Why Spatial Computing Matters

(Spatial computing is my preferred term for spatial mediums like AR + VR)

It all started with a feeling. I was in Google TiltBrush, a VR painting application. In my hands were a paintbrush and palette. With these tools, my surroundings were an infinite canvas. Within seconds of slipping on the headset, I drew a robot out of duct tape. Up to this point, a keyboard and mouse were the gatekeepers of my creative expression. It’s hard to properly express how profound this moment was for me, but if you’ve tried VR, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Lately, my attention/life has been devoted largely Augmented Reality. AR isn’t just a type of VR. It isn’t just the next step. It’s the intertwining of the physical and the digital world.

Imagine making an omelet from your hands’ perspective. The grip of the fridge door, the perfect amount of force to open the seal. How you searched for the eggs as you rummaged around the fridge. How you cracked the eggs open precisely, without obliterating the shell. How you beat the eggs, and poured them. How they found the forks. Somehow, all of this knowledge was stored inside of your hands.

Hands are just one example. We’ve evolved to effectively navigate and interact with our environments. But up to now, we’ve have remained largely stationary with strictly defined purposes. We’ve been able to train our fingers to input text at miraculous speeds, but every other part of our humanity is unavailable as an input.

AR brings the digital back into our comfort zone. We are able to juggle, throw, point, and spin around. We are able to be human.

Information can be seamlessly aligned with its context. The importance of this cannot be overstated — it enables our behavior to be the keyboard. Imagine throwing out a container of milk, and, automatically “Milk” is added to the shopping list on your fridge. Imagine lacing up your running sneakers and having your workout music start playing.

Screen based devices necessitate a gulf between our world and the digital world. But, with AR, that is no longer so.

Every technology carries the potential for both positive and negative change. Mobile phones, a comparatively less immersive medium, has dramatically changed how we live our lives for in both good and bad ways.

When you think deeply about it, you’ll find that most of the negative ways it has affected us is on the societal level. This is because while designers often consider people (through personas and scenarios), they rarely consider the systems these people exist in.

Imagine walking into a diner, in the AR future. What do you see? Groups of people all poking in the air? Or do you see one table reading the news, and another playing tabletop basketball. Either way, we have to be intentional about what we want that future to look like.

The field is fertile and raw. There are no standards, no conventions. It’s up to us to figure it out. That’s about as exciting as any challenge can get.

A Little About Me: I’m a User Experience Engineer (so somewhere between a designer and a SWE). I’m passionate about AR, robotics, communication, and income inequality.

I’ve interned twice at SpaceX, and twice at Google — once on Android, and most recently on Google Daydream. Once I graduate college, I’ll be joining Apple as an AR Applications Engineer.

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