What’s Augmented Reality?

In daily educational humbug, we’re almost halfway with our Mobile Business Design ‘minor’ (a free-of-choice-half-year-course to enhance the bachelor level). And while the students did their first written exam in this context, it struck me that we are talking a lot about locative or Location Based Services but not a lot more about Augmented Reality.
Sure, three of the five teams use Layer or likewise as a technological solution to their heavyweight assignments. But nobody uses the word Augmented Reality anymore. That’s strange. So, in retrospect, what is Augmented Reality?

Tagged with: reality, ar, augmented reality,

I want Starkuh-hud!

The augmented reality technology is relatively new and still under development. Only a handful of companies dare to venture into this area. Thus far only two companies emerged with Software Development Kits capable of creating ‘THE’ augmented reality of our dreams (or in movies like Minority Report). In terms of hardware we’re looking at the latest generation smartphones which are currently limited by the development in their respectable sizes, durability and battery-life. But our technological progress grows exponentially on a daily basis.

Tagged with: science fiction, smartphones, tony stark, nokia, augmented reality, Concept,

Augmented Reality: as old as human thought

Dutch magazine for professionals ‘Intermediair’ (printed over 100k times each week, and available through the internet (www.intermediair.nl) placed an enormous QR code on it’s frontpage last week. It’s header was (roughly translated): “Augmented Reality. Does it add something to your reality?”.

Tagged with: barcode, qr code, intermediair, augmented reality,

Attack of the cyborg zombies from augmented space

With the continues improvements on mobile devices and the growing acceptance of information technology there's a lot of exiting things to expect in our nearby future. Last weekend I attended the AR Dev Camp hosted by Mediamatic in Amsterdam and i got quite excited about some new applications currently in development. But it's not all hallelujah, there are also some major concerns that should not be swept away to lightly. Does this picture represent a bright new future or a techno-nightmare?

Tagged with: open access, augmented reality, experience, mobile,