“If you take one thing away from today,” Mark Zuckerberg announced in April from the stage of F8, Facebook’s annual conference for developers, “this is it: We’re making the [smartphone] camera the first augmented-reality platform.”
Facebook had already begun adding camera effects to its apps, letting users overlay objects, animations and filters on their images—an unabashed knockoff of Snapchat’s popular AR-powered Lenses. With a new open platform where developers can create their own effects, art and 3D games, Facebook is betting that it can become the go-to destination for AR experiences, a WeChat-like repository of third-party apps- within-its-apps.
After years of dormancy, the hype around AR is ratcheting back up. Beyond Facebook’s augmented ambitions (which include, down the road, a wearable device), there’s Google’s four-year-old Glass, Microsoft’s HoloLens and the mysterious, well-funded Magic Leap—along with a rumoured device from Apple. According to market research rm CB Insights, 49 AR companies have secured equity financing deals since last autumn—a 75% increase from the year before.
They’re all vying to dominate a future where the separation between the physical and the digital is wafer-thin, and you won’t need a keyboard or a touchscreen to navigate it. “Augmented reality is the next mobile computer, the next OS, the next social platform,” says Ori Inbar, founder of Super Ventures, a VC rm specialising in AR. “The smartphone is dead; it just doesn’t know it yet.”
What pieces of this hyperbole may actually prove out? Here’s our three-part guide to how AR will actually unfold.
Our phones will be the gateway—for now
For the better part of a decade, developers have been promising to use smartphone cameras to enhance our perspective on the world. In 2009, Yelp introduced its Monocle feature, annotating users’ camera lenses with ratings for local businesses; a spate of similar apps followed, but none gained any significant traction. It was rainbow-vomiting millennials who pushed the technology into the mainstream, with the introduction of Snapchat’s addictive, selfie- enhancing Lenses in September 2015. By the following August, Pokémon Go had 100 million downloads, as people peered through their smartphones to hunt for Charmanders and Squirtles in habitats across the globe.
The ability to replace your nose with a dog snout or capture a Jigglypuff lurking outside your favourite café may appear frivolous, but it’s actually profound—a clever way of easing consumers into AR, without calling it that. Snapchat now has a promising advertising platform with its sponsored lenses, which can be tied to specific locations. Niantic, the developer behind Pokémon Go, created a hit that has generated an estimated R12 billion-plus in revenue. In the current rush to create the next big AR app—from multiplayer games to more practical applications like interactive travel guides and shopping assistants—success may ultimately depend on the formula these two companies laid out: social interaction grounded by superior location intelligence.
At the same time, smartphones are growing more sophisticated. Since 2014, Google has been developing its Tango platform that gives mobile devices spatial awareness. Late last year, Lenovo released the $500 (R6 400) Phab 2 Pro, the first Tango-enabled smartphone.
Using multiple cameras and advanced, motion- tracking sensors, the Phab 2 creates 3D maps from two-dimensional images. Train the phone’s lens on your living room, and Tango will know the lamp is 200cm to the left of the couch. You can then use a Tango-optimised app from e-commerce giant Wayfair to see how a (virtual) coffee table looks between them. Lowe’s Home Improvement has a similar app, along with one that allows customers to use the phone’s camera to navigate its stores.
Such efforts are early, and their executions fairly crude. Lenovo’s embrace of Tango is more of a proof of concept than a groundbreaking device. But that may change quickly. The second Tango-enabled phone, the Asus ZenFone AR, landed in July in the US. And according to rumours, the upcoming iPhone 8 will also sport a depth-sensing camera to enable AR apps. Notably, Apple typically waits until a technology is mature—and consumers are ready—before incorporating it into a flagship product. “Once the iPhone has that [camera],” Inbar contends, “it will become a de facto standard.”
Wearables will be refined in the workplace
Despite the success of Snapchat and Pokémon Go, no one believes the future of AR consists of staring into smartphones, chasing mythical creatures.
That’s because the phone is a less-than-ideal interface. “Let’s say you walk into a supermarket that’s enabled with augmented reality,” says Tuong Nguyen, principal analyst for research rm Gartner. “How many times during your shopping trip are you willing to take out your phone? How long are you willing to hold it up?” The biggest hurdle for AR, Nguyen says: “It needs to be built into the glasses I’m already wearing.”
