2025 AR/VR Convergence
By 2025 the distinctions between AR and VR will be insignificant; the devices will converge and be multifunctional. Their vast capabilities to blend natural and synthetic vision will cause us to rethink everything—from the social norms of human interaction to how private and public spaces are designed and navigated. New sports will inevitably emerge that will be designed to test athletes’ performance across the spectrum of mixed reality.
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Headsets and AR glasses are still selling at peak smartphone numbers—150 million per quarter—because each year, the devices improve so rapidly.
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Humans won’t need prescription glasses anymore. The AR system corrects vision for you, tracking your eye movement and focal point.
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Batteries made from graphene rather than lithium ion don’t just double the capacity, they recharge in seconds.
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Photons replace electrons as 3D photonic nanocrystals are integrated.
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Hello, 8K video! You’ll have pure 20/20 vision of everything rendered.
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AR and VR converge, as new glasses can bring on darkness by canceling light waves, much like noise-canceling headphones do.
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In 2025, we’ll wear “smart contact lenses” that will gradually evolve to full AR functionality.
Education will be transformed into something far more vivid. History teachers will transport their students to the beaches of Normandy or the Cu Chi tunnels of Vietnam. In biology class, the entire room will become the inside of a mammalian cell.
On home-buying shows, you’ll be in the home. And in those homes of 2025, designers will set aside ever-bigger blank rooms as VR studio pods, with padding on the walls and sensors in the walls. Welcome to the new gaming room. When you call somebody, they will appear in 3D volumetric video. You can walk around them or get up close.
Watching sports will be insanely cool. Sports cameras will switch from spherical video to volumetric video— allowing you to joystick your point of view to any angle during live action. You’ll be able to fly up to the huddle, spin over to the linebacker during the pre-snap and close in on a receiver as the ball is in the air.
But mixed-reality games will be even cooler. Expect old naval bases and empty warehouse districts to be the setting for intense mixed-reality games, where players throw fireballs at each other. Get hit, and everyone sees a big explosion; the player is still alive but without his powers for 30 seconds. Mini-helicopters fly overhead, sounding real. Games that evolve from today’s eSports, designed for the modern age, will better take advantage of technology than sports games invented in the late 1800s. Abandoned neighborhoods of Rust Belt cities will become the new eSports complexes where youth clubs train three times a week, hoping to become professional eAthletes who play in football stadiums and basketball arenas.
eSports will begin to poach athletic talent
Because these new games will actually require speed, strength and endurance, they’ll reward real athleticism. And sports fans will finally start to respect eAthletes as more than controller-jockeys. Game designers will build games demanding freak athleticism in essential moments to unlock defenses.
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01Rushing
Need someone who can run a 4.3-second 40-yard dash while engaged in hand-to-hand combat? Draft a college receiver.
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02Scaling
Need someone who can scale a 50-foot wall in 6 seconds? Recruit the best rock climbers.
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03Endurance
Need someone who can run end to end for the full 90 minutes? Sign a soccer player.
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04Maneuverability
Need someone who can avoid laser shots in open space then flip over a 9-foot wall into a crouch? A gymnast can do a double salto into a double layout with half twist.
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150M
VR Headsets sell per quarter
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8K
Video is the norm