Augmented reality: an early 2010 survey

Bryan AlexanderNational Institute for Technology in Liberal Education

Plan for the day

• What is it?– History and state of the art– Why do this?– Current examples

• AR on campus– Current examples

• Trends and possibles for 2010-2011

What is AR?

• Not VR• HUDs• J. Spohrer, WorldBoard

“Information in places” (IBM Systems Journal, 1999)

Language grapples:• Magic window• Mixed reality• Reading the

environment• Annotate the world• Laminating the physical

world• a “looking glass” into an

invisible world

Components

Hardware• Mobile device (e.g.,

phone)• Camera• Display screen (glasses,

phone)• Network infrastructure• Location awareness

(GPS)

• Attitude awareness (accelerometer)

• Compass

Software• Local apps• Web services• Content server

Light AR

• Museum tours• GPS navigators (Garmin)• Location services (Yelp)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joc67/774419510/ Photo from Jimmy Joe

Marker-based AR• Living antecedent: bar codes• QR• Microsoft Tag

Marker-based AR• Another antecedent: CueCat• Google Googles

Deeper AR

• Superimpose digital data onto local imagery• Glasses or phone

Why use it?Add information to a

place• http://www.fastcomp

any.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/augmented-reality-hits-wimbledon-tennis-championship

(Wimbledon example)

Rotterdam Market Hall http://layar.com/layar-30-launched-5-cases-to-show-the-power-of-the-platform/

Visualization

Mondrian;http://layar.com/layar-30-launched-5-cases-to-show-the-power-of-the-platform/

Creative arts

Wikitude

User geotagginghttp://wikitude.me/

“World Browser”

.edu examples: iTacitus• European Commission research project

http://www.itacitus.org/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090812104219.htm

Palazzo Diana, Florence

Campus uses

“’Realtà Aumentata’… a thesis project by a student at the Valle Giulia Faculty of Architecture in Italy.” (HR 2010)

http://vimeo.com/2341387

Campus uses

“Gratz University of Technology,Austria, has developed campus and museumtours using augmented reality. Looking throughthe camera on a mobile phone while walkingthe campus, students see tagged classroomsinside the buildings. At the museum, a virtualtour guide accompanies users through the

halls.” (HR 2010)

Campus usesCampus life through AR: Georgia Tech

http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/lab/2009/10/

Campus uses

• “The ARIS engine allows game designers to place virtual items, characters and pages in physical space using the iPhone’s GPS or a little barcode that can be placed on a wall or near an object. By giving the players a story and a number of quests, games can be built that involve a mix of physical and virtual activities.”

• (U Wisconsin, http://arisgames.org/)

AR projectsFrom the liberal arts world:• Dickinson in Japan,

http://blogs.dickinson.edu/japan2010/

•Stetson campus app, https://www.stetson.edu/secure/apps/wordpress/?p=4981

Emergent trends and possibles

• TAT face recognition

Emergent trends and possibles

• Hardware beyond the mobile phone– Goggles– Contact lenses (ex:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/augmented-reality-in-a-contact-lens/0 (Babak Parviz, IEEE Spectrum)

Emergent trends and possiblesAR skies • Google Skymaps (

http://www.google.com/sky/skymap/) • Bing sky (TED)

http://www.ted.com/talks/blaise_aguera.html

Emergent trends and possibles

“Games using marker technology often include a flat game board or map which becomes a 3D setting when viewed with a mobile device or a webcam. This kind of game could easily be applied to a range of disciplines, including archaeology, history, anthropology, or geography, to name a few…” (HR 2010)

Emergent trends and possibles“…Another approach to AR gaming allows

players or game masters to create virtual people and objects, tying them to a specific location in the real world.

Players interact with these constructs, which appear when the player approaches a linked location in the real world.” (HR 2010)

(Mad City Mystery,http://tinyurl.com/ybdsfzp)

Emergent trends and possibles

Practical challenges• Huge amounts of data crunching• Interface awkwardness • Location-based advertising• Copyright and other IP• Social media content contribution

Emergent trends and possibles

“[L]et’s get cynical about this technology and it’s trajectory. This “true glimpse” of history won’t sell well, compared to Disneyfied “untrue glimpses.” Wherever there is “Intelligent Tourism,” brutal, vulgar and stupid tourism follows fast on its heels!...”

http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/08/augmented-reality-and-atemporality/ Bruce Sterling, 2009

Emergent trends and possible

“Soon we’ll have some themepark Creationist Augmented Reality, where you can visit the Grand Canyon and see pre-Noachian people pan-frying trilobites and riding dinosaurs.)))”

http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/08/augmented-reality-and-atemporality/ Bruce Sterling, 2009

More resources• ELI, 7 Things You Need to Know About

Augmented Reality, http://educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7007.pdf

• Eric Klopfer, Augmented Learning (MIT, 2008)

• J.D. Spohrer, “Information in Places” (1999)• Adam Greenfeld, Everyware (New Riders,

2006)• http://delicious.com/tag/hz10+augmentedr

eality

Companies to watch• Layar• Metaio http://www.metaio.com/• Microsoft (Tag:

http://www.microsoft.com/tag/)• Ogmento• Wikitude • ARSights (http://www.arsights.com/

)• Also IBM, Google

Even more resources

NITLE blog, Technehttp://blogs.nitle.org

Horizon Reporthttp://www.nmc.org/horizon

Bryan’s research Twitterhttp://twitter.com/bryanalexander