How big is the market for AR glasses? You probably have no idea.

Imagine this. I need glasses. I can't find them. I can't see clearly more than a few feet in front of my face. I can find my phone. I turn on its camera. I can see the world, suddenly in focus, using my phone's screen.

AR glasses can, without lenses, completely replace "lens-based" glasses. And make the current state of the art in progressive lenses look like madhuman-inventor-in-their-basement wastes of time.

And let's return to Apple AirPods Pro's and Max' (and Beats Solo Pro's) Transparency Mode. It's taking what's in your world, reducing unimportant sounds (leaf blower) and increasing important ones (human voice).  

That's AR. That's your world, programmatically mediated for improved interaction.

But don't stop there. Now add GUIs -- let's call them HUDs to be kewl -- in the corners, voice assistants in my ears, highlighted pieces of interest in my field of view, reminders, the whole "Predator sight" nine yards.

That's what AR is. It's perfect senses. You can see perfectly, hear perfectly, well beyond even the best human can now, missing nothing. Baby crying? Never miss it. See the baby camera immediately without reaching for your monitor. Calls from your mother when she's worried? Patched through no matter what. Calls from someone you gave your number to in a bar but shouldn't have (do we still go to bars?) who won't stop hounding you? Never makes it past the CPU, if that's what you want. Fakes that the number is dead.

Not awake in time for a meeting? Forgot that you're out of milk on the way home? Did you mention to a friend that you'd see them at 7:30 tonight and it's 7:10? Instant recall without the mediation of looking at your phone; now it's in your ear, politely, or the corner of your eye without your having ever made an entry in your calendar or reminders.

AR is coming. Not VR, not a world to replace "reality". AR qua Reality++. It is coming, eventually. It's already hear, quietly. And just like a smartphone, everyone will eventually pay for the hardware... and the subscriptions that hardware will all but require.

Every capitalist dollar with an iota of brains wants in on this. I wonder when we'll hit the tipping point where those dollars finally start to reproduce like jackrabbits.

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