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Mark Pesce

Augmented Reality: Unboxing Tech's Next Big Thing Paperback – 6 November 2020

by Mark Pesce (Author)

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Slated as ‘the next big thing in tech’, augmented reality promises to take the screen out of our hands and wrap it around the world via ‘smart spectacles’. As a pervasive, invisible interface between the world and our senses, AR offers unparalleled capacity to reveal hidden digital depths, but it also comes at a cost to our privacy, our property, and our reality.

In this crucial and provocative book, Mark Pesce draws on over thirty years’ experience to offer the first mainstream exploration of augmented reality. He discusses the exciting and beneficial features of AR as well as the issues and risks raised by this still-emerging technology – a technology that moulds us by shaping what we see and hear.

Augmented Reality is essential reading for anyone interested in the growing influence of this impressive but deeply concerning technology. As the book reveals, reality - once augmented - will never be the same.

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Product details

Publisher : Polity; 1st edition (6 November 2020)
Language : English
Paperback : 160 pages
ISBN-10 : 1509540946
ISBN-13 : 978-1509540945
Dimensions : 13.72 x 1.52 x 21.59 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 124,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 648 in Video Games & Strategy Guides
- 753 in Communication & Media Studies
- 151,679 in Textbooks & Study Guides

Customer Reviews:
25 ratings

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“This is the story of how we came to live in an increasingly augmented reality and what this might mean for the future of being human, told by one of this technology’s most brilliant and playful pioneers. Thrilling, scary, hopeful, and required reading.”
Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock: When Everything Happens and Team Human

“A must-read for those who are both fascinated by digital technology and fearful of its implications. Mark makes a deeply technical topic accessible to any reader, and catalogs the key insights and innovations that led to where we are now: on the cusp of the most significant technological advancement in history-- and possibly the most dangerously invasive and manipulative tool ever created.”
Tony Parisi, VR pioneer and Head of AR/VR Ad Innovation at Unity Technologies

“an expansive and holistic picture of how augmented reality works as a system of machines.”
ARPost

“a must-read.”
The Connector

“fascinating”
ZD Net

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Top review from Australia

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Ben Shipley

Future clear to see

Reviewed in Australia on 30 December 2020

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A thought provoking romp through the history and future of tech's next big thing.

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EX LEO

Through a Glass Darkly

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 January 2021

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

I don’t own a Smart Phone, or subscribe to any social media platforms such as Facebook. That is probably because I was born in the pre digital age. Having read Mark Pesce’s book ‘Augmented Reality’, I don’t think I will be changing this position any time soon.

I follow advances in technology, but don’t always see them as progress! Social media promises connectivity, promoting the idea that ‘I’m entitled to my opinion’ (and by extension, you’re entitled to my opinion too!). Whilst apparently a benign concept, social media has spawned the anti social phenomena of ‘cyberbullying’ and ‘fake news’. The companies, who make trillions of dollars every year hosting these platforms, plead an inability to effectively ‘police’ them, due to their popularity. It is then left to the actual Police (who frankly have got better things to do) to deal with these problems. Perhaps more worrying, is the amount of personal data that is unconsciously gifted to these platforms by their users, with scant regard as to how it will be used. I thought that this was bad enough, until I read this book.

‘Augmented Reality’ charts the progress of AR technology from Ivan Sutherland’s concept of a ‘head worn display 'to Microsoft’s HoloLens headset. These devices enable information and imagery to be 'virtually' superimposed on the real time environment. Amongst other applications, this offers the user the ability to deal with computer created scenarios in a real world setting. The possibilities this presents, particularly for training, are limited only by imagination. The author then projects the technology into a future that seems straight out of a Philip K Dick novel.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has prophesised a time, in the not too distant future, when the cumbersome headsets will be replaced by lightweight glasses (and eventually contact lenses). These ‘mirrorshades’ wirelessly linked to the wearer’s Smart phone will form the ultimate human – computer interface. Through the screens, in the lens of the glasses, the wearer will have access to information about their surroundings. This ‘locative metadata’ is created by images from cameras built into the mirrorshades combined with the Smart phone’s AI, GPS and SLAM technologies by the use of integrated cloud computing. All sounds pretty utopian? Think again!

Like social media this all seems benign and useful. However, there is a more sinister side to the use of Augmented Reality. What is computed in the ‘cloud’ can be stored in the ‘cloud’ and has the potential to turn users of AR into unwitting surveillance drones. The author illustrates this point by revealing that Niantic created the most detailed global map ever, using the data received from the millions of users of their Pokemon Go app. Not only was this collected covertly, unlike Google Earth products, but at little cost to the company. The author foresees a time when phone users, already reluctant to look away from their mobile screens, will wear their mirrorshades constantly. These familiar and seemingly unthreatening devices will create a situation where everyone is constantly under surveillance by everybody else. Stored in the ‘cloud’, it is difficult to know who will have access to this information, legitimately or otherwise.

An additional problem with locative metadata, is who gets to write it and who governs where it is written. Whilst the positive side of locative metadata is undeniable, the potential for its misuse is immense. The technology will allow bad actors to 'virtually' annotate buildings or places with what amounts to ‘digital graffiti’ including racist or other offensive content. It will be a very difficult area to police and at present no legislation or mechanism to do so exists or is even envisioned. It will be interesting to see how much responsibility the tech giants will take for this!

