Augmented reality, popularized by the Pokemon Go game, allows someone to see through their phone virtual items “on top of” the real world. The technology now goes further, with “parallel reality”, developed by an American start-up and already tested at Detroit airport.
Personalized display technology for each individual
Misapplied Sciences, a start-up founded by former researchers at Microsoft and Walt Disney Imagineering, has created a new type of pixel with unprecedented capabilities. Complemented by additional technologies such as sensors, user interface devices, tracking, computer vision, data management and predictive analytics, these pixels can simultaneously project up to millions of light rays of colors and of different brightness. Each ray can then be directed by software to a specific person. This would allow easy control of visual media to specific people and locations.
In other words, looking at the same object, the same interface, not everyone would see the same thing.
“Whether it’s replacing the signs you see around you or creating entirely new experiences, the possibilities are endless”, promises the company on its website. To make billboards more effective, simultaneously showing different things to different people in different places, the Detroit Metro Airport is already experimenting with this technology. For Delta Air Lines flights, they have replaced the old electromechanical panels with their clattering letters, with screens, with a large board that displays personalized information for a hundred passengers.
By scanning their boarding passes, travelers allow the system to follow them, even when they are walking, and display the right information only for them, in a personalized way. Albert Ng, CEO of Misapplied, assures that “the point of Parallel Reality is that you can create an entire location that’s personalized just for you”.
Huge potential for all public places
According to Albert Ng, the company is very enthusiastic about the idea of introducing this system in other places, such as stores, sports stadiums or other spaces dedicated to entertainment. Ultimately, anywhere where many people can have personalized experiences in a shared public environment.
Greg Forbes, general manager of Delta Airport Experience, says that for now, within the airport framework, it will be interesting to experiment with other use cases, while also exploring how to improve the board. current with features such as multilingual support. For Albert Ng, “the airport is just the start.”