Today, there are some 50 AR headsets in production—from basic eyeglasses that can display 3D images to $20 000 (R230 000) industrial-strength helmets from maker Daqri. But none are small, cheap or elegant enough for mass appeal. So for the next few years, AR devices will be found primarily in work environments, where their cost and appearance don’t matter as much. ABI Research projects that the AR market will grow to $96 billion (R1.2 trillion) by 2021, with 60% of that going to industrial and commercial uses.
Google Glass, for example, has found a home on the factory floor after failing to take off among consumers. Boeing uses Glass to display technical diagrams to workers assembling electric wire harnesses for aircraft, leaving their hands free to perform tasks. (When you’re cutting assembly time by 25%, no one calls you a Glasshole.) And it’s not just Google Glass: Med-tech startup Scopis has made a HoloLens app to guide surgeons through spinal surgery.
At Minneapolis’s Mortenson Construction, contractors can don a Daqri Smart Helmet, walk through a 3D model of a hospital under construction, and see where the plumbing will be routed before it’s actually in place.
Widespread industrial use won’t just change the way we work; it will inform future consumer-facing products. Just as industrial workers use AR to summon remote assistance during complicated manoeuvres, homeowners who want to retile their bathrooms may one day turn to a pair of glasses for virtual walk-throughs and diagrams.
AR will surround us
In the meantime, AR is continuing to pop up in everyday devices. If your car’s rear-facing cam shows you a squiggly red line as you’re about to back into a tree, you’re using AR. Smart mirrors are being rolled out at Sephora stores to enable virtual makeup testing, and at Neiman Marcus to let shoppers change the colour of their out ts or try on prescription glasses. In the same way that ‘adaptive cruise control’ and ‘lane-change assist’ are leading us toward fully autonomous cars, AR will be insinuated into our lives one feature at a time.
Augmented features are also likely to seep further into inexpensive wearables, as seen in Snapchat’s video-capture Spectacles and wireless earbuds like Apple’s AirPods. Doppler Labs has already released its Here One smart earbuds, which let you amplify certain frequencies and filter out others—augmenting your aural reality. CEO Noah Kraft sees a future where AR exists naturally in your ear. “Say you’re walking down the street and all of a sudden Siri pops into your head and says, ‘Hey, your next meeting is running 15 minutes behind,’ ” he says. “In our world, that doesn’t distract from what’s going on around you.”
Still, bringing the sophistication and reliability of industrial applications to a device that fits seamlessly into our daily lives is a daunting task. The technical challenges are steep, and it’s unclear whether the public will embrace yet another wearable (and if the content will be good enough to convince them to). Nonetheless, Apple is reportedly plunging ahead, as are Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many others.
For tech rms, getting skin in the AR game may simply be a matter of survival. Just as the Internet and mobile radically changed the tech landscape, AR has the potential to create new giants while humbling old ones, says Piers Harding-Rolls, director of games research for IHS Technology, a London-based research firm.
The future will be augmented. But by the time it happens, we may not even notice.
Director and the Chief Operating Officer (COO), IBM Southern Africa
Ziaad Suleman is a Director and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for IBM Southern
Africa. He joined the company 11 years ago and has been integral to the growth and development of the IBM business in the region.
In his role as COO, Ziaad is responsible for the overall business operations of the company. His main focus areas include strategy, transformation, operations; special projects and investments.
He also serves on the IBM South Africa Board of Directors, EXCO, as well as important
governing councils such the Social & Ethics Committee and the Disciplinary Board.
Prior to his role as COO, Ziaad was the head lawyer for IBM in Sub-Saharan Africa — a
territory which is challenging, both in geography and complexity.
Ziaad represents South Africa as the SA Chair of 4IR on BRICS. He is a member of the ICT 4IR Public Private Growth Initiative (PPGI), is a Member of the FNB Islamic Advisory Council, and is part of the Business Advisory Group to the president, amongst other roles.
Stafford Masie
WeWork South Africa
Celebrity innovator and head of WeWork in South Africa, Stafford Masie, will be the keynote speaker of Fast Company’s inaugural Most Innovative Companies conference and awards ceremony taking place on 5 March 2020 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Masie is no stranger to the South African innovation community. He spent 7 years in the US where he played a significant role in the global open source software arena and was responsible for international partnerships and corporate technology strategy for a number of international territories including Latin America, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Europe.
