Potential Dangers

It could be said that with great knowledge comes great responsibility. There are several associated potential dangers that come with our use of Spatial Computing. Areas we will touch upon here include potential loss of personal control, dilution of the natural, and population segmentation.

In terms of potential loss of personal control, the major one that everyone has at the front of their minds because of Facebook's transgressions is the disappearance of privacy. Especially with Augmented Reality, unauthorized use of data and media by companies or authoritarian use by governments could potentially be a problem. Location and spending data, along with videos made with the knowledge of the viewer and recording speech when headsets/glasses are worn could present another wave of Google Glass-like uproar. However, we do not think this is going to happen since the uses of Augmented Reality have been lauded over the last few years and there also seems to be better advance acceptance of glasses-like headsets due to the public's understanding that privacy issues will be addressed by Augmented Reality hardware and software companies, along with much deeper utilities that today's technology affords. Companies will need to be especially clear as to what their data policies are and have appropriate opt-in policies to meet the expectations of the public. There is so much reward that could be received by providing data for Augmented Reality purposes―these rewards should be heralded while understanding that there are those that would prefer to not share their data.

Another potential loss of personal control is one of over-advertising. As Keiichi Matsuda's 2016 six-minute nightmare concept film "Hyper-Reality" portrayed, a world where Augmented Reality advertising is constantly overlaid over the real world is one that is unbearable.

Having an opt-in system should solve this, but it might still be an issue when there is a willful exchange of some kind of visual goods with advertising. Companies will probably push the advertising threshold with potential consumers to see how far they can go in this case.

Talking about extremes, this brings up the point of addiction that has come so naturally with the advent of the smartphone. And as with any other kind of addiction, it is certainly the case that personal loss comes attached with it. There are many cases of people who have died while taking selfies while in the throes of being distracted by their digital addictions. There is the possibility that a person walking around in a future blockbuster Augmented Reality game will walk into traffic or even off a cliff, so technical safeguards based in Computer Vision will definitely have to be built-in as an alert device.

Along with this kind of addiction comes dilution of the significance of the natural objects and environments of the world as they appear in reality. This is relevant with regard to both Augmented and Virtual Reality. Dystopian visions on this abound, ranging from people never wanting to be in the real world again, to the death of learning, to the abandonment of care about pollution and global warming. In Virtual Reality, a person could potentially hurt and even kill a digital character without having the full effect of what these actions would be like in real life. A worry might be that these actions via Augmented and Virtual Reality could become so common stance that the line between the imaginary and the real could become blurred to the extent that real people would then get hurt and killed. Industry oversight organizations might spring up to create ratings of Spatial Computing experiences that would rate the level of violent content so that viewings these experiences could be better managed and controlled. In this way, possible negative societal effects could be mitigated.

On the other side of this, the benefits of Spatial Computing will not be able to be shared by everyone on the planet due to economic reasons. Even in relatively well-off countries, there will be segments of the population that will not be able to afford Spatial Computing headsets or glasses. The result of this is that there will be great inequality with regard to information and productivity between the two groups. We believe that both laptop and desk computers, as well as tablets and phones, will be replaced by Spatial Computing headsets or glasses. Without Spatial Computing devices, both work and entertainment could prove to be difficult. Over time, we believe that the cost of Spatial Computing devices will come down due to technical efficiencies and product commoditization, so that much more of the world's population will be able to afford them.

There are many uses for Spatial Computing devices, which is a main theme of this book. We will now provide a backdrop for understanding why Spatial Computing will have the impact on the world we believe it will.