Augmented Reality - indepth, future possibilities

Augmented Reality is the combining of digital data (and objects) with/into the real world. This is done by overlaying the digital data or objects on the real world, usually via a live video feed. Usually that entails some level of image recognition software combined with location information, and certainly requires a computer of some form to process it all, in real time, as well as a display screen of some sort, obviously. The technology can even be networked, to allow people to share the same AR information/experiences.

A super basic example of AR already in use would be those Football line markers they paint on the screen for live TV football games. Although this is limited to stuff you see on the TV, and can't really be considered AR for non-live TV, at all. Thanks to Golden Dysprosium for reminding me about this.

This is a topic I've been thinking about for a while now, ever since I saw a tech demo of it with some pretty interesting, mostly basic game-based examples. Not to be confused with Virtual Reality, which is an entirely different concept all together; AR is FAR more useful, and far more immersive, since it exists in the same space as the real world.
Augmented reality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an upcoming technology that's quickly gaining momentum, with the new super phones that are coming onto the market, finally mobile computers have the processing power to do it. In the very near future we are going to see some unbelievable stuff happen, and some pretty amazing things are already coming to life already.

The possibilities for this stuff are limitless, anything that might have been possible with holograms (which are virtually impossible to create on their own), become a real possibility with AR, especially once the software is made to handle it, and glasses displays become relatively cheaper and popular. AR can recognize real world things, via image recognition, like say a table, and place digital objects onto that table, as if the objects were really sitting there. If you move around the table, you see the objects from different perspectives/angles, as if you were really moving around the object.
Anything that can be created with a computer, can be put into the real world, and appear as if it were a real object. Any object in the real world can simply be pointed at, and any information you could ever want, could be right there, next to that object, instantly.
Imagine overlaying the internet, and all that it allows, into the real world. Communication, information, multimedia, etc...

Theoretically, you're view of reality could be themed any way you want, changing the real-every-day-world into a magical fantasy world. Cars could look like giant ant following eachother in a line, the sky could be multicolored, sky scrapers could look like spires of stone, and other people could appear to you as any avatar they want to look like! You could send a message to a sick friend, on a pop-up hologram screen in front of you, and ask them to virtually meet up with you, so that they can join you and virtually follow you, as if they were actually there that day.

We have the graphics, we have the network, we have the image recognition, we are even starting to get the mobile processing power... All that's left is the software to support it, and a practical display screen of some sort.

Right now, cell phones are starting to support AR in the form of directions and location information. You can find things like restaurants by holding up your phone, and using your phone's camera, see a video of your world around you, but with markers showing where stuff is, in your field of view. Layar, Wikitude, and the New York Nearest Subway app for the iphone, are all current cell phone applications of AR.
If I'm not mistaken, there are also a few basic marker-based AR games for the new cell phones, as well.

From what I've been reading on AR, and where it's going, I think well within a decade we'll start seeing glasses-displays become a common accessory for powerful cellphones/mobile computers. Partly because AR needs a processor device to work, and as well, a constant internet connection, and cell phones are the perfect market for that sort of thing. Plus some form of HMD is required to make Augmented Reality actually seem like a reality, instead of just something on a screen. But we're getting there, and HMDs are starting to look more and more like normal sunglasses.

Here are some good websites to check out, for more information on AR and it's uses:

Description of Networked Augmented Reality, and a few application ideas:
Augmented Reality (AR)
My personal favorite, cause I like the system this person lays out. Half way down the page is a section on the Applications of such technology. Gives some very interesting examples.

A blog that focuses on Augmented Reality articles, lots of videos of new cellphone apps for AR:
Games Alfresco

A long interview with the head of a start-up Augmented Reality company:
Is it “OMG Finally” for Augmented Reality?: Interview with Robert Rice

If you're into Anime, check out Dennou Coil:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennō_Coil
This anime has some very interesting visions for the future, and it's awesome to see augmented reality glasses used as a common every-day thing.

If books are your thing, check out Rainbows End:
Rainbows End - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Which you can also read online here:
Rainbows End
or here:
http://www.drbeat.li/album/Bücher/Ve...inbowsend.html

This book is like the extreme end of the future of AR technology, with contact lens displays, countless "visions" - augmented realities other people have created with various "themes" overlayed into the real world, virtual meetings between people as if they were in the room with you, and vast outdoor AR based games. Augmented Reality and similar technology play an important role in the plot of the story. If you're into science fiction, this is a good read purely to see what AR in the future may be like.

A couple other nice things to check out, these are advertisements, but if you have a webcam (and a printer), you can try out Augmented Reality for yourself:
Star Trek Enterprise
GE | Plug Into the Smart Grid
Coraline's 3-D Garden
No printer required, this just changes your head on the webcam into a transformer:
WE ARE AUTOBOTS - TRANSFORMERS II: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

And you can search for a thing called ARToolKit, if you're interested in making your own AR stuff (source code). Course it's just simple marker based AR... The more advanced markerless AR, or real world AR, is still in the works, but coming...

Anyway, I wanted to start a discussion on this topic, cause not many people have even heard of this stuff yet... Plus, I bet there are a lot of cool ideas other people can come up with and talk about.
Also, if you have any interesting links to share on this, go ahead! =3 I'd love to see.

