Social Impact



Positive Impact

​

Education

​

Augmented reality has made a positive impact on the area of education. Employing the use of gadgets such as smartphones, augmented reality helps to promote the interaction between the user and the original materials, encouraging a more ‘active’ form of education, eliciting more critical responses, as well as adopting new perspectives and positions. AR can make education more fun and enjoyable.

An added benefit of augmented reality is that it allows students to interact with physical objects in a virtual setting. For example, items such as ancient artifacts that are expensive or fragile can now be exposed to a large group of students as augmented reality would both allow these students to learn from the artifacts and ensure the protection of the artifacts. It might also be more cost-effective for institutions because there is no need to pay for access to the artifacts or procure whatever learning paraphernalia that is needed ( e.g. chemicals, cadavers for medical education purposes , etc )

Students who have been exposed to such a highly involved medium of learning have a higher tendency to remember and retain the majority of information that was presented to them in virtual forms - as opposed to route learning or looking at 2D diagrams. New users of such a technology would have a relatively quick learning curve, enabling them to learn in a more efficient manner.​ This will be particularly helpful for teaching concepts that are highly dependent on 3D imagination. One pertinent example might be DNA replication which prima facie seems highly complicated. In the past, students are stuck with trying to visualise it using diagrams. Now, we have videos. In the future, we will have students visualising the 3D process of DNA replication right in front of their eyes.

​

​Social​ Media

Augmented reality has also made the leap into the social media applications arena. This technology serves to provide a platform for greater interactivity between the app developer and the user. Through the provision of extra information about people or products, augmented reality allows users to have first-hand knowledge. This information could enable users to bridge the gap between themselves and other people, since they would know the background and interests of the people they are talking to beforehand. The ubiquitous social media is also integrated seamlessly into our everyday lives by innovations like Google Glasses and Mercedez's AR windshield and dashboard. There is now no need to take out your smartphones to access the internet - it is right in front of your eyes ( literally ) because you are wearing AR glasses ( or even bionic contact lens ).

​



Negative Impact



Privacy



Privacy issues might be a drawback for people using AR in their personal lives especially mobile-based AR. To be able to properly use an AR application or product, such as Google Glass, the end-user would have to reveal some information ( including some sensitive data such as passwords  and social security number ) - if the AR companies or its employees misuse the information, users’ privacy will be compromised. Even if the AR companies and their affiliates did not misuse the information, competent hackers might infiltrate the system and create much havoc - money and lives might even be lost.



Certain AR applications or products  for everyday use might allow people to obtain information about a person or object just by looking at them though a head-mounted display or the mobile phones’ cameras, enabling profiles to be viewed. It could be possible for one to walk up to a stranger and the application would be able to reveal information about the stranger. This information could be status, tweets, real name, address, pictures and many more. Not everyone would like their personal or professional information to be exposed to the public. However, it is possible to argue that these AR products and applications could allow restriction regarding what data would be displayed, allowing people to remain anonymous to strangers, or just divulge certain information they are comfortable with divulging. Again, hackers might acquire illegitimate access to such information. Harsh penalties need to be imposed under the Computer Misuse Act to deter would-be or recalcitrant computer hackers.



Security

With the increasing awareness of AR applications and products, there could come a day whereby masses would be dependent and relying on these AR applications and products for their everyday lives. The security of the AR system would come into question. Would it be possible for hackers to hack into the AR application or system and alter the information, thus causing great havoc? AR products and applications aim to provide accurate and timely information to the users conveniently. The system has to be secure enough such that hackers cannot obtain any sensitive information from the system or alter the system’s function, or change the data illegitimately to mislead netizens. It would cause a significant amount of financial loss ( and even physical injury, or property loss ) if it were to happen.



Spamming



AR mobile applications provides another avenue for advertisers to advertise their business or products. This could be economically beneficial to the advertisers and the AR companies. However, the over-usage of advertisements is tantamount to spam. Spamming of advertisements could result in advertisers inducing the users to purchase a product or go to a place with misrepresented information. Most importantly, it might be annoying to the users and discourage the users from fully benefiting from the AR application. Many consumers might not want to continue to use AR in their everyday lives if unwanted advertisements disrupt their lives to a large and unreasonable extent.



