Augmented reality

This week we had a cover lesson. We learnt about a new application for smartphones, which once it had reacted with a 'scanner' on newspaper, the images would come to life right before your eyes on your mobile phone. This is called 'augmented reality'.
Augmented reality is a type of virtual reality that somewhat duplicates the worlds environment in a computer. Or in this case, it duplicates the newspaper and creates a virtual scene that is generated by the computer. It is designed to enhance the users sensory perception of the virtual world of which they are reacting with.

Augmented reality is currently being used for entertainment, military training, engineering design, robotics, manufacturing and multiple other industries.
So even if you haven't heard of it or used it, yet, it is definitely out there!

What augmented reality could look like

The mobile reacts with the icon and then automatically changed the 2D image into 3D, also including sound in order to really help portray the image.
I really believe that augmented reality is very likely to catch on. I also think that it could work extremely well in schools and colleges. It is extremely low cost to involve in school curriculums. All that needs to be done is the icon needs to be printed on paper in order for the app to scan it. The icon looks like this:

What your smart phone would scan

 Augmented reality apps could even work outside schools. Even just for fun. The app we looked at was sort of like a comic book coming to life and I think it could really sell well.

Augmented reality could work so well when it comes to journalism. Newspapers could print icons, like the one to the left, and it could bring the breaking news stories to life.
The apps are still in the early stages of being created and we were lucky to get a first look, so it is a long time before these icons will feature in newspapers, magazines and schools. However I do believe it will catch on one day in the future.



I previously wrote this post on the new 'Google glasses' that are set to be released in the near future. These glasses are somewhat like augmented reality, although I don't think the glasses will catch on quite as much!

Either way, augmented reality will be present in the future, I am sure of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/augmented-reality