While this is an interesting topic, i really can't think of something that would do justice....*care for a mint!*

It sucks how everything is being invented. What will people currently studying for an engineering degree do in the future!?

I am eagerly awaiting AR technologies becoming viable and affordable. Forgotten someone's name? No problem, it'll pop up above their head if you want! When was this statue erected and who sculpted it? Oh cool, instant link to Wikipedia.

And so on and so forth. But the OP is so comprehensive I have little to add! xD

haha, I went overboard with the rant on it.
Been obsessed with this topic lately, so I wanted to be thorough.

I've played with a lot of gimmicky "try at home" AR demos, usually using markers, and while it's fun... Markerless tracking is really where the stuff needs to go. (Course thats a lot harder to get your hands on ATM. Compiling source code ain't fun.)

Right now we're seeing basic cell phone apps support basic proprietary systems, for location information.. Which doesn't allow for much freedom. I want to start seeing Networked applications, user created content that can stay in a location... And user-based 3D real world data gathering.

It's kind of freaky, over the last 2-3 years, seeing this technology grow. Based on it's progression, it's certainly not much of a leap to say this stuff will be common, and rather advanced, in a very short time.
Good old Moore's Law.

The level of information and data this brings to the users fingertips, could be such an information revolution, it almost makes Technological Singularity seem possible too. I mean, when you start giving people such complete knowledge about the things around them, traditional means for educating people just don't stack up... Will people become smarter? Will they be able to make better choices, based on the information they know? And could this sort of technology (and the results it brings) actually be what futurists call Technological Singularity?
Either way it makes an interesting discussion concept. ;)

I don't think it'd be the Tech Singularity - in fact by traditional definitions (A point where development is so fast that people can't keep up) giving people faster and better access to information would probably delay the Singularity :p However it is just another example of the rapid and increasing pace of technological development.

Sweet Jesus the OP is lonnnnggg. :p

Summarize it. :mad2:

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Originally Posted by Fonz

Sweet Jesus the OP is lonnnnggg. :p

Summarize it. :mad2:

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Well almost any of the links I posted have brief explanations... But until you see it for yourself, it's hard to explain. Check out the Games Alfresco blog I linked, it has lots of videos of various current uses. Or check out the advertisements I linked too, near the end of the post, to try it yourself if you have a webcam.

Basically, Augmented Reality is when you take digital information, 3D objects, or other data, and overlay them onto the real world, in order to enhance your view of reality. Those Objects and Data have to interact with the real world, realistically, to appear as part of reality.
My long post talks about a few theoretical uses for that, as well as try to describe it without making it sound like a useless gimmick.

Another way to describe, at least part of what AR is: Take a videogame, now remove the map/reality-setting from the game, leaving only the characters and objects. Replace that map/setting with a live video of the real world. Add image recognition into the mix, so the game objects and characters know what ground is, and such, so they aren't just wondering around on a square video screen. This way, if they walk down a sidewalk away from you, they appear to get smaller, just as a real object would. Does that make sense?

It also helps to watch Dennou Coil, or read Rainbows End, or some other scifi story dealing with the topic, to get a good idea of how it can be used in the real world.

basically metadata for the real world?

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Originally Posted by Darth Alliekin

basically metadata for the real world?

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Yeah, I suppose that could describe it. That's probably the more practical end of it, and what we'll see AR be used for at first. (Actually that's what we ARE seeing right now, in cell phones.)

It goes far beyond just data though, since any graphic a computer can create, can be placed in the real world. So while it can be used to attach digital data and information to the real world, it can also be used to enhance/edit/augment you're visual view of reality. Theoretically, with advanced enough graphics and software, everything you visually see in your surroundings can be "themed" or edited.

In Dennou Coil, an anime in which this technology is a key part of the plot, the characters have virtual pets which follow them around in the real world, only visible through their AR glasses displays. If they need to look something up online, a virtual keyboard and screen appear in front of them like a hologram, for traditional web browsing. Characters can create virtual objects to interact with in the real world, and some even have virtual agents/robots which can go off on their own, and even be used to spy on others... Course that's the advanced futuristic end of things.

Augmented Reality is sort of the result you get, from "wearable" computers. And in my mind, the powerful smart phones we're starting to see on the market, could be considered a form of that.

Another thing I just thought of... One might consider the Playstation EyeToy to be a form of AR... And while that's not far off, the EyeToy really isn't AR at all. It's a stationary camera, looking at you. Game elements usually just move around on the 2D TV screen, unaware of the 3D space of your room. You can interact with the stuff, but only on a very basic level. It's more like an animated mirror, than reality of any kind.
AR takes advantage of the 3D real world space it's looking at, recognizes that 3D space, as well as your geographical location, and can put things realistically into it.

When you get into the networking part of AR, and multiuser stuff, objects placed in a real world location have their position uploaded to a server, so anyone that visits that real world location, will see that virtual object there, in that same spot it was placed.
Imagine attaching a virtual "kick me" sign to someone, the location for that object becomes that person, and other people would also see that sign. :p

Edit: woops, there is one exception to the Sony EyeToy, that really IS a form of Augmented Reality, the EyePet.
YouTube - EyePet Trailer
YouTube - EyePet