“We’re Starting to Use It Every Day”: Speaker Helen Papagiannis on Augmented Reality

With the overnight ubiquity of Pokemon Go this past summer, we saw the transformative power of a new kind of technology: augmented reality. And according to Helen Papagiannis, author of the upcoming book Augmented Human (March 2017), Nintendo’s creature-catching phenomenon marks only the beginning.

In a recent interview with Toronto Life, Papagiannis discusses everything you need to know about AR, now. She talks about the key differences between AR and virtual reality (VR), identifies companies that are already making use of each, and tells us where these burgeoning media are heading in the near future.

“Both technologies ultimately share the same goal: to immerse the viewer in an experience,” Papagiannis says. But where VR drops you in a fictional scenario entirely, AR lays virtual content overtop of our existing world. And although “augmented reality” isn’t a phrase you hear every day, chances are you’re already using the technology. Snapchat filters are a prime example. 

Papagiannis, one of the world’s foremost speakers on augmented reality—she’s been working in AR and related fields for ten years—likens the rise of AR to the birth of the silver screen:

“I often compare augmented reality to the emergence of cinema. At first, people marvelled at the technology and content was secondary. We’re still in the early days of augmented reality, still defining the conventions, and it’s wide open right now. There are so many opportunities for AR to be built into our daily lives. It’s an excellent time right now for storytellers, engineers and artists to develop ways to use this technology. I’m excited to see how these tools can expand our human capacity and change our lives.”

Keep your eyes peeled for Papagiannis’s book, Augmented Human, coming in July from O’Reilly Media.

The door is open for innovators and cutting-edge companies to begin leveraging AR in products and marketing efforts. To book AR expert and author of Augmented Human Helen Papagiannis as your next conference speaker, contact The Lavin Agency, her exclusive speakers bureau.