Augmented Reality in Our Life

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◆ Finding an Old Document

In 2017, while living in Bonn and working on various design projects, the augmented reality landscape was dominated by expensive hardware like Microsoft’s HoloLens. Most discussions focused on the impressive technical capabilities of these devices.

But from a Industrial designer’s perspective, different questions emerged:

• What problems do people actually have that augmented reality can solve?
• Who has the devices needed to access augmented reality?
• What would real adoption look like?

Several opportunities seemed obvious:

• Germany had over 50 million active smartphones.
• The country welcomed over 33 million tourists annually.
• There was no coherent platform to deliver AR experiences to either group.

The resulting proposal described how AR could integrate across ten different sectors  from tourism and education to healthcare and commerce.
The main insight was simple: instead of building for expensive new hardware, build for the devices people already carry.

The Concept was to build an open-source, decentralized augmented reality platform for tourism where users could point their mobile phones at places and view information through object recognition and geolocation. This information could then be shared across multiple platforms.

Each city could have its own platform and database, with stories about famous places told by locals, tailored to the culture, customs, and traditions of that city, and then presented to tourists.

That same year, I took a photo of the Sterntor and created a visual prototype that assembled the UI elements on the photo.
The UI design is a copy of the ready-made design and I just collaged it.

Visual Prototype in 2017

The proposal was shared with several people and potential collaborators. The feedback was mixed. Some found it interesting but too broad. Others felt that AR was still too early for practical implementation. A few suggested focusing on a single use case rather than thinking about platform-level solutions.

In retrospect, their perspective makes sense. The proposal was quite comprehensive and perhaps even surprising. And in 2017, it was really early to think about the widespread adoption of AR in the market.

The proposal did not lead to the launch of a startup, but it became part of an ongoing exploration of how design thinking can help us understand technological change.

Here’s what’s interesting: reading this document today, it describes technologies and experiences that are now commonplace.

The proposal described travel apps where users could “point their mobile screen at a location and receive text, multimedia, and relevant links.” This essentially describes Google Lens and similar AR information services.

It predicted that AR would integrate across education, healthcare, retail, and entertainment simultaneously which is exactly what happened, rather than AR remaining limited to gaming or single-purpose apps.

The business model suggested services would be “free to end users, with costs covered by sponsors” which describes how most consumer AR experiences work today.

The timeline was reasonably accurate too. The prediction was for significant adoption within a few years, with AR features becoming standard on smartphones and mainstream apps between 2018 and 2020.

Of course, there were some things that were not foreseen:

• The platform landscape was assumed to be more open and competitive. Instead, Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore created a dual monopoly that controls most AR experiences.
• The privacy implications of the proposal were not addressed, an issue that has become particularly important in Europe with GDPR regulations affecting location-based AR services.
• The impact of social media platforms on AR adoption was underestimated. Instagram and Snapchat filters became many people’s first lasting AR experience.
• The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated certain applications (distance learning, virtual meetings) in ways that no one could have predicted.

This overview provides key developments and timelines for each topic in 2017, highlighting milestones, releases, and regulatory changes for each event.

GDPR & German Implementation Timeline 2017

• EU Level
  • Already in effect:
    GDPR was adopted April 14, 2016; entered into force on May 24, 2016. Member states were preparing for applicability from May 25, 2018.
  • 10 January 2017:
    EU proposes the new ePrivacy Regulation, supporting and clarifying rules for electronic communications under GDPR.
• Germany: National Legislative and Institutional Activity
  • January–February 2017:
    The German Federal Government (Bundesregierung) prepares and agrees on the draft for the new Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG-neu), to align national law and practice with the GDPR. Consultations begin with state governments and expert authorities such as the BfDI and state data protection commissioners, including the Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit.
  • March 2017:
    Expert hearings in the Bundestag (Federal Parliament) and within key ministries. State regulators, including the Berliner Beauftragte, provide statements and readiness advice for Berlin authorities and institutions.
  • 27 April 2017:
    Bundestag passes the DSAnpUG-EU (“Datenschutz-Anpassungs- und -Umsetzungsgesetz EU”), which implements the new BDSG and many specific GDPR provisions nationally.
  • May 2017:
    • 12 May: Bundesrat (Federal Council) approves the new BDSG.
    • Throughout May, coordination with regional (state) data protection authorities and finalization of national technical and supervisory details.
  • June 2017:
    30 June: The new Bundesdatenschutzgesetz is signed by the Bundespräsident and published in the Bundesgesetzblatt. State-level data protection officers, including the Berliner Beauftragte, begin intensive public information, guidance for local government, and awareness work for private sector compliance.
  • July 2017:
    5 July: Official promulgation of the BDSG-neu in the Bundesgesetzblatt. German authorities—including data protection commissioners in Berlin and other federal states—launch workshops, updated guidelines, and registers to help organizations implement GDPR requirements for the May 2018 deadline.

