I’ve been enamored with Bose products for well over a decade. However,  we’ve seen quality brands enter the hi-fidelity audio market over that time.  Beyond quality design in their classic audio products, can Bose Augmented Reality (Bose AR) be the market differentiator?

Bose: Using a Bose-AR-equipped wearable, a smartphone, and an app-enabled with Bose AR, the new platform lets you hear what you see.

It sounds like Bose may come up with an initial design, sunglasses, but turn to 3rd party hardware manufacturers of all sorts to integrate Bose AR into other wearable products.

Bose Augmented Reality isn’t just about audio. The devices will use sensors to track head motions for gesture controls and work with GPS from a paired smartphone to track location.  The company also aspires to combine visual information with the Bose AR platform.

Bose AR Use Cases

• Bose Augmented Reality device reenact historical events or speeches from landmarks and statues as you visit them.
• The Bose and NFL partnership could be leveraged to get these AR units into the football player’s helmets.  Audio queues from the on-field lead, quarterback, and dynamically replayed/relayed at the appropriate time of required action by the receiver.
• Audio directions to your gate when your GPS detects that you’ve arrived at the airport, or any other destination from your calendar.  Audio queues would be richer the more inclusive you are to the access to Calendars, To Do lists, etc.
• Combine visual information with the Bose AR platform, too, so you could hear a translation of a sign you’re looking at.

• Hear the history of a painting in a museum.

Time until it’s in consumer’s hands?  TBD.  Bose objective is to have the developer kit, including a pair of glasses, available later this year.

When I was on vacation in Athens, Greece, I created a post which had Greek actors running tours in their ancient, native garb.  The Bose AR could be a complementary offering to the tour, which includes live, greek local actors portraying out scenes in ancient ruins.  Record the scenes, and interact with them while walking through the Greek ruins in your Bose AR (Augmented Reality) glasses.

Greece, Prosperity, and Taxes: The World Will Come See You in AR

Please take a moment to prioritize the use cases, or add your own.

Takeaway

I’m a cheerleader for Bose, among several others in this space, but I question a Bose AR headset that produces a high fidelity sound. Most of the use cases listed should be able to “get along OK” with an average quality sound.  Maybe high definition AR games with a high level of realism might benefit from the high-quality sound. However, their site reads like Bose is positioning themselves as a component to be integrated into other AR headsets, i.e. “Bose-AR-equipped wearable“