Changing Realities for Business

Chapter 6. Computer Vision and Complementary Technologies: Where It’s All Going

Putting augmented reality (AR) into practice—particularly in the context of creating instructions for using, assembling, or repairing something—is not as easy as you might imagine.

Making holographic objects appear in space not only requires deep 3D rendering capabilities (and the processing power to support it) but also an understanding of how to render those objects, how to make them look natural given their surroundings, and how to construct them so that they look natural. And if you’re giving people instructions about how to operate them or a look at what’s inside, you also need to know how to deconstruct the objects.

First, though, it requires an understanding of the fundamental technologies behind AR. One of those is computer vision. And there is no one better to explore that with than Roy Ashok. Ashok is the CEO of DAQRI. Prior to that, he was the company’s chief product officer. Before that he was one was one of the principal architects of what is now one of the most widely used AR platforms in the world; he was one of the two original creators of Vuforia at Qualcomm and the technical lead who helped to build the platform. The reason I spoke with him specifically, though, has nothing to do with where he works, and everything to do with his field of expertise. Ashok is one of the world’s leading experts in computer vision. And he leads one of the most experienced computer vision teams, a Vienna-based ...