The augmented reality revolution has arrived

IN A BLAZE of buzz and expectation, Google’s new Android smart phone, the Nexus One, arrived last month. Hailed as a potential iPhone and Blackberry killer, the Nexus comes complete with a five-megapixel camera, an assisted global positioning system (AGPS) receiver and a digital compass. In fact, all the elements it needs for augmented reality.

Mobile phones are already being treated like hand-held computers and the development of augmented reality has the potential to advance the device’s capabilities even further.  Using your phone’s AGPS, AR applications allows you to view your surroundings through your phone’s camera, while overlaying the real-time picture with digital information from various companies.

The term ‘augmented reality’ is credited to Tom Caudell, a researcher at aircraft manufacturer Boeing. He created the phrase in 1990 while developing a head-mounted display instrument to guide workers through connecting wires on an aircraft. Now the term is used to define anything that combines the virtual and physical worlds.

If it sounds like something from the 1992 film Lawnmower Man, it’s not. That was virtual reality – which rode a wave of popularity in the 1990s – where whole virtual worlds were created. We have that with us today in Second Life. AR is about layering reality with as much digital information as possible.

Plenty of AR apps already exist for smart phones – you may already have one downloaded and you don’t even realise. For example; Le Bar Guide , sponsored by Stella Artois, is an AR app that allows you find the nearest pub. At the moment, it’s primarily for the US, but expect to see versions developed for the UK very soon. Worksnug. another application for the iPhone, shows London workers the nearest place to plug in their laptop and get free wifi. If you ever lose your car in a supermarket car park there’s an AR app for that too, called Car finder. Just point the phone at the rows of cars and, using the camera option, the app will locate it for you.

Layar and Accrossair are augmented reality browsers for Android handsets and the iPhone. These browsers layer many different types of information into one place – including local houses for sale, tweets posted from within a building, and the nearest hotel, complete with room prices and availability. It is up to the user to filter what information they do or do not want to show up when using the application.

As a rule, any online information that has been geo-tagged with its location will show up in AR applications. You may already see geo-tagging as an option when uploading pictures to Flickr or updating an entry in Wikipedia. The Nexus One will automatically geo-tag all pictures to show where they were taken.

And of course, AR can be used for social media, too. Applications like TwittAround (above) will display any nearby twitterers and their latest posts. It could become the new way of crowdsourcing online. In the future we could also see software that recognises faces through your camera phone, rather than only locations. The person’s image could then by layered with their Facebook profile, their latest tweets, their LinkedIn information and any recent blogs they’ve posted.

In the next five years, the market for augmented reality for mobile phones is forecast to reach over £400million, according to figures from Juniper Research. AR browsers are already being used frequently in places like Amsterdam and with plans to develop more software for the UK, US and Germany, 2010 could be AR’s year. In the future, AR features are likely to be fully loaded onto phones, rather than users having to download the applications.

When Apple unveiled its new iPad recently, it was touted as a breakthrough device. But the version launched by Steve Jobs in San Francisco lacked a camera, therefore eliminating the possibility of AR apps for this latest creation, a disappointment for AR fans. However, rumours of a camera accessory have already begun and the iPad does come witt a built-in compass and GPS, the basis of AR applications.

But what is the point of AR? Smart phone applications are becoming more consumer friendly and the opportunity to ‘mash-up’ all the information about your surroundings into one place is an appealing prospect – particularly if you are a tourist in an unfamiliar location. There’s also the issue of sponsorship – Le Bar Guide, as mentioned above – is sponsored by Stella Artois, a lucrative deal for the company, given that the cost of developing a smart phone application can reach tens of thousands of pounds (although a computer game for the Playstation or Xbox would costtens of millions).

For AR applications to become successful, a smartphone needs outstanding GPS and a very long battery life.  It could throw up some interesting privacy issues, too. Would you want everyone to be able to see your tweets just by pointing a phone at your home – particularly if you have just tweeted that you’re going on holiday for two weeks and your home will be empty?

It is also unclear yet whether AR users would be happy to walk around cities holding their phones in front of their faces, looking through their phone at the virtual world, instead of using their eyes to take in the real one. A headset and visor – which displays information and acts as teleprompter – could be the more practical way to view augmented reality in the future. Vizux is one company already developing these, with a version especially made for the iPhone. Expect its product to be launched in the Spring of this year, priced at around £500. There is even talk of launching digital contact lenses.

It all sounds a little like something that the Terminator came equipped with. So hands up – how many of you saw the film and thought: “I could do with something like that”. Your chance may come sooner than you think.