, especially the AR content of UGC. At the same time, the explosion of content and the surge of data will in turn give birth to new technologies. Artificial intelligence will also develop rapidly in 5G. Like water and electricity, it is ubiquitous in life.
With the help of 5G, AR terminals, interactions, and content will usher in earth-shaking changes and innovations, and these new changes will benefit each of us. Just like the past 2G, 3G, and 4G that is changing our lives, AR+5G is a new cycle, autonomous driving, online education, telemedicine, AR cloud computing, 5G is changing society, and we also have reason to believe that, 5G+AR may be the best Internet era.
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