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Augmented Reality is looking to explode into our lives and change how we experience…well…almost everything. But the real power will come when Augmented Reality converges with other emerging technologies.

If you can barely handle the reality you have, you better hang on to your id, superego, and basic hold on the world. Here comes Augmented Reality and it looks to change a how we relate to everything around us. At its core, Augmented Reality isn’t that weird of a concept. It basically means that you take a real video or image and you overlay computer generated images. We’ve seen this in movies, commercials and advertising for years. Heck, I can do this on my Mac without too much trouble.

Where it starts to resemble something that would have made Gene Roddenberry proud is when you start adding technologies like mobile, GPS and the power of the internet to give you instant, personally relevant information.  For example, a company called Layar created an application that lets you look at city streets through the view finder in your mobile phone and overlays icons of local shopping, restaurants and point of interest. So, if you’re hungry, pull out your phone, pan the street and look for the pizza and hamburger icons to lead you to lunch.

A company called Tanagram Partners is working on special visors that allow US soldiers to use Augmented Reality in battle. These visors help troops identify friendly soldiers by “painting” them blue; basically it highlights your troops so you don’t accidentally attack them. It also helps highlight rendezvous locations, and provides mini maps in the corner of the visor to guide troops through urban combat.

Even education is getting into Augmented Reality. The Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST) in Thailand is experimenting with some ways to make even the most boring topic literally pop off the page. A recent ReadWriteWeb article describes a demo where students look at a textbook through a special camera and see an image of the earth hovering above the page, rotating and carved into layers. You can see a world where kids put on there “learning glasses” and experience math, science, history and English in a whole new way.

The applications for Augmented Reality are expanding, from assisting doctors in surgery to helping mechanics to work on vehicles (Boeing is already doing this). The entire sector is picking up speed, and several new breakthroughs are accelerating adoption. Developers no longer need to know exotic code to create Augmented Reality applications. They can now develop these using the widely popular Adobe Flash platform. In fact, you don’t even need to be a developer. A company called Hoppala has software that lets anyone create a basic Augmented Reality application with just a few clicks of your mouse – no coding required. Juniper Research is predicting that revenue from augmented reality will go from a predicted $2 million in 2010 to $732 million in 2014.

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet…

Almost as soon as we create a technology, we like to start combining it with other technologies to make something new. There was once a time you used your cell phone to just make calls. You now use your “mobile device” to take pictures, shoot video, balance your checking account and surf the Internet. Companies are pumping new technologies into mobile devices all the time. They now have accelerometers, gyroscopes and all sorts of sensors to make your phone more aware of its surroundings. Manufactures have caught onto the Augmented Reality wave and are packing even more technology in to their devices to push Augmented Reality to new levels. For example, the latest iPhone has Augmented Reality developers all aflutter about advanced image tracking that will make Augmented Reality applications much more fluid.

Throw together some some existing and emerging technologies with Augmented Reality, add some imagination, and you can get some pretty wild scenarios:

Facial Recognition – Facial recognition is used everywhere from airports to digital photo albums. Even Facebook is looking into adopting it.  Add that to Augmented Reality and you could be sitting at a coffee shop and run into someone who you just can’t place. Flash your viewfinder on them, or slip on your high-tech glasses and an auto-search of their face begins processing in the corner of you view. Once found, stats start popping up about them; where they went to school, arrest records, likes and dislikes. This gives a whole new meaning to putting a name with a face.

Voice-to-Text and Real-Time Contextual Searches – Voice-to-text is by no means perfect. In fact, in can be downright comical when a computer tries to translate what a person says into text. Give it some time to mature and stir in some contextual searching and you can be a real-time know-it-all. As you’re debating the latest movie or hot political topic, your phone (or visor) begins scouring the Internet for related factoids and stats. Work a few of those into your debate and you will look like a “virtual” savant – just make sure the computer understands that you are talking about Kevin Bacon, not Country Bacon, otherwise you’ll be quoting facts about six degrees of pork.

Sniffers, Infrared and Other Sensors – Sensors are everywhere. They detect movement, light, heat and smell. Combine that with Augmented Reality and you open up a whole new world of electronically enhanced senses. What perfume is she wearing? Your phone will know. Is there a deer about to jump into the road? Your car will know. Is that fruit fresh? You sunglasses will know. Who “dealt it?” Maybe that’s a little too much information…

Nanotechnology – If your phone isn’t subtle enough and you don’t want to wear a visor, how about a contact lens? Combine biomedical nanotechnology and Augmented Reality and you can get all the information you want, delivered right to your “Eye-Phone.” Although bionic eyes are not exactly around the corner, they are being developed at the University of Washington, in Seattle.

Although a few of these converged technologies are still a few years away, Augmented Reality is here and is about to burst into our daily lives. Ready or not, Augemenetd Reality looks to turn the real into the surreal.

© 2010, Ian Bramson. All rights reserved.

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Tags: Android, AR, Augmented Reality, Iphone

This entry was posted on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 7:41 am and is filed under Horizon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.