The Future of Mixed Reality, as Seen by Unity Labs

Virtual reality and augmented reality are hot topics these days, and most of us have either experienced it for ourselves or have seen videos of people’s reactions. It’s becoming more and more apparent that these technologies will probably become a central pillar of our increasingly connected lives. The question on everyone’s minds, from hardware manufacturers to user interaction designers, is how this near-future reality will look. And who better to answer that than researchers from video game engine developer Unity?

Dioselin Gonzalez, lead for the newly-created Mixed Reality Research Group within Unity Labs, has a fascinating three-part article on the subject. The goal for her and her team is to try to predict the future of virtual and augmented reality, which she refers to more generally as “mixed reality.” This involves taking into account what we actually do today with our computers, what will be technologically possible in the coming years, and what we’ll want to do with that technology when it does arrive.

These are, of course, difficult questions to answer. While virtual reality tech demos are intriguing, and people seem to love giving them a try, that doesn’t mean the general population actually wants to experience technology that way regularly. Going beyond gaming, Gonzalez anticipates mixed reality being used for all of our computer and smartphone interactions. As she points out, this means making mixed reality tech as comfortable and efficient to use as the keyboards and mice we’re used to.

Aside from those relatively simple physical concerns, there are much deeper considerations regarding the ethics of the technology. It’s easy to foresee a future wrought with safety and privacy concerns if mixed reality is handled irresponsibly. Many of these things we already see today, particularly regarding online privacy, and they could be much more serious as mixed reality evolves. For speculation about this future, be sure to read the whole fantastic series over on the Unity Blog.