Future

It is always good for the young to dream about the future of computer vision.  One could dream of machine vision making the user's job easier when working in front of a computer.  For example, a user's work could be opened immediately when the computer recognizes the user from a camera that the PC is equipped with.  To see even further into the future, to eliminate the hassles of the annoying mouse, machine vision could actually recognize the eye movements on the user's face so that he or she would no longer have to use the mouse.  However, when predicting when the project could actually mass market, take the predicted number and multiply it by around 30.  Seriously, it is true that there are many computer vision projects being worked on, but one must be patient and wait for them to come around before being excited about them being open to the public.  The future of computer vision will come, but with time.

Still, it is nice to dream about the future of computer vision in terms of augmented reality.  There are many shows and movies about an augmented reality, such as "The Real Adventures Of Johnny Quest", "Reboot", or "Game Over".  It would be very exciting for a player to actually be in the virtual reality rather than outside watching a screen.  The scenario below shows an example of a possibility of an augmented world.  The picture on the left is the ordinary real world everyone is used to seeing.  The picture on the right is the same thing, but through an augmented world which virtual reality would use.  The green represents sewers, red represents boundaries, etc.  This, however, would probably be developed by the year 5000 or something.

Another possibility in the distant future of using augmented reality is "tourist goggles."  Rather than having to follow a boring tour guide who talks 99% of the time when you don't want him/her to, one could control his or her own pace and find information that he or she finds interesting.  In the picture below, machine vision is used to detect the location of the user and the location of the nearby buildings.  This not only serves as "tourist goggles", but also an alternative form of navigation (though no one walks these days).