What's new in the Mobile world for Augmented Reality?

Things have really moved along way since the Symbian and Blackberry OS dominated world, has anyone seen someone whip out the latest BB and say "hey look at this new app" I'm yet to see this rare event. It's also even more unlikely for developers to writing an AR engine / framework on these Mobile OS's, unless the hardware is opened up.

However with platforms on Android and iOS this is very different, the latest generation of smartphones are really showing AR's potential. These devices are coming out with ever more powerful processors, in 2010 any complex 3D AR modelling was fairly slow, but today with an iPhone4 or Nexus S these phones are as fast as a small laptop.

What type of AR applications are coming out on Mobiles? 

Here are just a few.....

Advertising:
The Aston Martin Experience app, is one of the latest AR apps on an iPhone that lets you place the phone in your car window and shows you your G force, speed etc using the phones onboard seniors, while overlaying an Aston Speedo in your camera view.. A nice gimmick and just for fun. This app doesn't use any image recognition and is just showing you an augmented view with an HUD overlay. 

Another car advertising AR app by VW, is also worth checking out. This app shows potential customers some of the car features via a 3D model. However the VW app tracks the road and keeps a 3D model within the borders, using pattern recognition. it's lots of fun.Check it out here: by Mobiento

 

You'll need a Norwegian iTunes account, also the landscape roads can be found here for printing. (print as large as you can, the original was in a magazine over 3 pages)

Ross Oldbury
 

101 - Augmented Reality

In the beginning..

I'm somewhat of a Technogeek, which is why I am sharing what I believe is a going to be a huge technology trend over the next few years (2011+), something so big that it will creep into all aspects of daily life, where I'm sure people will have found intriguing new and useful ways to use it.....

What am I talking about. Augmented Reality, or AR as it's commonly known.

This blog is dedicated to this subject, where I hope to follow the inflated expectations
(where we are today) into Gatners plateau of productivity. i.e useful real world aspects.

 

What is AR?

Most people have seen some form of AR already, just think of those mobile apps that shows you where places of interest are, via the screen of your mobile. like Wikitude:

fig 1. Wikitude World Browser

  

Augmented Reality is simply a term for describing the merging of a real visual environment with some virtual overlay, simply put to use technology to superimpose our real world with computer generated information.

fig 2. Milgram's continuum.

or AR is more formally defined as been anywhere on the extrema of the virtuality continuum as shown on Milgram's continuum.

It's all History

AR technology has been around since the early 60's with the first head-mounted displays (HMD), but has been primarily used for military applications, like heads-up displays in fighter aircraft. The term AR was apparently first used in the early 90's by an engineer at Boeing, for a system designed to help with Aircarft wiring diagrams.

Future?

With the prevalent adoption of Apple and Android consumerisation mobile devices, new technological innovations in this area, have now started to progressed to a stage, where it's out preforming any AR technology done on a PC with a camera for usefulness.

Also with the adoption of more smartphones and higher performing hardware devices, this is only going to become more apparent. 

All that's required to kick this off is going to be the right AR idea to be married to the right AR platform, to be made available to a mass market of smartphone users. Time will tell if the next generation of smartphones (5th) will be up to the job or not.

- Ross Oldbury -