The Tesla experience is unreal.

If you’ve ever owned one, or taken a ride in your friends car, you know you won’t be forgetting that experience any time soon. Everything from the insane acceleration, to the minimalist interior and radical dashboard design is different and you know you’re stepping inside a different beast.

I don’t just like Tesla because of their acceleration or design. I like them because they are constantly pushing themselves forward. While other companies need the motivation of competition to keep going, Tesla is the type of company that even if they had no competition they would keep improving. They are unrelenting in pursuing their goal of moving the world to sustainable energy.

This is one of the reasons I think they are in the best position to bring an amazing Augmented Reality (AR) experience to their cars.

AR is not just about entertainment or the wow factor. It will make the car and the driving experience not just simpler, but much safer. AR will help reduce the cognitive load in navigation, highlight hazards and keep our eyes on the road.

The other reason is simply because they have most of the parts necessary to provide an AR experience built-in. Their cars already have the ‘eyes’ and the ‘brain’, and now they just need some way to visualise it.

When I first saw the Model 3 being unveiled back in 2017, with the radical interior and completely empty dashboard, I was convinced they were making space for a hidden projector under the dashboard that would convert the windshield into a large HUD. An Augmented Reality windshield.

Well, it’s 2020 and the centre console screen is still here. We don’t have a windshield HUD and the only way of interfacing with the car is with the two stalks on the side of the steering wheel, the scrolling wheels and the large pane of smooth glass in the centre of the dashboard.

But what if the Augmented windshield is still coming?

What if we finally got Augmented Reality in a Tesla?

Let’s dream a little…

Okay, so you just bought your new Model 3 and as you approach the car a message on the door greets you by name and notifies you that the car has automatically unlocked for you and access has been granted to drive. You step inside, close the door behind you and now you’re sitting in the drivers seat.

With your brand new pair of TeslAR™ glasses, your volume controls appear right over the left scrolling wheel. You place your iPhone on the wireless charge pad and your charge status appears right next to it. As your hand moves towards the aircon vent you see virtual ‘airflow’ start coming out, which you find you can control with your hands outstretched.

As you start the car up, the windshield ripples ever so slightly and comes to life. You start seeing visualisations that are augmented straight over the objects around you, letting you know the car has detected and recognises them.

You reverse out of your driveway and as you start your journey you notice that the road you’re driving has changed colours and now the lane you’re on looks like it has just gotten a splash of paint. It’s just like a bus lane, only this is your navigation. It shows you the lane you need to stay on to get to your destination and only you can see it.

Follow the {yellow} brick road

You turn left onto the next street and you notice your speed has appeared on the road in front of you, you are thankful for one less reason to take your eyes of the road while driving. A boy has just darted out from behind a van onto the road in front of you chasing his ball, but that’s fine because your Tesla caught sight of him first and highlighted the potential hazard.

You double-tap the stalk to turn on Autopilot and the Tesla logo glows blue. As you merge onto the highway, you step on the accelerator and the car takes off. The Tesla logo on your steering wheel sparkling wildly, letting you know your car is now in Ludicrous mode.

You arrive back home, get out of the car, and walk to the rear to top up your car overnight. As you put the charger in, all of your charging information slides into place right over the charge port, conveniently letting you know how much charge is going in and how long until full.

I prefer to keep my concepts simple and seamless in stark contrast to the Hollywood AR style with holograms galore. I want to showcase concepts that will be used to enhance day to day life, utilising the natural environment, texture and real world objects to blend the digital world seamlessly with reality.

Let me know what Augmented Reality feature you would like to see in a Tesla.

and how they will help make our streets a little safer

What’s going on here?

When a tram/light rail is approaching, an augmented reality holographic barrier materialises along the path of the tram, making it more visible for pedestrians and cars, giving us more time to notice and react.

What does this mean?

This happened to me the other day while walking down one of the main streets in Jerusalem, where both pedestrians and trams share the street.

I’ve walked this street plenty of times before and I know the trams are there. But this particular day was a Friday when trams finish running early out of respect for the Sabbath. They weren’t meant to be on the street. So there I was, with my earphones in my ears listening to a podcast, walking on the tracks, when I notice someone gesturing at me from the corner of my eyes. They were telling me to look behind me. I take my earphones off, turn around, and come face to face with a tram inches away, beeping like mad. Quite embarrassed, I dart off the tracks, and as I do, I notice right there, on the tram, in bright orange letters, one word — Depot.

