'Layar' Shows Augmented Reality Possibilities on iPhone 3G S

[redkamel]

Stuff people are saying you can do....

a) "look at restauraunts and check the prices and menus, and the wait"
b) "look at the art show images!"
c) "Take a walking tour"
d) find an apartment
e) going apartment hunting

you can do with
a) actually walking there (since they are right in front of you) so you can see what the restaurant is like and what the food looks like, assuming you actually care
b) use a picture recognition app, or audiobook. A lot easier than staring at your phone and reading tiny text. Or...google the title?
c) take a walking tour. With a map.
d) you already have turn by turn directions. if you need more than that....
e) How often do people go apartment hunting? Once a year, tops?

Theres some things people need, and some they dont. This is stupid. This is useful for the military, construction workers, people doing planning, zoning. People are really excited about being able to "find an ATM" with their cellphone while standing in front of it? They cant ask people?

I like tech too, but this is basically useless IMO.

"Hey, I am going to look through my cellphone and scan the world to find something or some info."
"cool, Im just going to go there or google it"

 

[chrisesposito]

this is amazing. of course, it would require a great deal of work to make it practical (my first worry is that the GPS must be VERY accurate for this to work), but in theory, it's awesome.

GPS issues are second order difficulties; the most important issues have to do with orientation / compass data, since small angular inaccuracies when magnified by the distance to the target object can create serious device-to-world registration problems. It can be done; Steve Feiner at Columbia had an outdoor system that worked probably fifteen years ago. If memory serves (and it may not, as it's been a *long* time) there are something like 18 or 21 degrees of freedom that have to be accounted for in order for an image in the world to accurately line up with an overlaid image in a head-mounted display. I haven't worked through the DOF problem for a handheld display. It's a much easier problem in some ways indoors, although harder in others. My R&D group at Boeing had A/R systems running up in one of our airplane factories in the early to mid 1990s, using them to help construct wire bundles and wire harnesses that would go in aircraft. What's easier is that you can more easily instrument the environment by doing things like putting up fiducial markers on either the user or in the work space, and cameras or other sensors on the other.

 

[Cleverboy]

Theres some things people need, and some they dont. This is stupid. This is useful for the military, construction workers, people doing planning, zoning. People are really excited about being able to "find an ATM" with their cellphone while standing in front of it? They cant ask people?

I like tech too, but this is basically useless IMO.

I don't think I'm the slightest bit fanciful in saying that you're clearly no visionary. You apparently see things how they ARE, with no concept of how a new mode of interface could help you. That said, I agree with your basic premise that sometimes people get "silly" with how relevant they think some esoteric new technologies will be. This ISN'T one of those. This is literally the future. Augmented reality is as significant a milestone as Google's "voice control" features in the Google app for iPhone. I just wish someone were actually capable of developing such a thing for supported APIs in the current iPhone OS SDK.

Here's where I see augmented reality going on future iPhone OS's:

Create Bluetooth enabled shades that make use of Apple's new accessory support, and features a lanyard allowing the iPhone/iPod Touch to hang from the user's chest. Augmented reality data will appear overlayed on top of user's normal vision. Mini-camera relays live data to the iPhone/iPod Touch.

The great part of this, is that the actual app, will send real-time overlays to the viewer from the Internet. Moreover, it can take voice command, display full-color images, and relay up to the minute information.

USER: (Walking in a park sight-seeing with a friend)
FRIEND: "Hey, I wonder how long that statue has been there?"
USER: (Pulls shades down and clicks button on shades, app is already running while phone is asleep in locked mode) "Hm. It says here that's the famous Balto statue by Fredric Roth erected in 1925."
FRIEND: "Oh yeah... Wasn't there a movie?"

USER: (Clicks button on shade again) "Cross-reference movie." (Releases button) "Yup. 1995, Amblin Entertainment. Aw, hey... it got good reviews, we should pick it up tonight, or at least Netflix it."

FRIEND: "Cool. Anything else worth seeing around here?"

USER: "Hm. It looks like the Tisch Children’s Zoo is just over that hill."

FRIEND: "Great. How much time do we..."

USER: "Also says its closing in 30 minutes."

FRIEND: "Hey, that's pretty handy! It says it closes at 5pm?"

USER: "No... it actually says 28 minutes, in bright red, under the name! I was kind of surprised." (Chuckles)

FRIEND: "Can you take a snapshot of Balto? I want to show that to Ellen when we get back. Here, let me stand next to it."

USER: "Perfect." (Holds button on shades) "Snapshot". (Releases button) "Ok I got it, let's head home. Hey, it looks like there's a Redbox at that McDonald's over there on 1st Ave, near the subway entrance. We can grab a quick flick before we hit the subway."

