c


 
   
  
? ?
 John Brandon ‡November 7, 2009


? 

? ? ? ? ? ?
?
?  ?
??
?
?? 
? 

?
 ? ? ?
?

Can¶t stop hearing about it in the news, but wondering what makes
³augmented reality´ (AR) ± the concept of overlaying computerized
information, digital pop-up windows and/or virtual reality (VR) displays over
real-world scenes and imagery ± so exciting? Allow us to paint a picture.
Imagine. You walk up to an airport terminal and breeze past the airline
check-in. Afterwards, a wireless chip in your smartphone uses biometrics
to verify your identity at a checkpoint, then a green arrow pops up and
shows you the best path to the gate. When you get there, a blue circle
shows you where to sit and helps you avoid the most common congestion
points. You wait about five minutes until a soft chime tells you to get in line.
The total time between drop-off and take-off: Just 20 minutes.

?
 
??
In this near-future scenario, just one of many possible applications for the
technology, the concept of augmented reality makes air travel more
bearable. More than just a series of visual cues, the technology can even
combine auditory sensors and other stimuli to make high-tech data part of
your everyday life. Like robotics, there¶s a visceral and physical
representation of the underlying artificial intelligence involved. And with
real-world implications that range from expediting everyday business travel
to fueling potential military research, facilitating heightened responses in
emergency scenarios and powering the world¶s most immersive video
games, augmented reality will forever change how we think about data and
how we process information.

³Augmented reality will ultimately become a part of everyday life,´ explains

Sam Bergen, an associate art director for digital innovation at the ad
agency Ogilvy and Mather. ³Kids will use it in school as a learning tool ±
imagine Google Earth with AR- or AR-enabled text books. Shoppers will
use it to see what products will look like in their home. Consumers will use
it to visually determine how to set up a computer. Architects and city
planners will even use it to see how new construction will look, feel, and
affect the area they are developing.´

?

 ?
This year, apps such as Nearest Tube for iPhone (which displays real-time
pop-ups alerting users to nearby train stations in London) and
Tweetmondo for Android smartphones (which shows the status updates of
nearby Twitter fans), offer an early glimpse at how the technology works.
Even the unlikeliest candidates such as the US Postal Service, A&E
Network, and GE are beginning to show how augmented reality could help
us interact with and understand digital content in more interesting ways.
Knowing this, it¶s not too farfetched to wager that in the not-too-distant
future, augmented reality could actually become as integral to our lives as
cell phones and Web 2.0 sites in terms of how it enhances reality and
integrates with our surroundings.

Of course, there are dangers involved. Relying too much on augmented

reality could mean more than just driving into a lake when you follow poor
GPS directions. Instead, following the prompts of a software program
designed to make your life easier could lead to life-threatening disaster
and a new form of hacking and identity theft. Given the tools to make
augmented reality part of our lives, there is a potential for sensory
overload, and for others to manipulate the everyday real-world feedback
we take for granted. Still, in the right conditions, the technology could make
our lives less complex and far easier.

Part science fiction, part a reaction to today¶s increasingly overwhelming

constant barrage of digital content, one thing is for certain, though:
Augmented reality is an important step on the road to making technology
more understandable and useful.

@

  


 


In many ways, AR is an attempt to meld digital content with physical

objects. One of the best examples of this is the US Postal Service¶s priority
mail shipping simulator. At the site, you first see a digital representation of
a shipping container. Then, you take the object you want to ship ± say, a
child¶s toy ± and hold it up to a webcam. The box overlays on the toy so
you can see if the object will fit or if you need to use the next largest size.
What¶s amazing about this AR simulation, which went live this past
summer, is that it offers immediate and clear benefits, helping demonstrate
just one of the quickest upsides to be recognized by employing the
technology.

Another example of augmented reality in motion: The A&E Television

network created an augmented reality puzzle game to promote a magic
show with Chris Angel. But as fun a concept as even these digital
diversions seem, John Swords, who produced the AR portal, says the
initial AR entertainment apps and games on the on iPhone and other
smartphone platforms are just the beginning. Currently limited to simple
overlays, the next phase of smartphone apps that employ augmented
reality components will introduce actual interaction with digital objects.