He returned to South Africa in 2004 as the country manager for Novell and in 2007, developed and launched Google’s initial local presence in South Africa. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed as Google’s regional Africa director and together with his team, established the local office and launched the Google business ecosystem. He was also responsible for the launch of google.co.za, as well as localised versions of Google AdWords, YouTube, Google Maps Street View, and more.
After a successful career at Google, he launched his own company called Thumbzup before developing mobile payment app, Payment Pebble which allows merchants and ordinary people to make easy card payments online.
Now, he heads up WeWork South Africa with a wealth of experience in the tech and innovation space under his belt.
Phathizwe Malinga
Managing Director, SqwidNet
As the Managing Director of SqwidNet, Phathizwe Malinga is responsible for building an IoT connectivity business in South Africa in partnership with International IoT giant SIGFOX.
In addition to his Managing Director role, he will continue overlooking the solutions division for SqwidNet, a fully owned subsidiary of Dark Fibre Africa. Malinga has made a natural transition into the role of leading SqwidNet because of the various leadership roles he has fulfilled over the years.
He is no stranger to the role of a strategist, as he consulted with both Max Healthcare and Life Healthcare Group in his previous position with the organisation. He has been involved in the information technology and telecommunication industry for over two decades, having held senior management level positions.
Before joining SqwidNet, Malinga was the Head of Application Strategy at Life Healthcare Group, where he was in charge of the IT Application strategy and Software Development for the group. Phathizwe completed his Executive MBA from the Graduate School of Business in Cape Town. He continues to guest lecture with the university and he sits on the board of Bizmod Consulting. Malinga is a Singularity University Faculty Candidate.
Jayshree Naidoo
YIEDI
Known for her position as a thought leader on innovation and entrepreneurship, Jayshree Naidoo is the CEO of YIEDI, a founding member and ex-chairperson of the Southern African Innovation Network and a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation for South Africa (NACI).
Naidoo was previously a recipient of Fast Company South Africa’s Most Creative People in Business 2018 for “Putting Entrepreneurs First” and has held several leadership roles at large South African corporates, including Standard Bank, Discovery, Absa, Internet Solutions and Da Vinci.
Currently, Naidoo delivers the IBM Techscale, PROPreneurX anf the YIEDI Business in a Box programme that helps grow, develop and provide access to market linkages for entrepreneurs. In 2019, Naidoo was identified as one of South Africa’s Inspiring 50 winners. Inspiring 50 is a global initiative supported by the governments of the Netherlands and South Africa that recognizes the top 50 women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Rory Moore
Accenture
An innovation and emerging technology expert with years of experience growing and leading multi-disciplinary teams, Rory Moore aims to bring new ideas and technologies to life.
He is the lead for Africa and Asia Pacific of 10 Liquid Studios, the rapid application development teams of Accenture that works on projects in the experimental and emerging technologies space.
With his keen focus on conceptual development and proof of value through high-fidelity prototypes around artificial intelligence, virtual reality and blockchain, his role as adjunct faculty at top business schools across the country is no reach. Moore is also an inventor and patent holder of a collaborative innovation platform and has an MBA in innovation from the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business.
Reshaad Sha
Liquid Telecom
Reshaad Sha is the CEO of Liquid Telecom South Africa, a pan-African connectivity and digital service provider that offers services to telecom operators, governments and businesses across the African continent.
Before joining Liquid Telecom, Sha was the founder and CEO of SqwidNet, where he led the team entrusted to build an IoT connectivity business in South Africa in partnership with the world’s largest IoT operator, Sigfox.
Concurrently, Sha served as the chief strategy officer at DFA, where he led the company’s strategy to transform the business from infrastructure to telecommunications. In addition to holding various director-level positions in the telecommunications industry at LogicaCMG, Protek, Lifetree and Cisco, Sha has had the opportunity to work closely with many leading telecommunications operators in the United States, the Middle East, Africa, Russia, Turkey and South-East Asia.
Sha holds a national diploma in information technology from the Durban university of Technology and Technikon South Africa, an executive MBA from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business and is a recent advanced management graduate of Harvard Business School.