As long as the system contextualizes the information, and is "predictive", it helps get information to people MUCH faster than typing it in, and brings in answers quickly and conveniently with minimal effort from users.

~ CB

 

[belltree]

This is absolutely awesome and has me rethinking my plans not to get an iPhone . I fully expect we will be seeing "airvertising" soon enough with ads appearing in the air as we point our device and view through it.

 

[iphones4evry1]

As long as the system contextualizes the information, and is "predictive", it helps get information to people MUCH faster than typing it in, and brings in answers quickly and conveniently with minimal effort from users.

Smart people will no longer have an advantage! Jessica Simpson and the people on Jay Walking will know everything (because their phone will tell them the answers) But, hey, it will hopefully make society more efficient, as the iPhone is already doing.

I fully expect we will be seeing "airvertising" soon enough with ads appearing in the air as we point our device and view through it.

Remember the scene in Back To The Future when that signboard shark hologram pops out and comes toward him? It will be like that, except you will see it through your cell phone video screen. maybe.

 

[SBlue1]

You're absolutely right. The idea is dead in the water unless and until there are willing volunteers who will keep the database up to date and current.

Yeah, where the hell would you find people putting in data in a worldwide database.... oh, wait.... Isn't there wikipedia?

Just connect the two and you got something usefull.

I would imagine using this in a country where I can't read the signs, or when I need more background information. Like I point to an old bridge, and it tells me it was built by the romans 1800 years ago, link me to the wikipedia article and history-channel feed. That would be cool.

I think displaying the movie times when you are already there doesnt make any sense, but showing things you can't see and linking it with wikipedia, flickr or whatever would be great.

 

[Alchemist]

Le Sigh

I'm not even joking when I say that even as a complete geek, this scares me.

Terminator here we come. Soon someone will release a headband that allows the user to wear the phone 'hands-free' in front of their head to save them from having to lift their arm to 'augment' reality.

I like talking to people face to face sometimes... this is just creepy.

Cool technology for some applications - like the battlefield - but I really hope every Tom, Dick & Harry doesn't start wondering around constantly 'augmenting' reality.

Can you imagine one that augmented your sex life? Goodbye sex-ed...

 

[DELLsFan]

Very impressive. iPhone improvements just keep on coming!

 

[Babasyzygy]

You're absolutely right. The idea is dead in the water unless and until there are willing volunteers who will keep the database up to date and current. Enter the marketplace: those who currently own websites to entice their customers will jump on this like gangbusters. (Ref. the idea about pointing this thing at restaurants and theatres to find the menus or showtimes). Of course there's still a possibility that some info won't be current, but that's the case today with websites and even the Yellow Pages.

I'm kind of amazed that nobody here seems to be familiar with the existing up-to-date data that's maintained in Google Maps.

 

[Cleverboy]

I'm kind of amazed that nobody here seems to be familiar with the existing up-to-date data that's maintained in Google Maps.

If you've been reading the thread closely, you would break posters into roughly four different categories. #1. People who don't care if it's possible, because it's a stupid idea (as they see it). #2. People who thinks it's completely impractical to accomplish (because managing the world's information must be done entirely by human brain power). #3. People who think it's possible, but that the iPhone has substantial challenges for it to be implemented (that an OS like Android doesn't have). #4. People who misread this story, thinks it's already working on the iPhone and thinks the iPhone can pretty much do anything.

Category #2 has clearly NEVER used Google Earth in action on their iPhone, seen Google Wave, understood the basic premise behind Ajax, or even perhaps seems fully aware of the hard unrelenting challenges posed to modern search engines and the delicate science of indexing and contrxtualizing the entire Internet through automation.

~ CB

 

[MacGuffin]

Just flip through the directory of layers and find ATM's, bars, houses for sale


LOL. In most places, you'd need an iPhone glued over each eye to avoid seeing houses for sale.

 

[Cleverboy]

Just flip through the directory of layers and find ATM's, bars, houses for sale
LOL. In most places, you'd need an iPhone glued over each eye to avoid seeing houses for sale.

Well... its just nice to not ONLY see the "house for sale", but to ALSO see the price hovering over it, and basic stats and publicly available MLS information. Right now, I'm using Zillow and Trulia, and while the apps are great it'd be nice of them to know what I was looking at and simply tell me the deal with a single "update" button press. Imagine a "house hunter" app that could not only pin-point the house you were looking at, but display the Google Streetview, asking price, #beds/#baths, SQFT, lot size, heating, listing age, and using your presets, estimated mortgage... all be clicking an "update" button. When you get into specific needs, there's a lot that can be improved.

~ CB

 

[Shaan]

Layar is live on the App Store for download on the iPhone 3GS!