³Most mobile apps, particularly on the iPhone where there is a software

limitation, are using the GPS and compass to overlay data onto the video
feed,´ says Swords. ³This will lead to the next point in the field¶s evolution,
which is to be able to directly manipulate objects in the video feed.´

?
  ?!?
‰



Swords says another use of augmented reality in development is called

³markerless´ AR, where a user interacts with a virtual object in 3D space in
real-time. A project underway at the University of California shows how you
can see and ³touch´ one of these faux objects, using it to enhance
perspective and depth of field. GE created another eye-opening proof-of-
concept that shows a bridge and windmills that appear when you hold a
sheet of paper up to a webcam. If you blow into the webcam microphone,
the windmills spin faster.

Bergen says that, as a field, AR needs these legitimate examples to help

spur other companies to invent cutting-edge augmented reality services,
push the category forward and prompt widespread user adoption of AR-
enhanced devices, ultimately making them as prolific in the future as cell
phones and laptops are today.

³We have to get past big hurdles of data capture, storage, processing and
integration, but AR has the potential to create a whole new kind of
disintermediation,´ agrees Scott Smith, a technology forecaster at
Changeist. ³Eventually, we may spend as much time looking at recreations
of reality as we do looking at reality itself, particularly if we become
dependent on the insight AR provides. Think about how often you look at
some form of Google Maps today (or MapQuest or others). Expect to see
multiple layers of information about anything [going forward] ± the food we
buy, people we pass on the street, roads we drive on, etc.´

Smith says augmented reality could become so ubiquitous that we use it

just as often as we go online, and that there may come a time when we
wonder how we ever viewed the world without the help of AR insight and
prompts.

‰

 

Charles Gannon, a professor at Saint Bonaventure, a futurist, and a

frequent military consultant for the Department of Homeland Security, says
that augmented reality could become an important aid in combat as well.
For example, an anti-terrorism team could use AR technology to show
HUD pop-ups for dangerous toxins in the area that are not discernable with
the naked eye, or to examine the sound of gunfire and identify which
automatic weapon is being used and from what vantage point.

³A SWAT team would have greater perception,´ says Gannon. ³AR would
connect at an instinctual level, helping them determine whether to move in
closer. It¶s not just about more maps or more statistics,´ which Gannon
says can be a detriment in tense situations, rather, ³it¶s more about primal
sensory data.´ Equipped with AR technology in this scenario, police and
military forces would have to think less about how to deploy or which
tactics to use as augmented reality offers real-time, enhanced feedback on
surroundings, allowing them to react faster to breaking development. For
example: A moment¶s glance could be enough to identify where a sound is
coming from, with an overlay displayed on a visor helping identify the
attackers making these noises¶ possible locations or identifying assailants
with color-coded warnings.

Gannon says another interesting use of AR has to do with representing

physical objects that are not visible yet. For instance, in the airport terminal
example cited above, this could consist of showing you a virtual picture of
an airplane before it reaches the gate so you can see what type of aircraft
it is and where you will be sitting. Often, we have a hard time
understanding the absence of data, but augmented reality would readily fill
in the gaps and help project future scenarios to give us a better
understanding of developing variables and potential ways to react to them.
r





So where will all this innovation lead? Gannon says that in the next 10-20
years, augmented reality could become commonplace ± but he also warns
about the dangers of using AR technology just because it is available.

³Augmented reality is just another tool, and like all tools, we¶ll need to
match the problem with the right solution,´ he says, giving the example of
an incoming commuter flight and how he¶d rather just get a text message
and not have augmented reality even part of the equation.

In the end, experts agree on one thing, however. Augmented reality is

certainly a major step toward the virtual world intersecting with the
physical, enhancing our perception, and providing clues about underlying
data that we would not normally understand. It¶s up to tomorrow¶s
innovators, however, to make sense of the technology and find ways to
really help make it compute.

Source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/ge-augmented-reality-
iphone-app-past-present-and-future-how-it-impacts-our-lives/3/?