Humans have eyes that point forward, and unless some of us have taken up certain educational roles, we aren’t blessed with a second set on the back of our heads. We are already quite focused on what’s in front of us. Add to this earphones in our ears, (and increasingly throughout the day) we really start losing those senses that inform us of our surroundings.

These technologies are slowly blocking off our natural senses, and our surroundings, and this is a problem. We are losing the ability to engage properly with the world around us.

And this is where Augmented Reality will be different. It augments our reality, namely our five senses. It allows us to both live inside our world, to interact with it, and to be connected to the digital world, at the same time.

You can see where I’m going with this… if we can do this, why not augment our vision? To add something that allows us to be aware of things that are going on behind us, and things that might be around the corner.

And this is what Augmented Reality is. It augments our reality, namely our five senses.

A holographic barrier or a visual projection of some sort would have definitely saved me that day. Rising up out of the ground on either side of me, letting me know that there was a tram approaching from behind. (What about adding a timer, showing me exactly when that tram is going to pass this spot.)

Why should I care?

Much like what happened to me, I’m sure you’ve walked onto the road before without taking all precautions. It’s happened to all of us.

My point is we all know we need to be aware of our surroundings when we walk on or cross the road, but sometimes we get very caught up in whatever it happens to be at that moment and don’t pay attention. We become complacent. It’s something we do every day and we think we’ve mastered it. We won’t get into an accident — until we do.

This barrier is in no way a reason to stop being vigilant. It’s here to act as an aid, much like when we wear reflective vests at night or have school crossings near the school. It should be seen as a way to help us, to give us extra time, to be prepared. It should be seen as an augmentation to our senses, and not as a replacement.

And hopefully will save lives while doing so.

What is 2025?

Everyday use-cases of Augmented Reality. Too often people either associate AR with a gimmicky game (Pokemon Go) or a fantastical SciFi world (Iron Man) that has nothing to do with them or the real world. With ‘2025’ I want to change that perception.

Other stories in the 2025 series

• How Augmented Reality will save lives
• Augmented Reality Speakers
• Turn any dumb speaker into a smart speaker with Augmented Reality

One more thing

My goal for 2018 is to reach 500 followers. So if you like my articles on AR, and you love the approach, please follow and share with your best friends!

Augmented Reality Holographic Barriers was originally published in HackerNoon.com on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

while keeping our eyes on the road

What’s going on here?

When driving down the highway we now see our directions, our personal navigations augmented, and overlaid on top of the current road signs.

PSA: The bushfire in the background has nothing to do with the concept. I put it in there because I liked the footage. I only realised later that it distracts more than it adds. The video is about the personalised road signs — not the fire.

What does this mean?

Road signs on our streets and highways give us vital information. They provide us with our directions, tell us how far away the nearest city is, when to prepare for an exit, the speed limit, lane size and more. They tell us a lot of important information. And they also tell us information that is not relevant to us.

If I am driving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, I’m not interested in the turn offs to Ramle or Beit Shemesh. I don’t really care that the next available highway can take me to Haifa. This is information I don’t particularly care for, or need at the moment. I just want to know my directions.

There is a solution to this. It’s called a GPS, and it usually sits on our dashboard or windshield. Either in a stand alone product or in our smartphones. Most of us have one.

The problem is that it’s small, about 5" or 6" inches, and sits on the dashboard. Outside of our field of view (FoV) when we are driving. Which means we must look away from the road.

At highway speeds, looking away from the road for even a second can be fatal.

Augmented Reality (AR). We can project the directions straight onto the road in front of us using the glasses, or have a HUD built into our windshields.

And what happens to the current street signs? Do we get rid of them?

They are located at optimal places, are designed to be viewed from afar. We can still use them, and this is where this concept comes into play. We take our current navigation project it onto the road signs. Telling us when we need to get off. How fast we are going. No more seeing information that is useless to us at that moment. No more 6" directions.

Navigation is easy to follow and to read. All the information you need.

Why should I care?

Every second with your eyes off the road can be fatal. If we can stop you looking down at your dashboard or lap every minute or so, and project your navigation onto the billboards that are naturally in your FoV as you drive, we can save lives. We will save lives. Lives that would have been needlessly lost by people momentarily distracted from ‘following directions’.

What is 2025?

