It has been slow but I am getting more and more convinced that AR can do far more than what we think it can. Part of my pessimism was due to the fact that this is placed on the
Peak of Inflated expectations on the Gartner Hype cycle and was predicted to go to the trough. But in the end
success depends of what the available apps are like.
Part of my optimism stems from the fact that things have been changing rapidly. Take for example the '
Augmented Future' video. When I watched it I thought this would happen but maybe quite a few years down the road. Then came the '
Project Glass' video and suddenly you are thinking from 'how it would be done' to 'when will this be available'. The
latest news I read was that the prototypes are being tested Google's offices.
I am sure the first few releases would be far from perfect and will have few features, security issues, etc. but we certainly think its possible. I
dont know its working but it could be actually synched with a device in your pocket and is just an add on that communicates via something like Bluetooth.
In a recent event, Intel showed off their new Ultrabook features using Augmented Reality. See the video:
And there is another video of BBC frozen planet where people can put themselves with the Augmented creatures. See below:
These just go to show what can be done via Augmented reality. With more and more powerful devices that are available to us at reasonable prices, all that needs to be done is to create Apps and they will find the users trying to make most out of them.
I have already posted some videos and presentations from an event back in March that talk more about the apps and the platforms
here.
The idea of 1 Billion AR users is not mine but has been used by Tomi Ahonen in a recent TEDx presentation and his blog post. The TEDx video as follows:
You can read more about Tomi's idea on Aurmented Reality in his blog post
here.
