Augmenting Reality With Your Mobile Phone 111
blackbearnh writes "With the release of the 3.1 iPhone OS, application developers will finally be able to develop augmented reality (AR) apps. In other words, Terminator Vision is right around the corner. O'Reilly Media recently talked to Chetan Damani, one of the founders of Acrossair, about how they developed their new AR application, Nearest Tube, which displays the closest London Tube stations over a live video overlay on an iPhone 3GS. According to Damani, developing AR applications on the 3GS is dead easy, and the real trick will be developing good augmented reality apps. 'It's all about who's going to have the most amount of data and the most valid data. So there's the obvious types of apps which you're going to launch and those are the find me my nearest bar, find me my nearest event, find me the nearest tube stop, find me the nearest ATM. And those sorts of apps are all going to be around. But they're only going to be useful for when you're trying to look for things. So if we want to get users to use augmented reality a little bit more, we have to start introducing other bits of functionality, things like show me the offers available in a particular high street. Show me when I'm walking down a high street if there's a table available at a particular restaurant. And it's that sort of interactivity and providing that real-time data in this augmented reality view which is going to start getting people to use it a lot more rather than just for show me where the nearest area is.'"
what we need (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:what we need (Score:5, Insightful)
People holding up their iPhone's looking for a subway or resturant.
People staring down at their phone texting somebody.
People lying on the ground trying to get upskirt photos.
People flailing their arms around in circles, hitting anyone in reach, trying to use body language whilst talking through a bluetooth headset.
The rest of the world trying to take videos of all that and uploading them to YouTube.
What ever happened to our jet packs?
Impressive. (Score:5, Insightful)
Now iphones will have the same crappy apps android phones have had for months. totally worth the front page.
memevision (Score:3, Insightful)
New App for Augmented Reality Released! (Score:4, Insightful)
SiGNS.
Apple announced that they have patented a fully integrated Augmented Reality device for 2009, SiGNS.
"SiGNS will revolutionize the way we live by displaying pertinent information to the use about a local area." claims technological wizzkids at Apple.
SiGNS can be made from almost anything, opening potential for new and old businesses. Apple claims that creative individuals will be able to make their own SiGNS for free to advertise their own services, or to simple shout out to the world.
Need money for drugs or hookers? A SiGN can tell the world.
Businesses will be able to directly advertise to people in the local area. Users can see if stores are offering sales, look at local restaurants, even find bathrooms, tube stations, or police and medical help.
SiGNS can easily be made multilingual. In fact, some signs can be made in such a way to be universal among users.
"We think SiGNS are going to change your life"
Kids from Planet Oblivious (Score:5, Insightful)
People on phones are bad enough, but I've noticed that a significant fraction of young kids, mostly boys, seem to have zero situational awareness outside of a wedge about 90 degrees wide in front of them.
I notice this because I have horses. Parents are always bringing kids to horse barns. Usually, the girls are interested in the horses, and the boys would rather be playing a video game. Some have portable games with them. In a busy, working stable, there are people leading and riding horses all over the place. Occasionally there's a loose horse (not a big deal; they'll head for their friends or food). Some awareness of large, moving, three quarter ton animals is needed to survive, or at least not to tie up traffic. I've had kids not notice when a horse came up behind them, clicking steel shoes on cement. I've seen horses, being careful of the kids, trying to get them to move out of the way. Some kids don't notice a horse breathing down their neck, literally. (To a horse, breathing down your neck is a polite hello. A nudge with the nose from behind is a demand for attention comparable to yelling at someone. People who still don't get it will usually be shouldered aside if the horse really wants to get through.)
How will these kids ever survive a bad neighborhood or heavy traffic? Will they need a heads-up display with a tail warning system, like fighter aircraft?