Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Forty years ago I saw what Augmented Reality could do. I’m still waiting for it.

Back in 1980, I spent much of my workdays repairing electronic equipment (yes, I am that old). Pull a piece of equipment out of the rack, put it on the workbench, remove the cover, and trace through the circuit boards trying to find what failed and replace it.

One company (I cannot recall which) made this much easier on some of their equipment. They put a clear plastic board over the circuit board and held it in place with little supports. The plastic board had holes in it above test points and adjustment points (variable resisters). The plastic board also had words and arrows and other helpful things printed on it. “Test here,” “Adjust here,” and so on.

Looking down at the circuit board with this clear plastic board was augmented reality (AR) in 1980. Aha! Look at the object of your work and see helpful things hovering in the air above it. This was wonderful!

And here we are 40+ years later. Where are those glasses I can wear that show me these things. Look at the object of my work and see helpful tips floating above the work. This is just what everyone who does any sort of maintenance on just about anything needs.

Examples:

• Auto repair
• surgeons
• dentists
• air conditioner repair
• plumbers
• and the list goes on to include editors of essays

And then we can extend this to those who teach. A coach can look through AR glasses at a player who is attempting a skill. The glasses point to flaws in technique Aha! That is it. And therapists who are trying to help patients recover their skills.

What do we have? Advertisements on playing fields on TV. That’s it?

Come on folks. We can certainly do better some 40 years later. Huh?