Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100

goggles). First, I wore a special light brown raincoat. When I spread out my arms, it resembled a large sail. Then a camera was focused on my raincoat and a second camera filmed the scenery behind me, consisting of buses and cars moving along a road. An instant later, a computer merged these two images, so the image behind me was flashed onto my raincoat, as if on a screen. If you peered into a special lens, my body vanished, leaving only the images of the cars and buses. Since my head was above the raincoat, it appeared as if my headwas floating in midair, without a body, like Harry Potter wearing his invisibility cloak.
    Professor Tachi then showed me some special goggles. By wearing them, I could see real objects and then make them disappear. This is not true invisibility, since it works only if you wear special goggles that merge two images. However, it is part of Professor Tachi’s grand program, which is sometimes called “augmented reality.”
    By midcentury, we will live in a fully functioning cyberworld that merges the real world with images from a computer. This could radically change the workplace, commerce, entertainment, and our way of life. Augmented reality would have immediate consequences for the marketplace. The first commercial application would be to make objects become invisible, or to make the invisible become visible.
    For example, if you are a pilot or a driver, you will be able to see 360 degrees around yourself, and even beneath your feet, because your goggles or lens allow you to see through the plane’s or car’s walls. This will eliminate blind spots that are responsible for scores of accidents and deaths. In a dogfight, jet pilots will be able to track enemy jets anywhere they fly, even below themselves, as if your jet were transparent. Drivers will be able to see in all directions, since tiny cameras will monitor 360 degrees of their surroundings and beam the images into their contact lenses.
    If you are an astronaut making repairs on the outside of a rocket ship, you will also find this useful, since you can see right through walls, partitions, and the rocket ship’s hull. This could be lifesaving. If you are a construction worker making underground repairs, amid a mass of wires, pipes, and valves, you will know exactly how they are all connected. This could prove vital in case of a gas or steam explosion, when pipes hidden behind walls have to be repaired and reconnected quickly.
    Likewise, if you are a prospector, you will be able to see right through the soil, to underground deposits of water or oil. Satellite and airplane photographs taken of a field with infrared and UV light can be analyzed and then fed into your contact lens, giving you a 3-D analysis of the site and what lies below the surface. As you walk across a barren landscape, you will “see” valuable mineral deposits via your lens.
    In addition to making objects invisible, you will also be able to do the opposite: to make the invisible become visible.
    If you are an architect, you will be able to walk around an empty room and suddenly “see” the entire 3-D image of the building you are designing. The designs on your blueprint will leap out at you as you wander around each room. Vacant rooms will suddenly come alive, with furniture, carpets, and decorations on the walls, allowing you to visualize your creation in 3-D before you actually build it. By simply moving your arms, you will be able to create new rooms, walls, and furniture. In this augmented world, you will have the power of a magician, waving your wand and creating any object you desire.
    Internet contact lenses will recognize people’s faces, display their biographies, and translate their words as subtitles. Tourists will use them to resurrect ancient monuments. Artists and architects will use them to manipulate and reshape their virtual creations. The possibilities are endless for augmented reality.
    AUGMENTED REALITY: A REVOLUTION IN TOURISM, ART, SHOPPING, AND WARFARE
    As you can see, the implications for commerce and the workplace are potentially enormous. Virtually every job can be enriched by augmented reality. In addition, our lives, our entertainment, and our society will be greatly enhanced by this technology.
    For example, a tourist walking in a museum can go from exhibit to exhibit as your contact lens gives you a description of each object; a virtual guide will give you a cybertour as you pass. If you are visiting some ancient ruins, you