Pokémon Go Gave It a Go
This summer we saw the first widespread breakthrough in AR: people were crowding with their phones under bridges, in restaurants, and on stairs of museums trying to collect the virtual creatures in real life settings. "’Pokémon Go’ is hugely helpful in terms of awareness of AR among both consumers and the broader investment community," says Tim Merel, founder and CEO of Eyetouch Reality and Digi-Capital. "It could have far-reaching repercussions beyond games, both in terms of what developers do next and where investors focus their attention."
What are other possible uses of augmented reality besides getting people out of their homes in search of Pokémons? AR applications can augment travel experiences in the sense that they can make them fuller and more vivid. When used for sightseeing, AR glasses may display past urban design or reconstructions of historical events. It is also possible to see comments made by previous visitors ("Don’t go to that restaurant! They charge you 20 euro only for the table" or "You have to see the sculpture at the back of the cathedral"), and learn about current events and points of interest in the area.
Though for now both virtual and augmented reality systems are used mainly for entertainment, this is going to change as there are many more exciting potential use cases.

Why Robots?
Robots are present not only where strength or precision is needed. With shrinking farmland, growing populations and the need to increase food supplies, agriculture is another field likely to benefit from robot use, such as driverless tractors, drones, or swarm robots for the harvest season. They could cut costs and be suitable even for indoor farming. According to the "Agricultural Robots" report by Tractica, by 2024 annual shipments of these robots are likely to reach 992,000 from 33,000 in 2015.
Personal household robots help us with the "dirty work." At the Starwood Hotel in Palo Alto, California, robots exchange towels, and robot vacuum cleaners are sold widely both in Europe and the US. There is also Jibo, a "family robot" designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which recognizes different family members and reads stories to children.
In the mainstream consciousness, robots are R2-D2 creatures, but one cannot forget that they are much more. Leaving the hardware part aside, every robot needs an operating system which enables it to perform its actions. For example "driverless cars need a software to control them," says Uwe Neumann, Credit Suisse Equity Research Analyst, "The fact the car is produced by Mercedes doesn’t mean Mercedes produces the software. It is produced by companies which specialize in it.