Have you heard of Augmented Reality but thought it was just a fad? You’ve probably seen Pokemon Go (gimmicky game) or Iron Man (fantastical SciFi world) and confirmed those thoughts. With ‘2025’ I want to show you how AR is about to change your life.

Other stories in the 2025 series

• Augmented Reality Speakers
• Turn any dumb speaker into a smart speaker with Augmented Reality
• Why AR will change how we interact with our lights

One more thing

My goal for 2018 is to reach 500 followers. So if you like my articles on AR, and you love the approach, please follow and share with your best friends!

How Augmented Reality will save lives was originally published in HackerNoon.com on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I’m just going to come out and say it.

Apple has been frustrating me lately.

Back in Steves Day there was always “One more thing”

And we were always excited to hear what it was, and they rarely disappointed.

Lately I feel every Apple Keynote ends with a “But…”

But, is never a good thing.

You watch the Keynote, it’s nice and all.

You can rely on them to release something you want to buy.

But it always ends with a But.

But.

This past Keynote was okay, I liked the camera features on the new iPhones.

I especially liked the direction I could see Apple was going with AR.

But.

My But from this Keynote was the cable.

Yes, a lousy cable.

A cable that I could have purchased with the wall unit for less than $80.

This made me reconsider a $1000 phone.

I’ll explain.

Apple was supposed to be the company that championed the USB-C.

Apple was going to push the last cable we would ever need.

(And then kill it)

-Maybe.

They went all in with the Macbooks.

…

..

And then they seemed to just pull back.

2 generations of iPhones came and went with USB-A.

2018 was the year.

We had the design specs for a new 18W USB-C fast charger.

It was supposed to fast charge both the iPhone and iPad.

Keynote.

12th Sep.

XS. XS Max. XR.

But.

No USB-C cable. No Fast Charger.

Apple.

Seriously?

.

10th Oct: OPPO just came out with Super Dash Charging. 100% in 34 minutes.

(Rumors are that the new iPads will come with USB-C instead of Lightning. If that’s true I’m calling 2019 iPhones with USB-C)

Dear Apple, I don’t know how long I can hold my breath.

If you liked this article please slow clap to show me how much you enjoyed it. The more claps the better. Try double clapping. And would love to hear your thoughts :).

can music become more exciting and personal?

I want to show everyday use-cases of Augmented Reality. Too often people either associate AR with a gimmicky game (Pokemon Go) or a fantastical SciFi world (Iron Man) that has nothing to do with them or the real world. With ‘2025’ I want to change that perception.

What’s going on here?

The speaker that usually just plays your music now has its interface augmented over it. We can see the album artwork, and which music application it’s playing from. We can also easily control the music with simple gestures. Micro-gestures.

What does this mean?

Micro-gestures. You may have seen some concept ideas from Googles Project Soli. What are they, and how are they different from regular gestures?

Regular gestures can be very taxing. They look simple and easy, but try holding up your hand swiping and pointing at things in the air for long periods of time. Very soon your hand becomes tired. Micro-gestures are all the fun, and little of the tiredness. Keep a look out for them.

Now with the interface, these days there is a disconnect with the speakers that play our music and the interface we use to control it. The interface usually sits on our computer or phone as an app. Separate. But somehow connected.

With AR no longer will we use an app on a separate screen to control our music. We will be able to see our interface and control our music directly on the speaker itself.

Why should I care?

The way you connect to your music will completely change again. No longer is your speaker just a dumb box playing whatever its instructed. We’re removing one more unnecessary layer, and interfacing directly with our music. We can start to take full advantage of the actual physical object, its shape, volume, weight and feel.

Other stories in the 2025 series

• Why AR will change how we interact with our lights
• Turn any dumb speaker into a smart speaker with Augmented Reality
• Who knew you could fix things with AR?

One more thing

Clapping lets me know that you have enjoyed reading this post and also allows others to see it. Also, I always appreciate your comments too.

Augmented Reality Speakers was originally published in AR/VR Journey: Augmented & Virtual Reality Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I want to show everyday use-cases of Augmented Reality. Too often people either associate AR with a gimmicky game (Pokemon Go) or a fantastical SciFi world (Iron Man) that has nothing to do with them or the real world. With ‘2025’ I want to change that perception.

What’s going on here?

Every speaker can become a smart speaker. You can now interact with any random speaker in the room and they become your music interface. You can see the album artwork and swipe to the next song.

