Augmented reality the future of accounting, says Smithink

Mr Smith told AccountantsDaily that AR technology will soon be applied beyond the gaming world and into the accounting world.

“Somewhere in the next few years … we’ll see computer applications where we’ll be sitting in this virtual world,” he said.

“Imagine an accountant actually walking into a general ledger and they’re physically walking into the ledger, and all the numbers are laid out in front of them and they say, ‘I don’t like where that number is’, and physically pick up the number and they walk over to where it should be.

“Or they are looking at business numbers and can actually see the numbers floating in front of them and they can move them around to make it work for themselves.”

Mr Smith noted the successful application of AR in the gaming world, in particular the recent success of Pokemon Go.

“In computer games, as we’re seeing with Pokemon Go, they are highly addictive,” he said.

“The reason they are highly addictive is that they’re fun, challenging, and they give you a reward if you do things well, and so therefore people want to continue to do things well and get the next reward, and they have fun doing it.”