Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
This stuff on any platform is barely in its infancy. Devices and apps will be leapfrogging each other continually. Sit back and watch the show.
I don't think you understand the underlying issues here. The problem this demo implementation being choppy has little to do with the implementation of AR but rather the underlying implementation of graphics on the Adroid platform and the lack of a rich framework for graphics like what the iPhone SDK provides.
 
I'd love to see Google come out with an equivalent, or just buy Layar and develop it from there.

People who "don't get" what Augmented Reality will eventually be capable of are technologically blind.

This is very profound stuff.

Frankly, it represents nothing less than the merging of the Internet, and the "Real World". Someday people will wonder how we ever got by on our own senses, when we didn't have 500-bajillion layers of data intermeshed with everyone else most moments of the day.

Imagine being able to look at people, buildings, objects, retail items, places, plants, anything you can think of, and essentially knowing everything about it immediately. This is where we are heading, and it's only probably 10 years or so away.

Brace yourselves. And read the novel Rainbows End to get a better sense of what this will likely end up looking like.

yeah man, totally. displaying 3d text above a video is so profound. i mean, how did we live without this before? i just cant find these restaurants and stores and stuff without a jittery 3d sign displayed above it on my phone screen. looking at the sign on the building is just too complicated. i mean yelp is so profoundly better now. before, it was impossible to see which restaurant had which reviews and stuff when just in a list, i need that info overlayed on my camera to be able to even begin to comprehend the wealth of data that yelp gives me.
 
I don't think you understand the underlying issues here. The problem this demo implementation being choppy has little to do with the implementation of AR but rather the underlying implementation of graphics on the Adroid platform and the lack of a rich framework for graphics like what the iPhone SDK provides.

You mean like OpenGL ES 2.0 ? Both offer the same thing.
 
Yet another useless reply.. If you don't have a need for something, then simply just don't use it. It is not like this is a poll asking if this is useful to you... :rolleyes:

Sure, I won't. Enjoy tripping over a pothole while you look through your iPhone while standing in front of a McDonald's, just so you can see the sign on your phone.
 
It's funny how unimaginative many users are here. Well, I guess this is why there are always people who create the future (and profit from it), and those who simply consume. :p

This has nothing to do with text floating above a store stating the store's name, that is what is called a "technology demo" -- but whatever, no use explaining how revolutionary technologies are developed to people in middle school or whatnot.
 
Sure, I won't. Enjoy tripping over a pothole while you look through your iPhone while standing in front of a McDonald's, just so you can see the sign on your phone.

You (and many folks) are thinking about this all wrong.

Any AR app on a mobile phone is proof of concept;with the eventuality being overlays on contact lenses or glasses, that wirelessly get their info from your mobile device.

Having active content directly on your FOV without having to hold a device up would revolutionize advertising, directions, social networking, and countless other fields.
 
yeah man, totally. displaying 3d text above a video is so profound. i mean, how did we live without this before? i just cant find these restaurants and stores and stuff without a jittery 3d sign displayed above it on my phone screen. looking at the sign on the building is just too complicated. i mean yelp is so profoundly better now. before, it was impossible to see which restaurant had which reviews and stuff when just in a list, i need that info overlayed on my camera to be able to even begin to comprehend the wealth of data that yelp gives me.

Are we so stupid and tech hungry that we are going to look at a device to see what's in front of us. No, the majority of us will not.

We should be so tech hungry. That's how things get developed. That's how future imagination becomes present reality. That's how Apple, the Macintosh, the Mac OS, the iPod and the iPhone came to be. Are we so stupid that we dismiss innovation? I hope not, and fortunately developers behind technologies such as this prove that a few of us are not.

I can't believe that some of you even appreciate technology with responses like these. It's sad to read these comments, especially on a technology site that focuses on a company that's known for innovation.

ATM, this isn't about seeing what's in front of us. It's about augmenting what's not in front of us, but could be useful to the individual viewer if it were. As Nicky G posted, this represents literally merging the network with the physical world.

General, displaying jittery 3D text is not the end game. In order to get there, however, we need to first go through the jittery 3D text, followed by the jittery 3D graphics, followed by jittery 3D animations. As location based hardware and sensors improve, the jitters will decrease and the end result will be infinite personalized virtual worlds overlaid upon our real world. I hope you can learn to appreciate the roots of what's to come.
 
Short sighted minds

Its wild to think so many really are clueless that once not that lone ago the same stuff was been said about so many things.

Lets see:

Video conferencing, who needs that when we have phones, or coffee shops.

Ram why do we need more than 64K, please plenty.

24 inch monitor who needs that, 15 inch is plenty.

News on internet, why do we need that we have newspapers, what you can't take the time to go get one.

The list goes on and on.
Once this technology is working smoothly, you could be say a block from a anything you can think off, but rather than trying to think dam where is that McD you pup up the display and it shows you where to go and when you get there.

