SuperSight: What Augmented Reality Means for Our Lives, Our Work, and the Way We Imagine the Future

by David Rose

Overview

NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS WINNER — NONFICTION • 2022 IPPY AWARDS BRONZE MEDALIST — SCIENCE

For thousands of years, human vision has been largely unchanged by evolution.

We’re about to get a software update.

Today, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Snap, Samsung, and a host of startups are racing to radically change the way we see. The building blocks are already falling into place: cloud computing and 5G networks, AI computer vision algorithms, smart glasses and VR headsets, and mixed reality games like Pokémon GO. But what’s coming next is a fundamental shift in how we experience the world and interact with each other.

Over the next decade, what we see and how we see it will no longer be bound by biology. Instead, our everyday vision will be augmented with digital information to give us what spatial computing pioneer David Rose calls “SuperSight.” And as our view of the world becomes blended layers of information delivered via glasses, contact lenses, or projected light, it will fundamentally change learning, shopping, work, play, and much, much more.

David provides an insider’s guide to the way our lives are about to change, while also unpacking the downsides of this coming world—what he calls the hazards of SuperSight, from equity and access issues to bubble filter problems—and proposing rational, actionable ways around them.

From AI mirrors that advise us on our outfits, to museums that let us talk with deceased explorers and artists, to the ways we envision sustainable cities, the scope of augmented vision is boundless. SuperSight offers a rich speculative preview of the future and its implications, both shocking and thrilling.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781950665808
Publisher:	BenBella Books, Inc.
Publication date:	11/09/2021
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,058,459
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

David Rose, MIT lecturer, author, and serial entrepreneur offers a unique perspective on the next platform of spatial computing, what he calls SuperSight. His last book, Enchanted Objects is one of the definite texts on designing the Internet of Things. David wrote the seminal patent on photo-sharing, founded an AI company focused on computer vision, and was VP of Vision Technology at Warby Parker. David is known for translating complex technologies into delightfully intuitive new products and consulting to businesses on how to thrive in digital disruption.

David’s work has been featured at the MoMA, covered in The New York Times, WIRED, The Economist, and parodied on The Colbert Report. David's apartment was featured in a New York Times video called “The Internet of Things,” where he shared some examples of how to incorporate magic into mundane objects: a Google Earth coffee table that responds to gesture, Skype cabinetry in the living room, and a doorbell reminiscent of Mrs. Weasley's click which rings when a family member is on their way home. He even got John Stewart to belly-laugh when he was a guest on the Tonight Show!

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"We're on the cusp of a step forward in our evolution as a species, and in SuperSight, David Rose provides a time machine trip into the near future, where knowing more about anything is as simple as glancing at it.”
—Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab professor and academic head

“SuperSight gives us super insight into the new world of spatial, wearable, ubiquitous computing and the economic and social implications of these developments. And you've got to love an AR-enabled book. That makes it more than a book. Like the future of humans, it's augmented!”
—Charlie Fink, technology columnist for Forbes

 “We've been seeing augmented reality pop up in sci-fi movies for decades—from Robocop to Minority Report to Iron Man. But in this book, David Rose shares his clear and lively vision for how it is actually going to change cities, business, and our brains. Supersight is a must-read if you want to navigate augmented reality's transition from sci-fi to a widely-used technology.”
—Scott Kirsner, CEO of Innovation Leader and technology columnist for Boston Globe

“The momentum of having our personal world always interconnected to the external world digitally is accelerating rapidly and is unstoppable, and a great AR glass would accomplish such a feat . . . The opportunities and challenges are both enormous. David Rose in his book has leaped forward and provided us a good peek into such an universe.”
—Dr. John C. C. Fan, CEO of Kopin

"Drawing on his rich experience as a researcher and entrepreneur in spatial computing, David Rose paints a very clear and compelling future in everyday language about how AR and smartglasses will affect the lives of everyday people—in the very near future."
—Ori Inbar, founder of Augmented World Expo

“This is a timely release as the discipline of computer vision is hitting its stride in the marketplace but the potential for this technology is very much still unmet.”
—Joseph Charles Kvedar, MD, professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School and chair of the board, American Telemedicine Association

"We are at a Goldilocks moment in our collective computational history, where a personal computing experience transitions into a shared, spatial, and ubiquitous one. Davids's vision of SuperSight outlined in this book is a timely and comprehensive journey into this next chapter of computing.”
—Valentin Heun, PhD, VP research at PTC, and AR pioneer

“In the ambitious forward-looking spirit of Kevin Kelley's The Inevitable, David Rose shows us where the arrows of technology are pointing. More importantly, he shows how these capabilities come together by telling stories of personal, relatable experiences which are in our future.”
—Craig Sampson, professor Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University, & Founder of IDEO Chicago

"Fascinating and timely. David’s first book, Enchanted Object, showed us how smart everyday objects can change our lives. In SuperSight, David Rose shows how augmented reality will radically alter the way we interact—not only with each other, but with the entire world around us.”
—Hari Nair, consumer packaged goods innovation leader

Editorial Reviews

10/15/2021

Rose (CEO of Vitality, MIT MediaLab researcher) describes how he thinks a combination of augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (what he calls SuperSight) will likely develop new products and services that will markedly affect humanity's future. Augmented reality is not virtual reality. For example, an AR technology, through cameras in the home, may be able to learn, over time, the normal physical state of the residents and be able to notice deviations (e.g., walking more stiffly) that may indicate a potential health problem that should be looked into. As such, AR has potential to affect our working, shopping, socializing, health care, leisure activities, and many other aspects of life. Rose thinks it inevitable and is excited by the possibilities. He is not oblivious to potential dangers, however. The book discusses the roles AR may play in the future and thus provides much food for thought. VERDICT This will appeal to entrepreneurs looking for ways to use technology to create innovative and practical business ventures.—Shmuel Ben-Gad, Gelman Lib., George Washington Univ., Washington, DC

Library Journal