“Augmented reality” may sound like indecipherable technobabble, but the concept behind this technology is familiar to anyone who has seen any of the “Terminator” movies.
In the sci-fi films, a cyborg is able to scan its surrounding area and superimpose data on what it sees, allowing it to get background information on humans. Now, after years of use in academic and industrial circles — not to mention science fiction — augmented reality is coming to consumers, who can expect to see it in their everyday lives in 2010.
The technology overlays computer data on the real world when viewed through a live video feed. Consumers can see the early results of mainstream augmented reality in entertainment, interactive shopping experiences, magazines and even mobile phone applications. As a promotion for the movie “Coraline” earlier this year, pedestrians who stopped in front of special window displays saw their reflections with their eyes transformed into buttons.
But this year was a “real tipping point” for augmented reality, said Greg Davis, general manager for North America at Total Immersion. “We’ve seen it proliferate onto multiple screens, computers and mobile screens, in home and out of home.”
Earlier this year, Total Immersion created baseball trading cards for Topps Co. that, when held in front of a Web camera, make a three-dimensional avatar of the player appear on the screen. It also designed product tie-ins for the film “Avatar” for McDonald’s and Mattel, with technology embedded in Big Mac packages and action figures that makes animated 3-D landscapes and characters come to life when scanned by a Web camera.
These consumer-oriented applications are possible because Web cameras are a standard feature of most new desktop and laptop computers. The software in the applications also works with current Web browsers and does not require a cumbersome download.
The next wave of new programs…
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