Augmented reality (also known as AR) sounds like a reference to life on a distant planet, or some sort of Fringe device that slips your mind into a fifth dimension. In fact, this term is used to describe an emerging type of technology. Put simply, AR can help you learn about the people and places around you in real time, and is found primarily in smart phone applications today. But location-based services are just the tip of the iceberg.
At its core, augmented reality is all about changing our view of the world by merging our environmental surroundings with digital data and media. But for this technology to evolve, there must be rules regarding what can truly be defined as augmenting reality, and what can’t. “The key is that the virtual content be registered (or aligned) with the right parts of the physical world,” explained Blair MacIntyre, PhD, associate professor at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing and director of the school’s Augmented Environments Lab. “Also, the application must be interactive.”
Beyond these basic principles, how is this technology being used today? And what can we expect to see in the near future?
Smarter Shopping, More Immersive Gaming with Augmented Reality: ABI’s Shey imagines a world in which consumers download applications from stores to help them make purchasing decisions. For example, in a hypothetical Ikea application, when you point your phone’s camera at an empty room, you could begin to decorate it with furniture available from Ikea’s catalog. The app could then let you purchase those goods.
AR could even help retailers boost brand awareness. Shey sees cloud-based AR as a way for brands to establish themselves, assuming existing cell phone networks can handle the added data. And despite that possible hurdle, he argues that most of today’s phones don’t have the processing power needed to perform advanced AR tasks. “If you want to add contextual information to an application you’re using, when it comes to augmented reality, you’re talking about a lot of processing power,” he said. “There [also] has to be some processing that happens in the cloud to provide the value to the application.” However, 1-GHz mobile processors from Qualcomm, Samsung, and others are starting to hit higher-end handsets.
In the immediate future, experts agree that after the first wave of AR mobile apps, the gaming industry will be the first to harness the power of this technology. That’s because AR works best in controlled environments, meaning it would be localized to your living room and used strictly for gaming. In fact, gaming manufacturers have already dangled their toes in the water. A title called The Eye of Judgement, released in 2007 for PlayStation 3, used the console’s eye camera technology to make playing cards come to life. When the cards were placed under the camera’s lens, it created 3D Augmented reality creatures that appeared on your TV.
For now, the future of AR remains somewhat murky. Dr. MacIntyre says many questions have yet to be answered. “When will non gaming apps start becoming useful and widespread? Will mobile phone-based AR be enough, or will it only take off when head-worn displays become practical?” The answers seem to rely on our infrastructure. Until data networks for cloud-based AR improves—it’s possible that 4G cellular networks are a step in the right direction—and until developers can create more precise models, mobile AR will remain little more than just a promise of a richer, more digitally connected world.
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