Augmented Reality & Handheld Devices-Finally Ready for Mainstream?

I've been following and posting about augmented reality on twitter a fair amount lately. (Click to enlarge photo.)


Augmented reality (AR) has been developing for many years. Now that AR and handheld devices have evolved, we'll be able to benefit from both in new and practical ways. This is an exciting time with wonderful possibilities. This recent New York Times article states (free login), "Once the stuff of science fiction, augmented reality is now also making its way to smartphones, thanks to advances in both hardware and software."

The video below is one of the first examples I saw of practical AR on a handheld device. Here is a recent report on further developments related to the Wikitude app below. Google's Android has been ahead of Apple's iPhone when it comes to AR. I'm hopeful Apple will catch up. There's no shortage of developers working on iPhone apps in this area, that's for sure.


Augmented reality is pretty amazing and I believe this is just the beginning of what we're going to see with AR on handheld devices. The educational applications for this are limitless. And once Apple grants access to the video API, I'm hopeful the iPhone 3GS will catch up.

And soon Layar will be available beyond the Netherlands for phones running on the Android operating system. Again, an iPhone version of this will be a must.



The newest AR iPhone video to hit Youtube has stirred further interest in the U.S.


Yesterday on twitter @loic (Loic Le Meur of Seesmic) claimed this was a fake. Here's his tweet, which was retweeted by a few others.
"augmented reality on your iphone (yeah, it's a fake but watch it anyway) http://bit.ly/BT49Q "

From what I can tell it's not fake, though it's not yet available in the app store. But it may not be all it appears to be, not yet. Here's a review that talks about the good and bad of the app (written after the first London version video was released).

BTW- @angusdav did reply to "@loic why do you think the acrossair apps are fake? they say they're in the app store approval queue. http://bit.ly/rM55I"

I was a bit shocked by the @loic reply "@angusdav is it not a fake? It looks so amazing that I thought it was!!!"

I've just scratched the surface on this topic. Google "augmented reality" and you'll see that there's a ton of info out there and many more exciting developments in the works. Here is a video blogger who does a nice job showing and explaining some of the AR progression. Since that video was done in March 2009 it doesn't contain the work recently released by Georgia Tech (be sure to scroll & watch that video!).

And regarding the Apple iPhone and the API controversy? - I just ran a quick search and found this: Open Letter to Apple: Let us Augment Reality with the iPhone! (Turns out it contains the videos I included here and more!)

One last additional link here-check out this awesome augmented reality business card.

So what do you think, is it time? Will this technology have much impact in our lives?

Second Life and iPhone - Gotta Get One of These!

Well I was really wanting to wait until Android devices were released so I could check them out before I went out and bought an iPhone. And especially when I found out here that the brand new iPhone will still not allow copy and pasting of links, and still does not allow one to edit Google docs. What kind of Blackberry killer is that if it won't do those basics tasks?

But now...now it's going to be difficult to hold out much longer. Unless I hear of a great Android device being released by this weekend, I may very well have to head to my favorite Apple store and purchase an iPhone. Because today I found out that Second Life (SL) runs nicely on the iPhone using a new Teleport app made available recently through iTunes. And it's no longer just a prototype thing I saw a few months ago, it appears to be the real deal.

Check out Dr. Barbara McLain, Professor University of Hawaii-Manoa blog post on this from yesterday complete with photos.

Not only that, I just watched this YouTube video (not best quality and dry, but it's informative) on how the app works to remotely connect and access your desktop anywhere via WiFi or EDGE/3G. It appears I can access everything on my desktop using this app because it's a VNC client! Can't wait to see what other amazing apps are developed for that thing. I think Google really blew it by taking too long to get Android devices on the market...too bad, really.