Oct 13, 2011

Augmented Reality

The next and last type of Augmented Reality we are going to take a look through is the type we talked about in the first post in this series Augmented Reality. Not Just Steak, Not Just Sizzle, It’s Sizzling Steak.   Remember that, in that post, we brought back the Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger and a pair of black sunglasses?

 

In my opinion, this type of augmented reality is probably the most viable, practical, and useful of the three we’ve discussed.  This is not to take anything away from the two types we examine previously: Marker Based Augmented Reality and Markerless Augmented Reality.  Those approaches both have merit and either of them can be combined with this third type.

The hallmark of this this third type of augmented reality  is that it provides a visual portal to your environment.  It adds layers of digital information to your field of view.  What does that mean?  In practical terms, there’s a collection of video cameras – two or more.  The cameras are affixed to or imbedded in a device that, ideally, replaces your original field of view.  In other words, you view real-time video of your environment instead of viewing your environment directly.  The reason this is important isn’t that it allows us to “see” the world in real time through digital video.  The value this adds is is the opportunity to add data to the digital video stream just before it reaches your eyes and brain.  We’ll talk more about that a little tomorrow. For now, here are the 4 kinds of devices that are or can be used for this third type of augmented reality.

Augmented Reality Delivery Channels

• Computers- all broadly speaking, but the ones that are most important for our purposes here are the personal mobile devices like iPhone, iPad, Android phones and Android Tablets.
• Goggles – After computers these are easiest to implement. The biggish goggles offer a lot more real estate than glasses, so less miniaturization of the components is required.
• Glasses – More expensive again due to miniaturization of components
• Contact Lenses – This is not currently a practical device for augmented reality.  I’ve included this image from the Wired Gadget Lab it to provide a window into the most cutting edge research and to help your imagination to push the envelope a bit.

The 4 different types of devices I’ve listed above were presented in an order that places the least costly and easiest to implement first and the cutting edge most expensive devices last.  Actually, using contact lenses for augmented reality is closer to science fiction right now than a true device.  Still it represents the current research, and that’s important to recognize when considering your mobile strategy.

This isn’t a new field, but there’s a long way to go before we see practical examples of augmented reality delivered via contact lenses.  Still, there’s something very important about where we are in the technological timeline today.  The explosion and improvement of tiny computers – mobile phones and tablets makes the first option, Computers, very inexpensive, and ever more viable.

While it would be impractical to drag a server, workstation, or even a laptop around with you in order to take advantage of augmented reality, it’s a small step to reach into your pocket and pull out your iPhone or other modern smart phone.  With each release, these devices are getting more processing power, better resolution, and more memory.  The iPhone 4S and a few of the Android phones have a dual core processors that fit in your pocket.  It wasn’t that long ago that a dual core processor was an extravagance for most desktops.

These tiny computers, mobile phones and tablets, are available for use to deliver real-world, practical applications that leverage augmented reality.   Every modern smartphone is a ready-made delivery channel for augmented reality applications today.    Tomorrow, we’ll take a closer look at this fertile territory.