Augmented reality

Augmented Reality refers to the concept of merging media (3D graphics, pictures, video and sounds) directly into the world around viewers, using a range of technologies including see-through head-worn displays, video-mixed camera phones, spatialised sound and video projectors.

From the artifacts in a historic home to the people sharing a game around a kitchen table, the place and people are what give the experience meaning.

Augmented Reality brings the internet – and more – into the physical world. But the question remains, how to create experiences that are compelling and address real human need.

Making medical data readily available, providing virtual instruction manuals for your car, or advanced situational awareness technology to troops in the field, the potential for Augmented Reality to change what we know – and how we find it out – is vast.

Argon is an open source mobile augmented reality browser that will allow any one capable of programming a web page or a mobile app to develop augmented reality content to be viewed on smart phones. It is set to be a significant facilitator in the bid to realize the potential of Augmented Reality.

Author:

Blair MacIntyre has been conducting Augmented Reality research since 1991, with the goal of understanding its potential as a medium for games, entertainment, education and work.

He joined Georgia Tech in 1999, and founded the Augmented Environments Lab, whose research focuses on the design and implementation of interactive mixed-reality and augmented-reality environments. His current focus is educational, entertainment and gaming applications of augmented and mixed reality environments, with particular interested in creating enabling technologies to enable experimentation with personal displays. His most recent project, the Argon Augmented Reality Web Browser, is aimed at making AR accessible to millions of web developers around the world.

Blair has research support from a wide range of mobile technology and content companies including Alcatel-Lucent, Qualcomm, Motorola, Turner Broadcasting, AT&T, NVidia, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Texas Instruments.

He has served on the editorial boards of The International Journal of Human-Computer Studies and the journal Virtual Reality. He also served as the guest editor of a Mixed Reality special issue of IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

MacIntyre is the co-founder of Aura Interactive LLC, an Augmented Reality Game Design and Consultancy firm. He received a doctorate from Columbia University in 1998.

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