In Luketopia I live in an augmented reality house. The house is a simple box with no remarkable features in reality. It’s just one big open room and one bathroom. The walls are white with no artwork. There is a bed, sofa, table, chairs, and storage.
In reality my house is spartan and functional, but in augmented reality I can reconfigure it any way I want with different walls, colors, artwork, and windows. When I get out of bed in the morning, I add a virtual wall around the bed so that I don’t have to see it. When I want to watch tv, I sit on my sofa and turn my wall into a giant virtual screen. I can reconfigure my ceiling to appear 20 feet high, or change my windows to look out into a forest or mountain range. Every day I randomly display paintings on the wall from different masters.
When I’m working, I still use a physical keyboard because I’m too used to the tactile response, but my applications float around in the air wherever I want them. In the evening I like to read virtual books. They look like real books but I don’t have to hold them, they just float in front of me and the pages automatically turn when my eyes get to the last word on the page.
The appearance of furniture can be changed to some extent. Colors and textures are easy, but the augmented form has to be similar to the real form or it messes with your head. My house does have some real windows, because you can’t create fresh air or a cool breeze with augmented reality. If I wanted, I could augment my reality to such an extent that it’s almost virtual reality. Sometimes I sit on my sofa and project a beach environment around me. It’s easy to do when stationary, but when I’m moving around I like to see where my real walls are so that I don’t accidentally run into them.
I have extra pairs of augmented reality glasses for visitors if they don’t have any. They are synced with my houses augmented reality unit so that everyone sees the same configuration. Funny how sharing augmented reality with friends makes it seem more real.
