When was augmented reality invented

My 4-year-old daughter Serena will be 30 in 2041. Assuming that she has a college degree and eight years of work experience, how might she fare in a world dominated by contract workers, fluid teams, human-centered work, persistent pay gaps, blurred work-life boundaries, and biases that have been around since the beginning of time? Well, let’s investigate. advertisement advertisement 1. International Competition Serena was born in 2011, the year the U.S. birth rate dipped to its lowest recorded level. As the U.S. birth rate keeps trending below 2.0 births per woman, that doesn’t mean young women will face less competition for school acceptance and jobs in the coming decades. Instead of vying with other Americans her age, my daughter will fight for a place among hyper-qualified professionals from around the world. While her generation struggles to support the population of adults over 65–projected to triple by mid-century–it will face a global talent … [Read more...] about 6 Workplace Realities Women Will Face In 2040

If 2017 showed us anything, it was that it’s no longer just researchers working on the bleeding edge UX and UI of the future. Corporations are getting into it, too, in the massively competitive world of Silicon Valley. We all expect zany inventions to be born out of places like MIT, but who would have thought it would be Snapchat–a publicly traded company–that would fulfill the dream of placing digital objects in the real world? advertisement advertisement Here are some of the best experimental interface prototypes and concepts from 2017. Snapchat’s World Lens Objects Say what you will about Snap’s business viability–more than any other company, Snap has sucked us into the possibility of AR. This year, it one-upped its selfie lenses with World Lenses, which allowed you to drop real (err, digital) 3D objects like rainbows into your photos and videos. More recently, Snap opened the World Lens platform for anyone to design these … [Read more...] about The 12 Most Innovative UX Experiments Of The Year

5G wireless may not change everything, as a lot of the hype around this technology loves to promise. But a new report from wireless-infrastrcture provider Ericsson suggests it’s going to make our smartphones even more of a streaming-media time suck, with better video and new temptations such as VR and AR. And those of us in North America will make the move to 5G more rapidly than those elsewhere. advertisement advertisement The November 2019 edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report predicts that this next generation of mobile broadband will see its first big year in 2020—and account for almost three quarters of all mobile subscriptions in North America just five years later. The rest of the world, however, will move more slowly, says Stockholm-based Ericsson, with the next highest 5G adoption rates seen in northeast Asia (56% 5G by 2025) and western Europe (55% by 2025). “Countries within these regions have developed economies, enabling a high adoption rate … [Read more...] about Get ready for 5G to make your phone even more addictive

Startups run into countless problems, but my company recently hit one plenty would consider themselves fortunate to have. We spent millions renovating our office to accommodate up to 185 people, the highest headcount we thought we’d ever hit. Less than a year later, we now have 160 staffers and are looking at costly expansion options–at a cost of several million more. advertisement advertisement But what if we didn’t have to pay that price, or could at least reduce it? Vidyard is in the video industry, and as its CEO and a pretty big tech nerd, I’m especially drawn to virtual reality. So I started to wonder if there’d ever come a point when our office could ditch physical walls and open up virtual workspaces instead? For now, the answer is a definitive no. We keep hearing how VR is changing gaming, entertainment, and even marketing. But real VR innovation has yet to hit the modern workplace. Even early adopters are hard to find. But that … [Read more...] about Why I Can’t Wait To Work In VR

Target The idea of a massive store that looks the same in every region is a thing of the past, at least for Target. In its place is a highly curated version tailored for dense urban areas. “How do we keep our store experience relevant?” asks Mark Schindele, Target’s SVP of properties. “We customize, we evolve, and we understand our guests.” advertisement advertisement In 2017, Target will roll out 28 new flexible-format stores, double the number it opened in 2016. The company’s first small-store effort, City Target, which launched in six locations in 2012, averaged about 100,000 square feet, still too big a footprint for major cities. The company faced a challenge: how to condense even more while providing customers with a total Target experience. Flex formats shrink the size to as little as 12,000 square feet and tailor merchandise to specific neighborhoods. They also dropped the special moniker: All Targets, regardless of the size or … [Read more...] about Updates From Our Most Innovative Companies: Moleskine, Target, And More