The open gardens of augmented reality

September 16th, 2009

Recently we posted about Layar – an augmented reality mobile screen, and I know that this is a topic that is going to transform marketing and communications and how in fact we interface with the world.

INTERFACE WITHOUT INTERFERENCE

Is a saying I have about communications design, experience and even economics. The augmented experience as I have explained before is simply the overlaying of information on other forms of information to create a more valuable, enabling experience.

Think about it like this, an ordnance survey map represents multiple layers of information, derived from various studies of an area. The map is valuable to me, as it enables me to navigate to various destinations or to take a number of critical decisions on my journey, whether by foot or otherwise. This is information is ‘augmented,’ and, its value is derived from the unique augmentation of that information. Traditional notions of what constitutes “value” are made redundant

So I came across the top 10 augmented mobile applications, which I thought were pretty interesting,

Here are a couple of my favourites

[1] Yelp’s Monocle is the first iPhone App with augmented reality. It takes a lot of Yelp’s database of information and data and overlays it onto the real world. Once activated on your iPhone, the appalication.

will pull up your phone’s camera which you can then direct at a street scene in front of you as you walk or drive. The overlay that pops up will then begin to show the names of restaurants and bars and provide you with reviews, store hours and all the other pertinent data Yelp has been known to provide its users.

[2] A recent example of augmented reality appeared in the marketing campaign for the sci-fi blockbuster District 9 released this past summer. On the movie’s official website there’s a “training simulator” game, which directs computer users to print a postcard containing the District 9 logo and hold it in front of a webcam.

[3] The augmented reality biz card also caught my eye

[4] The augmented reality created via a contact lens

And if that lot starts to whet your appetite why not stroll your mouse over to the Augmented Reality Consortium

ARC write

The AR Consortium is live. This is the beginning of something fantastic as pioneers and innovators work together to change the way we work, play, communicate, interact, and experience media. Augmented Reality has the potential to change everything about our daily lives, and we are dedicated to doing it right.

Robert Rice an augmented reality pioneer, and general all round lovely man, writes about his particular view of AR

I prefer open systems that are extensible and expandable, which also facilitate the development, creation, design, and deployment of content, applications, and so forth by other people. If you intelligently empower the end-user, you accelerate market penetration and user adoption.

I like the word empowerment – if you are empowered, what happens? You just might come back for more, Robert makes some observations,

Augmented Reality is not a destination.
- You go to a website, or you go to a virtual world, or you download content from somewhere else. AR is not somewhere you go to…it is everything around you, enhanced, augmented, intelligent, interactive, and dynamic.
Augmented Realityis not global, it is local.
- AR content in Times Square is irrelevant to AR content at the Eiffel Tower.
Augmented Reality is not 2D or 3D;
- AR content has other dimensions and axis…like time, context, and location. Simply taking a photograph or a 3D model and associating it with a GPS coordinate is not enough.
Augmented Reality is not an extension of the web;
- AR is something completely different. Thinking about it in the same way we think about the internet or web pages as far as methods, business models, and interface is a fundamentally wrong approach.
The consumer is not anonymous.
- On the internet, you can be anyone. AR, if implemented properly, is going to be accessed via a mobile device (in most cases), and each mobile device is going to have unique identifiers, and will be personal to the user (like your smart phone)
The consumer is not a credit card number.
- Due to some of the benefits of mobile as the 7th mass media, consumers can no longer be considered as just a credit card number and a shipping address. AR, if done right, will leverage the power of WHO you are, as well as the other things like WHERE you are, WHAT you are doing, WHO is nearby, etc.
The browser may be the wrong metaphor or model for AR.

I think it is worthwhile quoting Robert at length, as he makes some very important points. AR requires massive flows of data to travel through time and space like a river, or a waterfall or even tidal like the sea, as without this dynamic data flow, AR cannot exist. Dynamic flows of data are AR’s elixir. What we think as communication networks, tools and practices will evolve into something more powerful – more enabling. Indeed, a medium of communication is not merely a passive conduit for the transmission of information but rather an active force in creating new social patterns and new perceptual realities. AR will achieve this. And its funny because some people like to say well – humans never change – that’s why we don’t drown witches anymore right? On a more serious note, we touch on powerful issues about identity, and privacy – because to get more we have to give more away – how will that be managed? Anyway – to open, converged and connected.

Would you say the internet and the web are open, or restricted to walled/closed platforms? We only have a handful of browsers with any real market share (various versions notwithstanding), one gorilla search engine, three dominant operating systems, etc. The web is not as open as we think it is. We are at the mercy of ICANN for domains (how many millions of domains are wasted and useless because of cash parking?). Mobile phones are restricted to operator networks. E-commerce is ultimately controlled by credit card companies, gouging us on fees and interest. Apple is locked up tighter than (insert something funny here). Windows is bloated and expensive. Spam is so intrusive and overwhelming and has been for so long that we don’t even notice how bad it is anymore.

I think what I’m trying to say here is that everything changes with AR and we can’t assume the old methods and models that work for the internet, the web, or half a dozen other industries will work as well or even be passable for AR. I also don’t think that there will be one singular platform, one mobile device, one browser, etc.

The standards of the internet and the web today, including all of the communications protocols may not be the best solution for the ultimate mobile ubiquitous augmented reality. Square pegs do not always fit in round holes. Sure, some things like HTTP or KML will be useful early on as we experiment, iterate, and grow, but ultimately the inherent nature of the data, experience, and interaction we are talking about for AR will surpass these standards designed for a two dimensional old media link and page driven model.

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