The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others - Nietzche
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Augmented reality on mobiles will soar
AUGMENTED REALITY APPS are taking hold and are expected to become hugely popular over the coming years, according to mobile analyst outfit Juniper Research.
Augmented reality (AR) uses real time input from sensors like the GPS, accelerometer, camera and microphone as well as other applications to overlay pertinent context sensitive information, usually over a map or feed from the camera,
Mobile downloads featuring AR content is expected to rise from less than one million last year to more than 400 million by 2014.
So for instance Google Sky Maps will show you the heavenly bodies your phone is currently pointing at, while apps like Layar and Wikitude provide details about nearby points of interest, such as historical landmarks, tube stations, restaurants and so on.
Juniper reckons the main reason for the popularity of these apps is down to the combination of increasingly powerful mobile phones packed with all the necessary sensors and the growing number of app stores making it easier to get our hands on them.
"Preloading an AR browser, or indeed any kind of AR-enabled app, onto the handset, greatly reduces time-to-content or thereby offers the opportunity to increase user familiarity with AR in practice," explained Windsor Holden, the report's author.
Holden reckons there's money in it too, with revenues expected to climb from under $2 million in 2010 to as much as $732 million in 2014.
The report predicts that while AR enterprise apps are unlikely to launch before 2012 due to technological constraints, and will only really account for a small minority of downloads, they will be able to command a very high subscription price.
Whether people will become comfortable constantly holding their phone up in front of them while they stroll around town remains to be seen, but honestly it isn't far off from people careening around like pinballs as they check emails, maps and Twitter every few seconds as they do today anyway.
Personally we think AR is certainly a nifty technology, but until it's integrated into a heads-up display on a pair of glasses, the use cases are going to remain somewhat limited. µ
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Porn mode AR sounds great, I raise my glass to you Jason.
To be serious though I would put an AR barcode on a business card to make swapping numbers easy. Maybe even a witty remark embedded in a large AR barcode on a t-shirt while it's still geek chic.
Reasonably priced optical see through glasses are a few year off yet and video see through will probably always be a bit jumpy so hand helds will have to lead the way for now.
Years ago Sony launched a video camera with a night vision mode that could be used to see underneath some kinds of clothes. It was taken off market as soon as the "new" feature was discovered.
How long 'til I can transfer my consciousness into a non organic device. It would make porn seem so trivial compared to direct port stimulation.
Jason, there is already such an application, its called (how very original) Mobile XRay scanner. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRx3Dat7uqs
AR is a great idea but as with any endevaour of mankind the idiots will turn it into cheap fake porn-related crap. I for one don't intend to walk around like an idiot experiencing real world through 320x240 screens instead of using my eyes, but you all should buy this crap to finance the research so one day I can buy it when its mature and embedded into glasses so I can actually augment reality with technology without looking like a complete dork.
makes an app that causes the phone to appear to have x-ray vision?
We already have phones that can see faces, although it helps if you're light-skinned. Won't be long until phones can guess pretty accurately at gender. So, at some point there's going to be an app where you can aim your device at someone and have them appear to be nude on the screen.
Yes, I'm a pervert, but you know I'm right.