Explaining augmented reality is a little complicated, but telling it in
simple words is like trying to join the real environment with a virtual
environment. Image a machine that let you see throw it virtual objects walking
in your room or taking life with the real stuff.
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| This is an example of how virtual objects looks like with augmented reality. |
There are a lot of applications for augmented reality; some of them are
in advertising, navigation, industrial, military and emergency services,
architecture, time, entertainment, education, commerce and more.
Also can be mentioned some potential applications as multi-screen
simulation, automotive, speech synthesis, public displays like traffic signs, Christmas
decorations, interactive dressing room mirrors and others.
For those technology people or related there is software that let you
make your own AR applications. Argon is an example of it; it’s a browser that
uses a mix of different programming languages to allow users to build their
applications. ARToolKit is an open source C-library that also let you work with
augmented reality, other examples are ArUco, Goblin XNA, GRATF and more.
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| This is an augmented reality example build by ARToolKit. |
There are two common electronic
devices used to visualize augmented reality, one is the head-mounted displays
known as HMD’s and the heads-up displays known as HUD’s. The first one are
glasses and the HUD’s are transparent screens with LED displays, both serving
the same purpose.
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| An example of the HDM glasses with microphones. |
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| An example of a HUD screen.
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Some known examples of augmented reality are all Terminator models,
beginning with T-800 series. In Iron Man an augmented reality system is used to
design a super-powered suit. In RoboCop he uses a head-mounted display to get
into details of a particular person.
Talking about videogames, this technology is very popular, new AR
devices like the PlayStation Eye, Kinect, Nintendo 3DS and some mobile devices
use cameras to augment computer graphics onto live footage.
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| This image shows a Kinect, a device that use AR. |
This new brand concept is a little complicated to understand at first time. But once you do, it's awsome, this not only can be applied for entertainment, for example civil engineers can make models with augmented reality, to evaluate the largest number of factors they need for a successful building. For NASA engineers, imagine all what they can achieve with this technology. I'm a big fan of videogames and this kind of technologies and I think that is a big brand where alot of engineers can apply.
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| A little aeronautic model with AR |
