Ramon’s Weblog

Is Your Reality Augmented Today? October 25, 2010

Have you ever found yourself wondering what it would be like to view and interact with information as done in the movies Minority Report or Iron Man? I was browsing YouTube.com one day and I stumbled across some videos that clearly opened my eyes, and made me realize it’s not ridiculous to imagine such a concept. There is a term called augmented reality (AR), in which a live direct or indirect view of our real-world environment is enhanced with computer generated graphics, sounds, haptic feedback and smell. The line between what’s real and what’s cgi has become less distinguishable over the years. AR technology has been around for decades. The newer mobile smart phones and computer system have allowed the once very expensive AR technology to explode into many markets.

There are too many applications of AR to list in detail for this post, so I have gathered some I found very interesting. Some simple examples of AR can be found on television such as various sporting events. In American football, the 1st down marker line running across the field is overlayed so it appears to be painted on the field. Telecasts of swimming events, which are time based, often display the position of the world record holder real-time. More complex application of AR can be found at museum displays, heads-up displays in cars and airplanes, and also on mobile smart phones.

I am a smart phone user, and recently upgraded to a phone with the Android operating system on it. I enjoy browsing through the thousands of apps that are available. I recently found a multitude of apps tapping into the AR technology. Applications like Layar and Wikitude.me, use the phone’s global positioning technology to determine a person’s location and uses the phone’s compass to discern the direction the device is pointed. The AR application can match up what the user is seeing and overlay information to add to the mobile experience. I was blown away by this, and found it very useful when trying to locate a place to eat, locate a business, or even learn where friends are Tweeting from. This is all integrated with a number of APIs which tie in maps, directions, social networks, and many other online resources. The Layar application is set up like an app store. When you launch it, one can browse through hundreds of custom Layars available to plug in to the base application. These Layars can be added or subtracted from your viewing at any time depending on what information you want to see.

Large companies such as Qualcomm, a world leader in next-generation mobile technologies, recently made AR technology available to the development community through Software Development Kit for Andriod. This news is monumental because more and more companies will be jumping on-board with the technology and making our consumer buying experiences better. Make sure you keep your eyes open while out shopping because product packaging and promotional items could have some AR technology attached to it. I guess we’ll no longer have to go through buying toys for our children, and getting home to find out it wasn’t what we expected to be. I can’t wait to see what AR brings to our future, can you?

Here are some other links pertaining to AR technology.
USPS – Virtual Box Simulator (youtube)
Hitlab – Augmented Reality (youtube)
Kicking Reality Up a Notch
HowStuffWorks.com – Augmented Reality