What does this mean?

We use computer vision to now recognise what is a speaker. All of the sudden, the plain speaker, that used to be a one trick pony, which would just output whatever song was streamed to it, has also become an input device. Instead of only listening through it, it can now be used to control your sound.

Look at any speaker and ‘tap’ the side to activate it. You can see your album artwork wrapped around the speaker. A simple swipe will skip to the next song. Tap again to turn off controls.

It also won’t matter which speaker you’re using, you could theoretically control your music from any speaker in the room.

We can move away from the current paradigm where speaker and player are separated. Being able to manipulate and handle a physical device changes the whole relationship.

Why should I care?

Nowadays your music player sits on your laptop or your phone, and if you want to change the song or move to a different playlist, you need to walk over to your computer, or grab your phone, and open up a specific app before you can do anything.

Your music player and speaker live in two different worlds.

With AR we connect the two. You aren’t tied to a particular device anymore. T here is no difference any more which device holds, and controls the music, and which device plays it. Is your phone charging in the other room? Is your computer being used by someone else? No problem. Your speaker is now the interface.

Other stories by me

• Why AR will change how we interact with our lights
• Who knew you could fix things with AR?
• Follow the {yellow} brick road

One more thing

Clapping lets me know that you have enjoyed reading this post and also allows others to see it. Also, I always appreciate your comments too.

I want to show everyday use-cases of Augmented Reality. Too often people either associate AR with a gimmicky game (Pokemon Go) or a fantastical SciFi world (Iron Man) that has nothing to do with them or the real world. With ‘2025’ I want to change that perception.

What’s going on here?

With Augmented Reality (AR), instead of getting out of your chair to turn on the lights, you could just look at the light you want, point at it, and it turns on.

What does this mean?

Today we interface with our lights using a proxy. We don’t directly interact with the light itself, but with the ‘light switch’. This can make things confusing as our lights are usually mounted in 3D space on a horizontal plane, while our light switches are usually mounted flat on a vertical plane. All of this has led to some very confusing light controls.*

True Story: I’ve lived at the same place for nearly two years now, and I still get confused with the light switches. Mind you, these panels were designed to confuse even the electrician. There are double ups, so that two switches control the same light. The switches themselves make no sense, and will control a light that is across the room.

It’s like the old USB port — you’ve flipped at least 5 1/2 switches before you’ve successfully found the right light.

We have clappers, but you don’t have intent, and we do have smartphone apps, but we’re still not interacting directly, we’ve just got a smarter switch.

What do I mean about clappers? When you clap, all you’re doing is activating a sensor, you can’t specify the light you want. What if you have 4 clappers in a room…and now you clap…exactly.

Pointing at the specific light signals intent, and tapping activates that.

Pro Tip: You can ‘lassoo’ select more than one light for group control.

Why should I care?

Augmented Reality, as an interface, is about removing the barrier between the interface and the object you want to interact with —

Essentially Augmenting your Reality.

*AR will address, and, I believe, fundamentally solve ‘mapping’. A concept Don Norman introduces in his influential book titled ‘The Design of Everday Things’.

You thought the touch screen was revolutionary, what with you being able to touch the content straight, without the keyboard and mouse proxy. Just wait until you experience AR.

Other stories by me

• Who knew you could fix things with AR?
• I’m Sorry, Siri can’t come to the phone right now
• Follow the {yellow} brick road

One more thing

Clapping lets me know that you have enjoyed reading this post and also allows others to see it. Also, I always appreciate your comments too.

Why are we happy wasting $$ when we could fix stuff ourselves?

I want to show everyday usecases of Augmented Reality. Too often people either associate AR with a gimmicky game (Pokemon Go) or a fantastical SciFi world (Iron Man) that has nothing to do with them or the real world. With ‘2025’ I want to change that perception.

Avraham Raskin on Twitter

Have you ever tried to fix your fridge with #AR and #AI? Do you want to?! #HeySiri https://t.co/nzdqBqkDbY

What’s going on here?

Siri, or any of our other Digital Assistants can fix problems that used to require an expert and lots of money.

What does this mean?

Using Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Vision and Augmented Reality we can now diagnose and easily repair fixes that in the past required experts and tons of money.

We have repair manuals on the internet for most, if not all, appliances that we would find in our house. Very rarely do we actually search for them and use them, and when we do, they are usually difficult to follow. Instead, we quickly reach for the phone number of the closest repairman.

