Keiichi Matsuda
1 HN recommender · recommended in 18 months, 2017–2025
6:16 · 3.4M views · May 19, 2016
Keiichi Matsuda's short concept film depicting a future where physical and virtual realities have merged and the city is saturated with media and advertising. It shows an augmented-reality-filled daily life as a provocative vision.
HN cites it as a shorthand for the dystopian risks of ad-driven, ubiquitous AR, usually in critical discussions of advertising and the metaverse.
20 comments from Hacker News
I'm hopeful that ubiquitous AR can be a good thing. I remember being inspired many years ago by the book "Rainbows End" about the possibilities. I am a bit concerned to see advertising companies at the forefront. This is a great video that demonstrates some of the risks: this video
That might make for interesting project (individual or community). Photoshopping AR vignettes for peoples' various passions. Sort of speculative storyboarding and market exploration for future apps. For a user with a passion for fashion, what might a nifty AR future expert experience look like? Heads-up tooling for where their head is at as they walk down the street. Collaborative tooling for their interactions with friends of similar interests, while walking and retrospectively. What about for software, or for startups? The AR vignettes I've seen have been generic. Refrigerator contents, street navigation, business travel, etc[1]. Broadly accessible, but most of it mundane. Not targeted, not trying to inspire individuals with "O.M.G. Want future now.". Sort of like demos of Unreal VR Editor[2] for game devs, or EXA[3] for bands, or PRIMITIVE[4] for software devs. But synthetic, rather than app demos. [1] HYPER-REALITY this video [2] Unreal [LINK] [3] EXA twinkle [LINK] , multiplayer [LINK] [4] Java [LINK]
We're getting really close to the green-on-black head-up display navigational map depicted in Ghost in the Shell (1995) and its spinoffs; see 14m26s in the video, or click here: [LINK] > Map UI – Ghost in the Shell [LINK] > Even G1 Navigate: Visually-enhanced Direction [LINK] Per the video I posted in OP, ER is supposedly using Mapbox as part of their navigation solution on-device in conjunction with a mobile app via Bluetooth. ER is apparently open sourcing some aspects of the apps or interaction model: [LINK] And now for something incompletely different, we're nearly at the tech level needed for Keiichi Matsuda's hyper-reality (2016): this video [LINK] [LINK] Related media: Domesti/city: The Dislocated Home in Augmented Space (masters thesis) [LINK] Merger (2019) - 360 degree AR concept film [LINK] [LINK] Keiichi Matsuda also worked on some stuff for Leap Motion: > A series of design research projects completed while serving as Creative Director and VP Design at Leap Motion. [LINK] [LINK]
Much has been written about the dystopia we are already in, but I am specifically concerned about the dystopia they are earnestly building. Meta is aware of these problems and is trying very hard to solve them. And they won't be useless! That's the worst part. They will provide compelling value, like smartphones, and as such will be impossible to boycott. At first the value will be simple, obvious utility, like route overlays. Later it will be value within the system, much like how the main utility of smartphones now is to run the mandatory apps to participate in aspects of society that previously did not require a smartphone. And of course they will be addictive. Here is a short sci-fi film depicting what I fear: this video
Man I'm not not worried so much about malicious state or corporate actors getting my biometrics. I'm worried about the incompetent ones (which is all of them). Those are the guys who collect biometric data, store it, and then lose it. Like my social once my face is out there I can't get it back. I know that nobody is going to make a copy of my beautiful face to get access to my iphone, but more about the future when biometrics are used to let us into -- for instance -- a cloud provider's platform[0]. At that point there's no physical device to bypass it's just a question of sending the right bits to a server. Then my biometrics are defeated and I won't be able to reset them. (edit: wrong link) [0] this video