Encourage Violence



Some might also be concerned about the ability of users  ( who use AR applications and products from young ) to differentiate fiction from reality. This is more applicable to AR games, which allows users to experience the game with their 5 senses ( or at least a number of them, compared to now which is just audiovisual ). Most of the games involve shooting and some form of violence. It could be a potential problem if the users are not able to differentiate game and reality, normalizing violent behaviour. It has already been theorised that people who watch violent movies and play violent games might be negatively influenced. This problem is exacerbated in the case of AR or VR games. It is advised that adequate and stringent rating and censoring is needed by the relevant authority. ( e.g. R18 ) Parents should also, where possible, advise children not to spend too much time on games. Already, computer game addiction ( as a pathological clinical condition ) is becoming a prevalent problem. With the advent of VR and AR games, such psychological problems will only exponentially increase.  It is also possible ( this is mere speculation ) that due to the huge amount of immersion in these gaming technologies, psychiatric conditions - such as personality disorders, bipolar disorders and the like - might become more prevalent.



 

Economical Impact


Positive Impact​​

​Marketing

​

Augmented Reality has impacted the business sector in more ways than one. This technology has allowed companies to showcase and increase their brand equity through its unique and fresh content experiences. The visual experience that augmented reality provides creates an evocative and sensory connection between the buyer and the seller. Scientific evidence has shown that it is easy for a buyer to have an attachment to a product simply by touching it for a few seconds. Thus augmented reality could revolutionize the marketing industry and generate more revenue  - stimulating the local economy. On the flipside, would this encourage unhealthy consumerism?

Additionally, the interactivity between the buyers and products could provide marketing professionals with information such as the preferences of consumers. Blueprints of products could be digitized for consumers to review first before making any changes. This would allow businesses to create new and better products from this information(i.e. feedback) and thus minimize the wastage of resources.​

Negative Impact​



Feasibility

​

With much investment in AR applications and products, not much of them are being commercialised and some even remained in the prototype stage. Are companies wasting too much resources on AR, a project that might not have positive, palpable outcomes such as generating revenue and profit? Even if there are positive palpable outcomes, it might be a long time before efforts will bear fruit. In essence, the development of AR is probably costly and the duration might be long - it being a emerging technology, it requires large investments.

​

Even though there are improvements in AR technologies, the success rate of commercialising these technologies ( into the mainstream ) might be relatively small. Companies might be using their resources on AR instead of focusing on other short-term projects that could much more likely generate revenue and business activities, helping the economy.

​

It could be argued that investment in AR could essentially pay off in the long run. But the question remains as to how long it will take for the project to bear fruit. However, it is arguable that companies should always focus and plan for the near future - by doing research in AR, companies greatly benefit ( in a financial sense - from patents, and product uptake) from being the pioneers when such technologies eventually gain a stronger foothold in the mass market.

​

One common example of an AR technology becoming mainstream is the Ulthera non-surgical face-lift. It is now widely marketed and the machine is found in many aesthetic physicians' offices. However, there are non-AR competitors such as Thermage which lifts the face using Radiofrequency pulses, and so-called 'thread-lifts' which essentially lift the face using semi-permanent or resorbable threads. In fact, some physicians feel that Thermage produces better results than Ulthera. One can see that marketing is very important when it comes to adoption of AR technology - Ulthera's marketing campaign with physicians was a huge success, probably owing to the wow-factor of cutting edge ultrasound visualisation.



​

Environmental Impact​

 

Negative Impact​



Carbon Footprint


Technology companies have data centers. With the increasing usage and development of AR, companies might have to construct new data centers. These centers not only occupy a large amount of land, they also consume a lot of power and electricity. This would pose a problem as the greenhouse gas emissions indirectly caused ( as a result of energy consumption ) by these centers will increase as companies continue to expand, ostensibly causing global warming to worsen. The excessive consumption of energy would accelerate the problem of not having enough energy reserves for future uses. This is especially significant as most of the energy we use are not sustainable energy and could run out in the very near future. Companies could build data centers running entirely on renewable resources like solar energy. However, the cost of building these centers are relative high and most companies would rather use their resources to further develop and implement AR products and applications. It can be argued however, that there might be long-term financial benefits because the accumulated energy savings over the years will inevitably supersede the initial investment ( of building solar energy panels ) - assuming that cost of maintenance is not a huge issue.

​

​