The world IN augmented reality (AR)

What is augmented reality you ask? Well let me explain, Augmented reality (AR) is a live, copy of a real-world environment which has been changed or modified by a computer using sensory inputs like graphics, video and sound. So in other words it alters your perception of reality using a screen or monitor of some sort.

Since about 2004 I’ve been following the production of AR and I am amazed at the amount of uses it can serve in today’s world.

The very first and probably most common use of this technology is something that a lot of us would have seen on the news every night, the daily weather, yes when Jim Hickey shows you its sunny in Nelson today or it’s going to be a cold one in Dunedin he is using augmented reality, he doesn’t see the big screen that you and I see, he sees it from a small screen to the side of him.

Another common application of AR technology is when you’re watching sports on television, the score keeping in the corner of the screen and in cricket when they show you the path of the ball. There’s so many different AR uses today but some of the more exciting ones are yet to be made.

Lately I’ve even had a go at the entertainment side of augmented reality myself with my new Sony Playstation 4 console, which uses the Ps4 console, the new Playstation 4 camera and a program Sony call ‘the playroom’ to create an augmented environment inside your living room. check it out on these two youtube videos http://youtu.be/CewinNc_hSI and http://youtu.be/h_vztSTdQi0

It’s actually pretty entertaining punching a flying robot that’s flying around in your living room (even though he sets your head on fire if you do). Making little critters fly out of your controller is even more fun and creating something on your smartphone such as a ball and adding it to the augmented environment for the little critters to play with is a cool little feature. You can even play a game of ping-pong with your friend across the middle of your living room. I can just imagine what the future of augmented reality games are going to be like. But gaming’s not the only place where this augmented reality is used and I’m going to write about a few more uses that are in the works.

One of the most interesting areas (well at least for me) that AR will play a huge part is in Automotive. Just imagine driving along and never needing to take your eyes off of the road because every piece of information that you need is displayed right in front of you on your windscreen, your speed, engine temperature, oil levels, tyre pressures, traffic conditions, road conditions and GPS data such as the distance, estimated time to your destination, which way to turn, all fed out directly onto your windscreen. Even early warning systems such as if a car stops suddenly up ahead of you or if a pedestrian decides to step out onto the road in front of you, your vehicle will warn you by highlighting the hazard on your windscreen. Another aspect of AR is that if you’ve seen a vehicle in a catalogue that you might like, you could see what that vehicle would look like in your driveway, you could see the vehicle in 3d, walk around the vehicle, look inside the windows at the interior, even have a look at the engine, listen to it idle, the possibilities are limitless.

Imagine you wanted to build yourself a house on a section you’ve bought, you could go to the site with your architect and he could show you the plans in 3d on your actual section using a tablet or laptop, then your builder can come along and build your house using the same plan, giving you the exact house in the exact place that you had seen it in on the tablet or laptop.

AR could also provide a surgeon with vital information, such as showing the heartbeat rate, blood pressure etc. It could help a doctor look inside a patient by combining images such as x-ray with others such as video.

Say you travel to a foreign country and you want to know all about a certain location and its features, AR would bring up all the information you need when you aim the device at the location, even giving you comments from previous visitors. Imagine the country is one which also speaks and writes in a foreign language, you could simply aim your device at a sign written in a different language and it would be translated right in front of you. Even better, if someone was talking to you in a foreign language you could aim your device at them and as they talk to you in their language you could be reading subtitles in english from the bottom of the screen, just like when you watch those old martial arts movies.

Although just like all good things there has to be some negative aspects as well so I thought I might just talk a little about the bad things that may arise from augmented reality. I think the main negative is, if this technology isn’t regulated, companies could collect marketing data from you, such as when you go into a store, they could collect information such as where you were, what items you looked at, which order you looked at items and ultimately which items you ended up buying. This brings me to the next negative; Advertising, just think about it, you’re minding your own business using your augmented reality on your device and then all of a sudden advertising pops up right in front of you, showing you items that are relevant to you depending on what you have purchased before, it could even detect your location only displaying advertising that is relevant to your area.

It’s a daunting thought, the capabilities of influence this targeted advertising may have over us, I mean we’re already bombarded on a day-to-day basis by advertising on the internet when surfing websites and when we use social media sites such as the likes of Facebook, do we really need more of it?.

In saying that, I still believe with the right legislations and regulations, AR will be the next big thing. The enhancements it will make to people’s lives once it is fully implemented will be incredible, making things just that much better and easier.

I can’t wait,can you?

Tony