Honestly, I’ve never heard of augmented reality
before. Sure I watched Minority Report and thought it was a great movie,
did I know there was a name for what Captain Anderton was doing on that
clear glass screen? The answer is no. I thought it was pure science
fiction. Turns out that was augmented reality, and that now exists!!
So
what is this augmented reality that we have been posting about for the
past couple of months? What can we use it for? If you are a novice like me,
continue reading, if you are a pro, you might want to continue reading
to make fun at my ignorance!
So let’s start at the very beginning. What is augmented reality? Here is what the World Wide Web tells us:
1. “A live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data”
2. “The technology of combining real world images, video, etc. with computer-generated information and/or imagery”
3. “Augmented reality is the integration of digital information with live video or the user's environment in real time.”
And
so on and so forth. To put it simply, it’s pretty cool! You take a real
life picture and you overlay it with awesome graphics that would appear
to exist in that same frame.
What
can we do with this technology? We already showed you that you can use
it to shop (score!), enhance work performance, and make catalogues a lot
more interesting (emphasis on a lot). But the applications for this
technology are truly limitless! In education for example it has been
used in the UK to allow students to see where and how organs look like
within their bodies. For medicinal purposes the app DoctorMole uses
augmented reality technology to scan moles on your body and give instant
feedback on Asymmetry, Border, Color, Diameter and Risk (ABCDE). It is
super easy and convenient and will allow you to save the pictures you
take to compare progress and to show your doctor.
AR is really cool! One of the first apps I learned of AR was Skyview developed by NASA. A free app. When I first tried it I also had never heard of AR before but when u see it in action u realize that AR will have an enormous impact in future businesses and technologies.
ReplyDeleteWhat will really drive augmented reality will be military applications. The U.S. Army attempted it in the '90s with the Land Warrior program, but it was scrapped because the technology had not caught up. Flash forward to now, when the military gets its hands on a viable platform, it will change modern warfare.
ReplyDelete@Gerardo Berea; agreed...I can't wait to see all the possible applications of this technology, the only limitation is our own imagination!
ReplyDelete@G-Prime; here is hoping for world peace, with or without augmented reality :)
ReplyDelete