By building an interactive repair guide using these technologies, we could walk the average person easily through the full process of fixing their appliances themselves.

Listen

One big part of these fixes is sound. Sound isn’t something you can easily add into a manual. A repairman can hear problems with our motors or fans that we wouldn’t notice or understand.

If our devices learnt to pickup the health of the motor just by listening to it, they could immediately diagnose whether there is a problem, and what are the likely steps to remedy it.

Why should I care?

I fix most problems on my computer and phone by searching Google and Stack Overflow. Why is my immediate thought in these cases to call a repairman, and not to try to do it myself?

No one enjoys the hassle that repairs today bring. We could soon repair our appliances by ourselves, like a pro in minutes.

Let’s remove the stigma that these devices are scary and learn how to fix things ourselves.

Other stories by me

• That’s not my Name
• Follow the {yellow} brick road
• I’m Sorry, Siri can’t come to the phone right now

One more thing

Clapping lets me know that you have enjoyed reading this post and also allows others to see it. Also, I always appreciate your comments too.

Who knew you could fix things with AR? was originally published in Good Audience on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Notice the odd one out?

All of these digital assistants are called by a very specific name.

Except one.

Google Assistant.

Now, why is that?

Why has Google decided to go against the grain and not pick a name for their AI. Why the very unspecific and not so relatable ‘Google Assistant’?

If we think about it, today it’s still a little weird speaking to your AI in public. Calling out ‘Cortana, please read out my schedule’ on the train is quite nerdy.

Everyone knows you’re speaking to a program.

And this is why I think Google has not named their AI yet. They want us to.

When the AI gets its name from the company, it feels more corporate. When we get to name it ourselves, it will feel more personal.

And soon we will be able to pick whatever name we want for our AI.

It will then become ‘ours’.

It’s also considerably less weird asking ‘Samantha’ to check our schedules in front of other people as they have absolutely no idea that we are conversing with software. They’ll think we’re talking to one of our secretaries.

We’ll be more comfortable conversing with our Digital Assistant.

She’ll be used more often, and in return will become smarter and more useful.

This, I believe, will remove one of the barriers to people seeing their Digital Assistants as more of a gimmick than a powerful tool in their pockets.

What do you reckon? Are you looking forward to your own digital secretary?

My name is Avraham, I work in the Augmented Reality (AR) field. Both in Sound and Vision. Recently I have been releasing short clips showing how AR will become practical uses of our everyday lives. Check them out on my Instagram or my LinkedIn.

This post is not going to go into all the history, but I want to touch upon the future of voice messages, and how our current digital agents are taking this further.

We’ve all seen speech to text, so let’s take this up a notch. The obvious extension of this is when Siri starts answering our phone calls for us.

Finally, a secretary for the masses.

It’s much easier to imagine this right now after Google showed off Duplex at I/O 2018 earlier this week. If you haven’t seen it, watch a small excerpt here.

Summarising

The first step could be Siri taking a message, and summarising that up nicely.

Siri to me: “Sarah called and wants to know.. North or South for camping? ..and if the weekend after next was good for you? ...if you would like I can play her message for you”

Basic Scheduling

Siri can do basic scheduling for you.

Advanced Scheduling

Full on Personal Assistant

Siri can know that you’re in middle of a conversation, and without disturbing you can answer the phone for you.

Siri is not just transcribing speech to text, she can respond and try take care of as many things as she can.

Siri can now place your order and set it up in your GPS.

Siri to me: “David just called, wanted to know if you could pickup the pizza for the game. I’ve gone ahead and placed an order for 1 pineapple and 3 plain. I’ve added this to your Waze trip on your way home. Is this good for you?”

Me: “Sure, thanks so much”

And just like that, the payment is approved and the order finalised.

Conclusion

Our digital assistants are getting smarter every day. They don’t just answer simple questions any more, they can infer context, and understand subtext. We are going into the era of conversation, not just instruction. With the Duplex demo earlier this week, we can finally start to see how our digital assistants can become our personal assistants.

I would love to hear where you think AI will be taking us 5 years from now.

My name is Avraham, I work in the Augmented Reality (AR) field. Both in Sound and Vision. Recently I have been releasing short clips showing how AR will become practical uses of our everyday lives. Check them out on my Instagram or my LinkedIn.