Media Power is a New York City–based firm that develops mobile communications applications. Media Power is part of a vanguard of organizations that is working to commercialize augmented-reality (AR) technology, which can be characterized as the timely overlay of useful virtual information onto the real world. AR incorporates three key features: virtual information that is tightly registered, or aligned, with the real world; the ability to deliver information and interactivity in real time; and seamless mixing of real-world and virtual information. When explaining AR technology, it often invokes the virtual first-down marker seen as a yellow stripe in televised football games. The technical challenge of AR is to do something similar but more complex with the live video feed from a cell phone camera and without the 10-second delay required to generate the virtual marker.
Although AR has mostly lived in the lab, the recent emergence of highly capable mobile devices is fueling a surge in interest. Players look at cards through a camera and watch animated versions of the game characters on the cards fight one another. The ability is based on identifying real-world objects and estimating their locations in space. AR-like technology is also finding its way into industrial manufacturing. InterSense, offers process-verification systems that use sensors and cameras to track the positions and motions of tools as workers do their jobs. Computers then compare the actual tool movements with ideal procedures to detect errors or confirm correct completion, information that is then provided graphically to the workers in real time. Media Power will also be introducing cell phone–enabled museum exhibit tours based on the same technology, as well as the means by which consumers can trigger delivery of targeted advertising by directing camera phones at brand logos.
More information:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=digitally-augmented-reality
More information:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=digitally-augmented-reality