Augmenting the Devotion and the Nature

Augmented Reality (AR) technology stays in the trough of disillusionment of Gartner’s hype cycle 2018 and is followed by the mixed reality, a term coined by Microsoft. It has a wide range of applications in all industries and we believe that AR has an ability to make us reach a balance between the times' humans spend with digital devices and the real world.

Technically, AR is putting the 3D objects created in form of 0s & 1s on the real-life objects made of atoms and molecules. It is mostly dependent upon the screens as the 3D object views update in runtime. Though various other hardware setups have been tried by people, the most frequent one is a mobile phone, making it an excellent platform to execute a use case of AR.

We have come across many applications of augmented reality in games, manufacturing, marketing, advertisement, education, and so on. Based upon a few profitable & scalable models, several startups have raised enough money to implement it well in reality. However, the favorite of all Magic Leap, backed by Google and now AT&T, slightly failed to impress the big dreamers of our AR/VR community. Google itself has demonstrated an excellent use case of AR as it is trying to solve the problem of direction in Google maps with a fox. On the other hand, Facebook is also involved in nurturing the fully immersive way of digital interaction between human and 3D, the Virtual Reality and has launched it after Gartner’s removal of VR from the hype cycle’s slope of enlightenment in August 2018.

Behind these big giants, there are many developers who are constantly putting efforts to create something which is expected to rise like Pokémon GO in the Gaming industry. The game promotes the physical movement, which helps children develop skills like spatial awareness and cause-effect relationships. We understand that if any technology benefits human health, it should succeed in the future. No doubt about the fact that a healthy environment will be luxury in the future if we don’t act upon preventing it from further degradation.

In today’s world, the environment gets affected in various ways and every new technology gives its best to promote positive steps towards nature. Ola & Uber has used the Android platform where the people can pool a ride and contribute to reducing the carbon emissions. The Internet helps us to create awareness among people about the condition of the environment. One such attempt has also been made by Pytorq Solutions, an Indian AR/VR startup, of using AR technology to make a positive change to our environment.

Indians have always been very close to the various traditions and activities happening in the name of God. For example, Ganesh Visarjan is one religious ritual where many idols of Ganeshji (made up of POP, painted with chemicals like mercury & lead) are immersed by devotees in the sea leaving an irreparable damage to water bodies. Diwali is another festival popularly known as a festival of lights and symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. But the impact of this celebration is so high that on 9th October 2017, Supreme Court of India banned the sale of fireworks in New Delhi, the capital of India.

Each festival’s ritual has a meaning behind it. Traditions are directly related to the rituals and teachings are the reasons behind these rituals. To save such irreversible negative impacts on the environment, we have developed Eco Devotion mobile application which protects the traditions and conveys the teachings without any negative externalities. As the technology is in its growing stage, it is yet dependent upon an image (which can be on a paper or another phone). We have used paper because sometimes you need to take one step back to leap two steps forward.

You can open the application in your phone, select the festival, direct the camera towards the marker and perform various rituals like burning crackers, burn statue (as shown in the video) or do the Ganpati Visarjan and many more which are in development phase.

Enjoy Festivals :)