So, when I think about Augmented Reality and Gestural Interfaces at first I automatically think about minority report or maybe magic but researching into it I find out that it has a completely different. Breaking the two topics down, Augmented Reality mostly known as AR is defined by webopedia computer dictionary as a type of virtual reality that aims to duplicate the world's environment in a computer. It is basically the combination of the real scene viewed by the user and a virtual scene generated by the computer that augments the scene with additional information. On the other hand in an article called Gestural Interfaces, the author Julian Dibbell expresses the topic as the goal of interpreting human gestures with mathematical algorithms into a computer. Today, with the xbox kinect out there, the Gesture recognition enables humans to interface with the machines and interact naturally without any uses a remote or any kind of mechanical devices.
Focusing and Looking at a brief history of the term augmented reality, it was coined in the early nineties by Thomas Caudell who was making one of the first attempts to apply virtual-reality technology to Boeing's manufacturing and engineering processes. Broken down, the verb augment refers to the action of adding to something in order to make it more substantial. According to buzzword, the term is derived from the Latin augere meaning 'to increase'. Today the term is used mostly with the context of a 3G mobile and mainly as a link to a social networking. It has become crucial that televisions are connected to a social network and also car systems to have navigational abilities as well as a nice sounding entertainment environment. An important goal of this blend of technology for me is to create a system in which the user cannot tell the difference between the real world and the virtual augmentation of it.
A lot of researches have been put into augmented-reality work around the world. In February 2009, at the TED conference, Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry presented their augmented-reality system, which they developed as part of MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces Group presented their project, which they called SixthSense. They explained that it relies on some basic components that are found in many augmented reality systems, which would be a camera, a small projector, a mirror and also a smartphone.
Compressed together these components are strung together which for their company would be worn around their neck. Check This Out For More Information. Pretty cool huh?
I believe its rather unfortunate that the Layar Augmented-Reality App is not quite known out there, it wasn’t until I was seated in a class teaching a week ago that I head about it. In Gadgetwise, Azadeh Ensgha published an article Another Augmented-Reality App for the iPhone about it and here she stated that layar application uses a camera feed and its GPS to conjoin data and graphics which would allow users to select a layer from whichever sites of their choice which a user could then point their phones at whichever surrounding points of interest to get more information about the area.
News has it that Arcane Technologies, which is a Canadian company, sold augmented reality devices to the United States military. Their device would help in augmenting information around us and could also overlay blueprints from a satellite directly into the soldiers' field of vision. Unfortunately, with all its awesomeness it still has a lot of challenges to overcome. In an article Limitations and the Future of Augmented Reality issues like privacy concerns, and having too much information comes to mind. For privacy concerns, the article points out that image-recognition software and Augmented reality will soon allow people to see information about whoever they want and even strangers who can use this for malicious intents. On the case of too much information, the article makes mention of the blackberry phenomenon which took place last year. The fear is that an overreliance on augmented reality could mean that people could be missing out on what's happening right in front of them such that human interaction might be minimal or maybe needing a personal touch which of course would be unavailable in a computer program.
Regardless of all, this technology is more than cool and is on the rise, we can only wait for its perfection. Contrary to popular belief, I think that it is really going to be something that people will use every day when they step out and go about their busy day. For a more common example of this technology, in the popular movie Iron Man, I found a video on YouTube showing a snippet and I have imbedded the video right here :)
Join me next time as we explore more in depth into gestural interfaces and this new advancing technology!
