Augmented Reality

Posted by Lester Madden under Augmented Reality, General, Software

Previous Post: A Real ShakerRacer   Next Post: The Future Is Already Here

Imagine you are walking down the street and feeling hungry. Wouldn’t it be great if you could take out your trusty smartphone, point the camera at a restaurant and have the menu appear on your phone?

What about taking a photo of a bus stop and having the time table for the local buses delivered to your phone, perhaps along with a map that shows the location of the buses and nearby taxis so you can decide your best travel option? Do you think that too far fetched? Well perhaps it not as far away as you might think.

Microsoft Research is working on augmented reality technology to enable you to point a camera at every day scenes in the world and get back information based on those scenes automatically that could make these types of scenarios common place in the future.

The video below is pretty interesting and a good look at what may be possible with the technology in the future.

I’m not over sold on the bubbles game idea, but I am a pretty poor navigator, even when I have Google/Nokia Maps and I try to get from A to B, chances are I’ll set off in the wrong direction while I orientate myself and have to double back. The obvious potential for me is having this technology in LBS software to make navigation easier. Imagine the bubbles being replaced with an arrow that guides you into your location, or uses your friend’s location placing arrows above them so you can easily spot them in a crowd.

Previous Post: A Real ShakerRacer   Next Post: The Future Is Already Here