Finally, the wearer of mirrorshades will control their interface with the computer by their eye movements. This will enable the computer to track what the user is looking at, how long they looked at it and what held their attention. Once again the user will unwittingly be surrendering information about themselves. 1984 might have been and gone, but Big Brother is still watching us. The question is who else is and why?

Mark Pesce has produced a timely warning about the dangers of embracing advances in technology, without considering the potential problems they might create. It is well written and very readable. I must admit that a few small sections of it seemed like techie bafflegab to me, but as I said I’m pre digital. Anybody with an interest in future tech should read this book.

Highly Recommended.

Red on Black

Augmented Reality: The ultimate surveillance tool?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 February 2021

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

AR is essentially the technology that allows us to see the real-life environment right in front of us such as the waves hitting the beach, dogs chasing balls, rugby games —with a digital augmentation overlaid on it. For example, a surfer could be catching the wave you see, the dogs could be mingling with cats, and Scotland could beat England in rugby (yeah!). You have already experienced AR in cricket, tennis, rugby, football and golf which have all started to overlay analytic information on top of standard-speed replays. Mark Pense excellent new book is that of a reluctant enthusiast. The technology is truly mindblowing but so are the personal security issues. Pesce traces the key innovation in AR as the release of the Pokemon Go game which is played by millions. He then goes on to highlight the huge potential inherent in AR. the only problem is that all the great liberating technologies, the internet, social media etc have so many downsides that you sometimes wonder would it have been better to leave them "in the box".

Pesce shows that AR will facilities a world where machines and their masters manipulate our reality, we will all be watching one another, all of the time, on an unprecedented scale. The world Orwellian really does not come close for by design augmented reality is the technology of networked surveillance. More than this we have a generation that cannot resist the desire to view the world through a screen particularly stuck at home in lockdown. Addiction is high now, what will it be like with this technology? Ultimately there is no stopping this technology, it is obviously the next stage of digital technology and one that will be fast upon us. Frankly, for this reviewer, the downsides described by Pesce are such that the exhortation "to stop the world I want to get off" has real attractions. Even though we still are n the early stages questions needs to be asked the most obvious being whats to stop Augmented reality glasses from being compromised by a hacker who would be able to see and hear everything the wearer does. This would mean a hacker could monitor everything the owner was doing from a smartphone in their pocket. Pesce concludes his book by questioning whether we are again opening Pandora's box and the ultimate surveillance tool? Unfortunately the answer appears to be "yes".

Bluebell Girl

An Interesting Thought Provoking Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 February 2021

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Augmented Reality by Mark Pesce is not something I would normally read but I do like to have varied reading and subject matter, so thought I would enjoy reading this. Augmented reality can be defined as ‘a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view’. AR is held up to be the next big development in technology, as it promises to ‘take the screen out of our hands and wrap it around the world via 'smart spectacles'. Seems almost like something out of a science fiction film but the technology is being developed.

Pesce writes well and although I found some parts a little difficult to understand I found it a very interesting read overall. I found the history Pesce provides about the development of AR very fascinating. Pesce puts forward the arguments for and against AR and draws his conclusions. I found some parts very disturbing, such as the amount of date that some social media platforms collect from their users. Additionally, Mark Zuckerberg Facebook’s CEO has stated that in time we will all be wearing glasses that will be linked to our smartphones, these devices will have the ability to transfer data seen by the wearer into a centralised cloud database. Unbelievable? Maybe not. Pesce gives the example of the company Niantic, who created the most detailed map ever made, and how did it do this? Through the users of its app Pokeman Go! So as amazing and interesting as this may seem, it will also come at a cost to our privacy, property and ultimately our reality.

Vince Marsters

Is AR good or bad?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 February 2021

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

This is one of those books about technology that can really be taken two opposing ways but should be read with an open mind.

If you are a fan of technology and try to use as much as possible without thinking of consequences, the book is a great read about the advances that have been made in Augmented Reality in the decades since it was developed, through modern day use (think games like Pokemon Go), and into the future where tech is small and always with us.

If you come from a mindset that tech is always bad and that the government and big business (collectively, our rulers) are out to ruin our lives with technological advances, then the book gives an insight into how augmented reality could help with this. As the wearable tech is small, it will require much more powerful backend systems where the rulers can use it to control our movement and what we do - like a modern day 1984.

The reality will sit somewhere in the middle and read that way, this is an excellent insight into one of the big new (at 50 years old it isn't really new) wonder inventions of the modern digital age. It is well written although some sections can be harder reading for less technological inclined readers and does make you think whether we sometimes advance technology for the right reasons without also thinking about the negatives that could come from that advance.

Very interesting read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 February 2021

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

As technology continues to advance, we unlock a potential to do much more that we previously could not do. Augmented Reality helps to combine the real and the virtual world.

This book has used recent examples of how society can benefit from Augmented Reality - with one example coming in the form of the mobile game, Pokémon Go, where a lot of people were actually going out and walking instead of sitting at home. Benefits included improved health and society coming together to enjoy a common interest.

However, it did show another side to Augmented Reality where it might not be such a benefit. It was interesting to read about how user data could be unwittingly tracked, stored and used by large companies for their own personal gain. This is already a large concern, especially with social media.

The author, Mark Pesce, has really shown both sides of Augmented Reality in this book with both the benefits and drawbacks it brings as well as considering the future implications and possibilities.

This is a book that I think would appeal to a wide audience - it's thought provoking and shows the benefits and drawbacks of the advancements in Augmented Reality. I would definitely recommend giving this book a read!

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