Augmented Reality and the Future

Augmented Reality is a technology which can be hard to explain. Imagine if a computer games graphics were projected into the real world. AR is, basically, this idea brought to life.

AR has a range of useful applications, as well as being something you can use purely for entertainment. Informative graphics and writing can be layered over the real world, and viewed with a smartphone or a pair of specially designed glasses. Audio can coincide with the graphics you see.

MIT Media Lab's SixthSense is an example of Augmented Reality technology. It incorporates a small projector, camera, smartphone, and mirror in a necklace style piece of equipment, as well as coloured caps which the user wears on their fingertips. By using the mirror and camera to view and examine the surrounding environment, transferring that data to the smartphone which processes it and obtains GPS coordinates, and then using the projector to project information onto the surface in front of the user, SixthSense can make a watch appear on your arm, a phone number pad appear on your hand, or something else entirely.

Using the fingercaps, the user can physically manipulate the projected infromation, like a mouse is used to interact with a web browser, or how a user interacts with a touch screen smartphone.

In day to day life, SixthSense could be a handy piece of technology. If you were to pick up a can of soup in a supermarket, SixthSense could find and project information such as nutritional value, allergy / suitability information, and reviews onto the can.

Although this isn't an example of AR as it is today, this "reverse AR" is a good example of how the technology could look in the future.