Being headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, we have the benefit of being embedded in an environment that is home to many burgeoning trends. Over the decades, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of disruptive technology emerge and keep our finger on the pulse of the latest trends. Recently, many of these developments have been in the realm of augmented reality.
With the introduction of Google Glass, the reality of technology actualizing an augmented world became much more…well, real. Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers partner Mary Meeker is highlighted in Huffington Post for defending wearable technology as an emergent “type of significant technology shift that will drive innovation in the way personal computing did in the 1980s or mobile computing and tablets are doing currently” at the recent AllThingsD conference.
The first implementations of augmented reality are deeply connected to mobile devices. Many readily available technologies in augmented reality exist in the form of mobile applications, helping to weave virtual data into the real world. With the introduction of Google Glass, mobile and wearable tech are integrated into one device. And because wearable technology has the potential to connect data to our every physical movement, affecting our very perception of our world, augmented reality and wearable technology are two very interesting trends that are becoming more important to monitor in terms of personal security.
Dan Lohrmann recently discussed cyberwear privacy on the Government Technology blog, detailing potential opportunities with wearable technology as well as the potential concerns that consumers may have as these types of devices become more readily available. McAfee continually monitors and evaluates potential issues and will continue to do so in regards to this new development trend in technology.
Just as the Augmented Reality space heats up, the world’s largest AR conference, Augmented World Expo is coming to Silicon Valley. Taking place from June 3-5 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, the fourth annual occurrence of this conference boasts over 150 speakers with headlines like renown journalist Bruce Sterling, The Sims creator Will Wright, Second Life and Linden Lab founder Philip Rosedale and “father of wearable technology” Steve Mann. It will be interesting to hear what is showcased at this conference, and to hear the thoughts on augmented technology and trends from these thought leaders in this space.