Augmented reality is going to be one of the biggest movements of 2010, in my humble opinion, why? … “are you sitting comfortably?, then i’ll begin!”
I first heard about augmented reality around 6 months ago in connection with the iPhone apps Sekai Camera, but at the time the technology wasn’t available in the UK.
Now augmented reality is “IN” and I have been playing around with augmented reality now for the past few weeks on Sekai Camera, Becks gig finder, Magicam and left loads of bizarre little messages all over Newcastle at Xmas, such as “the bar men here ignore you” and “try the peanuts, only 16 types of urine”. I have also been messing about on the new Quaker Oats website pawridge and looking for down loadable augmented images to print out.
augmented reality mini cooper
Before I talk about why Augmented reality is such a digital revolution, lets look at what it is.
Augmented reality a phrase coined by a Boeing employee Thomas Caudell in 1990, is a term for something that blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated by enhancing what we experience. It is an indirect way of looking at the real world usually via a device such as a; handheld like a smart phone, game console or headset, that merges what is seen with virtual computer generated imagery. Information, such as an image or written content can then be stored on a layer that sits over the real-world view and accessed via a device.
A how stuff works article on augmented reality said “Everyone from tourists, to soldiers, to someone looking for the closest subway stop can now benefit from the ability to place computer-generated graphics in their field of vision.”
sekai-camera
Why do i think augmented reality is a revolution?
Because of its potential to reach beyond the web and into peoples homes, heads and everyday life’s. Augmented reality has the ability to inspire and amaze people of all ages because of it’s ability to inform user decisions in seconds.
For example, i bought a box of Paw Ridge Quaker Oats today and noticed that it said it had a paw print on the packets that would interact with the website. Just sitting their waiting for the little black and white image in my hand to explode into an animated character was as exciting as the first Starwars movies for me, sad perhaps …. but true!
This is the pawridge demo, crap? perhaps but filmed at 12.00 last night so.. “hey!”
It’s the sheer newness of it all, it is truly different and revolutionary and this basic technology integrated with the awesome technology of Pattie Maes, wearable tech ‘Sixth Sense’ takes social media to a whole other level. This is way beyond Twitter and Face book and Flickr and YouTube, the realms which this technology with open up, is mind blowing.
Lets look at what i mean by the ‘wearable tech’ device called ‘Sixth Sense’ (be ready to be amazed), this is what augmented reality is, not a fad or an advert that pops out and says hi, this is augmented reality for the near future.
What is the SixthSense device made of?
The components it is made of is a basic web cam, portable projector, mirror and they all communicate with a mobile phone, which is the computation device, marker caps on the finger tips in different colours.
Sixth sense machine
The system is programmed to recognise not only the colours of the markers but also iconic gestures such as ‘take a picture’ and allows the wearer to interact with what is projected in front of them.
As you can see, all you have to do to use the system as a camera is hold up your fingers in the shape of a square and is takes it.
Then when you get back to your home or your office you can project the pictures you have taken onto a wall, or table surface and re-sizem crop or edit them.
Of course you don’t need a wall or table top to project to, you can use any surface at all… as demonstrated here, that could be your hand.
You can also pre programme the device, via your online profiles with your preferences to products, so that when you go shopping you know instantly that the product in your hand matches your preferences. This might be a meal that is gluten free, a dog-food that is low in sugar or a kitchen towel that is environmentally friendly. The device will then project either a green, amber or red light on to the product and also give you more in depth information.
The device is also inspirational due to it’s offline press properties, in this example you can view the projection of a review about the book you wish to borrow or buy.
You can also watch a speech on the front page of a newspaper and here a journalist tell you about the latest news.
If the offline press publications were worried about the impact of social media, then i believe that augmented reality could save a whole host of these papers from going under. Imagine being able to follow the video instructions in your latest ‘Jamie Oliver’ cook book or give your kids a real book that they can interact with, instead of sitting them in front of a PC, Mac or iPhone.
Another great thing that this does is allow you to see a word cloud that describes someone you just met, so if your at a Tweet-up, conference or meeting and instead of taking time to Google people or look them up in the literature your given. This sucker, projects it onto their chest, of course it wouldn’t be funny if people could hack their profiles and insert “obnoxious asshole” instead of “social media guru” on a delegate you just met.
In the video, which i have also posted below, you also see that the device can be projected onto a train ticket to show if the train has been delayed or a plane ticket to show if the gate has changed. This type of information is so simple and yet so significant to our everyday choices, whether to ask the taxi driver to go another way, whether to google who a delegate at a conference is, to have to go wait until you go home before you edit your images for a blog you are writing and what DVD to rent today.
The entire ‘sixth sense’ talk
But what about the augmented reality stuff we have now, how useful is that?
I think that the their is huge potential for applications such as Sekai Camera and the Pawridge demo, in my next augmented reality post I’ll talk about how these basic applications can be used for business.
In the meantime, i will leave you with a couple of augmented reality videos that i think demo the best of what is available now, and a printout so that you can try it out for yourselves – enjoy.
Print out this PDF, hold the image up to your web cam and it should work as you can see below :)
boffswana augmented reality
Papervision – Augmented Reality (extended) from Boffswana on Vimeo.
The IQ car demo
Bleeding walls
Green ideas
Hitlab
Find the Nearest Tube
Your augmented ID
Gaming
Check out 7 free augmented reality printouts also
I think the best augmented reality app has to be the iphone in an iphone : )
http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/orange-aces-augmented-reality-with-infinite-loop-iphone-app-20091224/
That is a fantastic app, will run off and download it now, thanks :)
Hi Claire,
I remember going to MOMI when I was a young teenager and appearing on screen like I was superman flying across the sky by lying on a board with a camera filming and system changing the image.
This new stuff is so cool and you write such great posts!!!
Nikki Rae
Coming from you, thats quite something Mrs whizz :). Do you have a link to anything like that, i had heard that they used it in a very basic format in Carnivals.
Interesting post Claire! I have been trying out some nice apps from acrossair who have pioneered in launching iPhone apps with AR. You have listed their famous Nearest Tube in the list above, some other notable one’s – Twitter AR, Nearest Wiki, Nearest Place & Acrossair Browser to name a few which utilises Augmented Reality at its best.
Recently Yelp, rolled out AR on their iPhone App and have loads of positive reviews since then. Boston had an interesting round up on AR couple of days ago http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2010/01/08/augmented_reality_check/
Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry’s SixthSense is another excellent implantation of what AR can offer which was featured on TED in March 2009!
Again, nice article and great list of apps that use them, currently though most seem to stick around iPhone-alike devices.
The Pattie Maes Sixthsense is shown in the post, its pretty awesome.
This is brilliant real “minority report” stuff. the only stumbling block to the uptake of this in a retail setting is (as is always the case with new technology) not it’s viability but it’s cost and required alteration to existing mindsets. There’s no technological reason why we shouldn’t be on Mars by now, we just lack the political will and finance. I suspect the early adopters of augmented reality (like many other technologies) will likely be the military. You can never get enough information in order to kill your fellow beings more efficiently!
Really good points Allan, i think this would have been the BIG THING of 2008 – 09 if not for Twitter and peoples mindsets.
Scifi fans have been waiting for this stuff for years of course, and in all good scifi (SKYNET.. will get it first) :)
Well hard, its the Business – Laughting.
lol, it does indeed … i never surprise myself jusy how nerdy i can get though