Throughout 2017
German supervisory authorities (BfDI in Bonn and state-level, e.g., Berlin) focus on information campaigns, consult state and city governments, and issue transition guidelines for GDPR compliance, emphasizing citizen rights, new obligations, and enforcement mechanisms.

Berlin institutions, with active participation of the BlnBDI (Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit) set up local frameworks for training, citizen inquiries, and consultation.

Civil society organizations and individuals have also been active in this regard during this period, which I will add to this timeline.

Mastodon in 2017

• Mastodon launched publicly in October 2016, but gained momentum in early 2017, particularly in March and April.
• Mastodon.social, the main instance, and other key servers experienced significant growth in April 2017 with new regional servers, most notably mstdn.jp in Japan, quickly attracting tens of thousands of users.
• By August 2017, Mastodon’s global user base had surpassed 766,000, reaching 1 million by December 2017.
• Notable technical updates in 2017 included more flexible web columns, push notifications, support for the ActivityPub protocol, and improved accessibility with alt text for attachments.

ANIMA RES in 2017

• ANIMA RES, based in Bonn, Germany, specializes in 3D medical animation, AR, MR and VR applications with a focus on pharmaceutical and medical education.
  ANIMA RES gained global recognition in 2017 and has worked closely with major technology companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google.

BMW in 2017

• BMW  was the first automotive brand in the world to offer its customers an interactive AR experience of its products as part of a pilot project that began in January 2017 Using Tango, Google’s augmented reality technology for smartphones.
  Read the original text published on the BMW website:
  BMW i erprobt „Augmented Reality Product-Visualiser” mit Tango, der Smartphone-AR-Technologie von Google

Apple ARKit:

• Announced on June 5, 2017 at WWDC as part of iOS 11.
• Released to developers in June 2017 as part of the iOS 11 and Xcode 9 beta.
• First released to consumers with iOS 11 on September 19, 2017, enabling access to ARKit apps in the App Store.

Google ARCore:

• Introduced by Google in August 2017, it provides augmented reality development tools for Android devices without special hardware.
• The developer preview SDK was launched in August 2017, supporting Google Pixel and Samsung S8 smartphones on Android 7.0 and above.
• The stable version 1.0 of ARCore was expected to be released in early 2018, but major development and public awareness began in the second half of 2017.

In the winter of 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I informally assisted Dr. Homayoun Golestaneh, Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Science and Technology (IUST), as a virtual assistant in his course “Designing for the Future.” In this course, three student groups presented projects on next-generation social networks, urban furniture, and future workplaces. The experience was both valuable and informative.

In my opinion, in the near future, most of the challenges will be about Data Ownership, Cybersecurity, and a Bottom-up Human-Centered Mindset.

Technology will be more accessible, reliable, invisible, and hopefully Human Dignity First.

If we want to see science fiction sooner, it might be interesting to watch the 2018 film “Anon,” directed by Andrew Niccol.

Reading old predictions can sometimes feel a little embarrassing, but there is real value in revisiting them. It allows us to see how ideas evolve and to recognize which intuitions turn out to be accurate and which were misleading.

The purpose of sharing this is not to claim foresight or criticize those who overlooked AR’s potential back in 2017. Predicting the right timing for technology is genuinely difficult, and even well-informed people often disagree about when and how innovations will take off.

Instead, this reflection comes from curiosity about the relationship between Design Thinking and technology foresight.
The document suggests that Human-Centered approaches to understanding emerging technologies can complement the technical and market-driven analyses that usually dominate these discussions.

How different methodologies influence the way we anticipate technological change remains an open question.

For those working with emerging technologies, a few questions stand out:

• What questions guide your analysis?
• What assumptions shape your predictions?
• How do you balance Human Needs with technical possibilities?

Hayder Jawaheri
August 2025
Bonn