Business Tech Buzz — Best Augmented Reality Android Apps For Immersive... How Augmented Reality Works | HowStuffWorks Video games have been entertaining us for nearly 30 years, ever since Pong was introduced to arcades in the early 1970s. Computer graphics have become much more sophisticated since then, and game graphics are pushing the barriers of photorealism. Now, researchers and engineers are pulling graphics out of your television screen or computer display and integrating them into real-world environments. On the spectrum between virtual reality, which creates immersive, computer-generated environments, and the real world, augmented reality is closer to the real world. Augmented reality is changing the way we view the world -- or at least the way its users see the world. In this article, we'll take a look at where augmented reality is now and where it may be headed soon.
Is Pokemon Go Finally Making Augmented Reality Mainstream? Until Pokemon Go became a viral phenomenon by amassing more than 100 million downloads in a few weeks, augmented reality was confined to tech types and sci-fi fiends. However, thanks to the game, many have now tried AR for the first time, as kids and adults alike roam through town catching digital monsters superimposed on a physical world. "I put this up there with the first time you saw the iPhone, the first time you saw the connectivity and relationship definition of Facebook," said Michael Koziol, president of Huge's office in Atlanta. Pokemon wasn't the first company to try AR—Yelp, Macy's and Starbucks were early adopters, to mixed results—it just ended up being the breakthrough effort. Given its success, naturally other brands and agencies are scrambling to figure out how they might try it. This week, Porsche is unveiling a new augmented reality experience with a five-page, gatefold ad in Outside magazine featuring a photo of the Swiss Alps.
What is augmented reality (AR)? - Definition from WhatIs.com Augmented reality is the integration of digital information with the user's environment in real time. Unlike virtual reality, which creates a totally artificial environment, augmented reality uses the existing environment and overlays new information on top of it. Boeing researcher Thomas Caudell coined the term augmented reality in 1990, to describe how the head-mounted displays that electricians used when assembling complicated wiring harnesses worked. One of the first commercial applications of AR technology was the yellow "first down" line that began appearing in televised football games sometime in 1998. Today, Google glass and heads-up displays in car windshields are perhaps the most well-known consumer AR products, but the technology is used in many industries including healthcare, public safety, gas and oil, tourism and marketing. Learn how augmented reality is being used by phlebotomists:
What is Augmented Reality? Augmented reality is using technology to superimpose information on the world we see. For example, images and sounds are superimposed over what the user sees and hears. Picture the "Minority Report" or "Iron Man" style of interactivity. This is rather different from virtual reality. Virtual reality means computer-generated environments for you to interact with, and being immersed in. Augmented reality (also known as AR), adds to the reality you would ordinarily see rather than replacing it. Augmented reality is often presented as a kind of futuristic technology, but it's been around in some form for years, if your definition is loose. In the last several years various labs and companies have tried to build devices that give us augmented reality. Google rolled out Google Glass in 2013, moving augmented reality to a more wearable interface, in this case glasses. As it happens, phones and tablets might be the way augmented reality gets into most people's lives, at least at first.
5 Top Augmented Reality Apps for Education The concept of augmented reality has been in existence for a few years now despite the fact that many users of mobile devices are under the impression that it is a new phenomenon. New technologies such as Google’s augmented reality glasses which are the first computing eyewear are still in the testing phase. This leads mobile device users to believe augmented reality is new on the horizon. Pin it Even though Google Glasses have yet to be officially released, there are hundreds of augmented reality apps that you can get for your smartphone which work just as well. 1. This is an augmented reality app which makes learning about astronomy interesting and fun. Simply hold your smartphone up in the direction of the sky to receive automatic identification of stars and constellations. Google Sky Map is a free augmented reality app and works with Android 1.6 and higher. Download Google Sky Map (Android) 2. Recently released by PBS KIDS, FETCH! FETCH! Download FETCH! 3. Download GeoGoggle (Android)
Augmented reality NASA X38 display showing video map overlays including runways and obstacles during flight test in 2000. Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. Technology[edit] Hardware[edit] Hardware components for augmented reality are: processor, display, sensors and input devices. Display[edit] Various technologies are used in Augmented Reality rendering including optical projection systems, monitors, hand held devices, and display systems worn on one's person. Head-mounted[edit] Eyeglasses[edit] AR displays can be rendered on devices resembling eyeglasses. HUD[edit] In January 2015, Microsoft introduced HoloLens, which is an independent smartglasses unit.
The next big thing in tech: Augmented reality SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Reality isn't what is used to be. With increasingly powerful technologies, the human universe is being reimagined way beyond Google Glass' photo-tapping and info cards floating in space above your eye. The future is fashionable eyewear, contact lenses or even bionic eyes with immersive 3D displays, conjuring up a digital layer to "augment" reality, enabling entire new classes of applications and user experiences. Like most technologies that eventually reach a mass market, augmented reality, or AR, has been gestating in university labs, as well as small companies focused on gaming and vertical applications, for nearly half a century. Emerging products like Google Glass and Oculus Rift's 3D virtual reality headset for immersive gaming are drawing attention to what could now be termed the "wearable revolution," but they barely scratch the surface of what's to come. But now augmented reality is about to break out into free space. Atheer, a Mountain View, Calif.
Baidu Releases Augmented Reality Platform -- Will It Be China's AR Leader? As China’s largest search engine Baidu BIDU +6.34% searches for its next source of growth, the company is gaining an upper hand over domestic rivals in developing one futuristic technology: augmented reality. Despite augmented reality, or AR, taking the world by storm this summer with the smash hit mobile game Pokémon GO, the technology hasn’t gained much traction in China. Instead of experimenting with superimposing virtual items onto the real world, Chinese companies are focusing on making low-cost virtual reality headsets suited for gaming or movie watching, analysts say. “AR is far, far more complicated and expensive than VR,” says Zhang Weining, a professor who teaches a class on the internet of things at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing. Baidu, however, introduced what may be China’s first serious application of AR on Wednesday. Baidu launched on Wednesday its VR platform DuSee. The new function is first being put to use by Baidu’s advertising clients.
Augmented eReality (AR) AR is changing the “what’s possible” for content creators, application and IoT solution developers to create dynamic user experiences. PTC offers Vuforia, the industry's most advanced and widely adopted augmented reality technology platform. Vuforia is used by hundreds of thousands of developers across the globe and unlocks unlimited possibilities for enabling new ways to experience digital content in our physical world. PTC recently unveiled ThingWorx Studio - an AR offering for the Industrial Enterprise. ThingWorx Studio is a game-changing technology that enables enterprises to quickly and easily create AR experiences without requiring any deep programming or expertise in AR. Apply for access to try this innovative technology through the ThingWorx Studio Trial. ABI Research White Paper The Power of IoT Platforms for Building AR Applications Read the White Paper