Augmented Reality, the class of technologies that overlay data on top a user’s view of the real world, is a very hot field right now. Mobile AR apps, like Layar and Wikitude are getting the most attention, but there are other ways Augmented Reality can be implemented beyond the mobile phone.
Nokia released a video today that demonstrates how Augmented Reality could be served up using glasses and other fashion accessories. In the video embedded below you’ll see a woman surf the web and post rudimentary IM replies all using her eyeballs. It’s a cool video, but it does raise one big question about AR: how can AR apps best add value to the physical world around us? This Nokia video is eye catching, but it doesn’t answer that question.
From the video’s description on YouTube:
This concept allows to you to experience immersion and effortless navigation in an Augmented Reality environment. New types of interactions involving near-to-eye displays, gaze direction tracking, 3D audio, 3D video, gesture and touch. Through these new types of social linkages people will be connected in innovative ways between the physical and digital worlds.
It’s hands-free and weightless compared to a tablet, no small screen problem as you have on a mobile phone – but is it truly useful? Unlike most other AR apps we’ve seen lately, where the physical world is referenced by the AR – the two seem unrelated here. It takes all kinds, though, and who’s to say how AR will be used?
(Also, isn’t this music a little creepy? It sounds bittersweet about the inevitable and yet slightly frightening future.)
None the less, we’d love to get our hands on a prototype of this technology to test it – just as soon as it becomes real.
Thanks to Rouli Nir for tweeting about this.
