Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Multi-Sited Case Study of the Processes Leading to the Convergence of Competing Visions for Augmented Reality Technologies

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

Overview This STS Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant supports research to develop an empirical understanding of communities that create and advance augmented reality technologies, meaning any technology that combines real and virtual objects, superimposed in real time and in three-dimensional space such as Google's Project Glass. Many such devices have already emerged promising dramatic transformation across multiple domains such as medicine, tourism, education, manufacturing, national security, law enforcement, and entertainment. To date, however, there has been little empirical research into the communities that create and advance this technology. Intellectual Merit The project will map out future visions being advanced by four distinct stakeholder groups important to the production of augmented reality technologies: Academic developers, trade lobbyists, governing organizations, and the media. The project will examine how promises about the future are created and articulated, how these different stakeholder groups interact with each other, and how they attempt to persuade one another to align behind certain visions. The research will utilize both qualitative and quantitative methods; in doing so, it will integrate approaches from communication, sociology, STS, and policy analysis. The goal is to understand the discursive and institutional work that surrounds a rapidly emerging technology and how these promises are created, debated, circulated, and inscribed in the technology. Broader Impacts Interrogating the claims that shape technology will shed light a number of issues including how ethical, social, and political commitments get built into the discourse surrounding the development of augmented reality technologies, and the processes involved in creating these futures. Doing so will serve to provide new conceptual and empirical resources that can be used to improve science and technology policy and implementation, specifically in assessing the risks and benefits of emerging technologies and potential regulation of the content, access, and use of information technologies. It will also help educate practitioners and the public about the potential benefits and pitfalls of augmented reality technologies.