Now some people will say but I have gps, oh that brings me to another why do we need it, what you can't read a dam map.

I for one welcome one day a nice secure haha chip in my head, sweet. With this stuff built into it.
 
I think that's called Paintball. ;)

Yep- Pretty much, without the ball or the paint.

With 3D graphics superimposed on actual locations, objects, or people the phones screen would let users see them blow up up enemies. And by adding a geocaching type feature discover powerups at predesignated locations. I could imagine a user creating a map over an urban area and assigning powerups from common objects, like a fire hydrant or a menu at Starbucks. A powerup might give the player a shield which the opposing player would see through the screen on their device or a missile launcher which would convey the proper effect when fired.

In any case, as much as augmented reality has focused on mapping and marketing there are other applications that could make use of this technology as well. And as with the PC, gaming would be a high profile way to drive this technology.
 
I'm amazed how short sighted and unimaginative people are while at the same time being on a website about a company that once had a slogan 'Think Different'.

I've long thought that Apple had left its Think Different behind and wondered where the problem occurred. Maybe it's not a problem with Apple, but it's customers. In order to gain more customers they had to quit thinking different and just think normal (or frequently in their case 'oh shiny').
 
I think gaming will be much more fun in the future. Imagine some kind of glasses that's transparent with overlay, connected to similar sensors for direction / location etc, and perhaps also some system to interprete where objects and walls are in your environment.

Chasing bad guys around your house, "platform games" where you jump over obstacles, avoid monsters etc, but it's really YOU jumping around in your back yard. Or perhaps "live roleplaying" in the woods but you see actual 30ft+ dragons and other creatures roaming around the trees.

Just give the technology some time to mature and this might very well become something awesome.
 
This would be an awesome tool for tourists.

Being able to layer over foreign signs without the need of some large, bulky paper tourist book would be great.

Looking forward to the advances.
 
I can't wait until this makes it to the iPhone. It will be great to use while traveling around the world. Seems fun.
 
We already have such a thing. It's called Wikipedia. And I have the option of seeking out the info instead of having it bombard my senses. Sure, augmented reality could have some really cool bonuses, but have you ever stopped to think what advertisers will do with this technology? If augmented reality really becomes the norm - as you predict - then my whole life will look like a bad mySpace page with ads all around me. :(
P-Worm
Yikes. That certainly SOUNDS horrible, although I can't imagine why any logical person would want to use a product that turns the world into a myspace page.

No... this is simply natural evolution. It is the "visual search". Instead of typing anything into the computer/mobile device... all you need to do is look THROUGH you're mobile device instead. Want to know one of the cooler applications? Well, I was house hunting yesterday... walking around... and using the Zillow application. I found it remarkeable that it's updated software let's me walk around and track my movement walking down the street, while it brings up housing prices all around me. The one irksome bit, was having to tap on each house market in an effort to find out which number it was... then staring at the houses to read the numbers on the doors.

How much easier won't it be, when we can simply look through our devices, and see floating house prices (and whether each house is for sale, or accepting offers), as you are looking at the property... or glancing to the next one... or the one over there? Honestly, I'm just happy where things are NOW, but adding AR to property searching? Simply genius.

Last night it was a bit dark and making out house numbers would have been so much easier if I was using mapping software that literally told me the housing numbers with a floating 3-D number.

Another thing Augmented Reality does... is it EXPANDS the screen realestate, by using a virtual canvas. For instance, Google requires you to "tap" on a pin in "Google Maps". But, if you are moving the camera view around, you can afford to have all the data from a specific location immediately visible. So, for instance, instead of looking for businesses nearby to get the phone number of the company located directly in front of you... just look at the building through AR, and you'll see the number you can TAP and immediately call. This is especially useful if you're a passenger in a car, stopped at a light, and you want to order take-out from a restaurant you're passing. Just look at it through the view finder. No typing required. Tap the number, and you're calling someone without even typing or speaking your desire. Doesn't get better than that.

--At least not until they stick a chip in your head (which probably isn't a lot of fun).

~ CB
 
I actually used Yelp's AR to find something a couple weeks ago. I was in Washington DC, and my boyfriend and I were walking to the metro station. We knew it was close, but weren't sure exactly which direction to go to get there. I just opened up Yelp, went to the AR, and just panned around until I saw L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station.

It took all of 10 seconds to do. I didn't have to search for "L'Enfant Plaza Metro" or download a Metro map, which probably wouldn't have helped anyway. It's not for looking at the name of the place you can already see right in front of you. It's for getting information you don't have, whether it be the direction to a place without having to search by name, or get extra information about something, like house prices and phone numbers as Cleverboy mentioned.

I saw something from TED a while ago, where someone wore a tiny camera and projector, connected to their cell phone, which had internet access. It was augmented reality without needing to hold a phone in front of you. Of course it won't work well for things far away, but it's a start, and they show many neat applications for it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XufEPvIcyAw
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.