When people move around the physical world, they have lots of thoughts on what they see. At times, they may want to express such thoughts - for themselves or others. To capture such expression, not only the medium of capture is required but also its position in the physical world. Such capture has profound value. However, such value has impact only if delivered.
Every mass medium has a design flow that is unique to its medium, starting from print to mobile phones. mani belongs to a new & eighth mass medium. It is unique but is designed with clear understanding of human behavior in this 21st century.
The human body is the focal point of the entire design. The body motion, limb movements to the clarity of vision in a human eye are its foundation.
Every interaction is something the user has already experienced before. They are brought & knitted together, in a beautiful & meaningful manner. The freedom of human body movement and its subsequent reaction in the digital world is, as smooth as it could be.
The digital artifacts resemble physical artifacts not just in scale but also in its positioning, illumination, and persistence. Though a chameleon flexibility is not feasible it instills a non-command interface.
Time and unobtrusive camera feed are the essence, to have the user feel connected with the physical world. The result is people holding their phone and interacting with the physical world as naturally as they see it. The boundaries between the digital & physical world are blurred.
When the boundaries are blurred, the societal desire for self-expression of the physical world is satisfied. Beyond expression, leaving information for others could become a ubiquitous communication tool. After all, mani can be trusted to guide them to that location.
This level of smooth experience can be a powerful leverage for businesses & people.
Say, there is a social worker helping children in a neighbourhood to find food staples - for healthy living. Such social worker could significantly scale-up the number of children and save time. The children would always find consistent experience when someone is helping.
When anyone has access to such information, it
1 | reduces the cognitive load as it would be presented with context and low effort.
2 | minimizes attention switches, as information from multiple sources are presented in a contained manner.
3 | reduces the cost to perform a task.
Meanwhile, the technical challenges for such capture and its delivery are dynamic & vast. It is important to choose the battles, wisely. At its core, the most fundamental requirement is a standardized reality modelling, mapping, and localization system. It is to spatially understand the environment in a digital format and use it as a reference to recognize the environment - in the future.
1 | A visual-inertial odometry is a subset of such system. It is the framework responsible for calibrating your movement in space. Even such small framework (yet fundamental) must be accessible by OEMs to provide a consistent experience, let alone the entire system.
2 | Calibration is never binary, it is statistical. What works on the streets of Vancouver does not mean it will work in rural India. To be straightforward, engineers cannot test it beyond their limited environment. One team cannot accomplish it without performance bias.
3 | The scale of reality mapping and modelling is extremely high