Augmented Realitly

During the 'where's the interface now lecture' I really enjoyed the part where we were talking about Augmented Reality. I have decided that this post is going to look at augmented reality in the form of applications which are available for download to your mobile phone.

So, what it augmented reality?

Well, in his book Spatial augmented reality: merging reality and virtual worlds, Oliver Bimber states that 'augmented reality means to integrate synthetic information into the real environment.'  So in simpler terms, augmented reality is bringing the fantasy into the real world, using some sort of technology for example a laptop or a Mobile phone.

I thought that looking at mobile phone applications would be quite a relevant topic to talk about as  ‘Global sales of smartphones increased by 50% during 2010’ states Danny Bluestone and therefore as more and more people are buying smartphones it is thought that applications are going to be the next big thing.

Application One

On Tuesday 16^th June 2009 mobile innovation company SPRX Mobile launched ‘Layar’ the world’s first augmented reality browser. It displays real time digital information on top of reality in the camera screen of a mobile phone. While looking through the camera lens, a user can see houses for sale, popular bars and shops, jobs, health care providers and ATMs. All you have to do to work this app is put in for example, a pizza restaurant, put in within X number of miles, hold you phone up in the direction that you wish to go and then as if by magic all the pizza restaurants within your set radius will appear on your screen within minutes. Danny Bluestone also describes this app in his blog ‘Locative Media’...

‘The Layar augmented reality app on the Android and the Iphone platforms utilises the latest location based technology to create its own interface: The Layer Reality Browser. It uses the phones camera, GPS and Gyroscope and overlays relevant layers (that you choose) on the phones screen. You can manipulate the interface to view the history of landmarks in real time, find users who are tweeting live in your area and find restaurants with an augmented reality life experience’

This is a link that will take you to a video which shows how the application actually works...

Application two

During my research I came across an app which I really liked the idea of. It was an augmented reality application that was locative based. This particular application was made for the 2009 Voodoo experience which took place in New Orleans over the Halloween weekend. The Voodoo experience is a popular music festival and the Voodoo experience augmented reality app was the first of its kind in America. It allowed the festival goer to use their phones, by pointing them at any stage, it would then display who was performing and a schedule of who else was going to be on, what time, and information about the artist. The app also allowed for the user to find out where they could get their favourite food or drink by simply moving the phone around the festival site. It also allowed for the user to find an ATM, the toilet and plan their escape strategy. The app was created to allow the user to spend less time getting lost and more time enjoying the music. Personally I think that they should do something like this for the festival goers in the UK.

Some people may think that augmented reality apps are not such a great thing and should we really be spending as much money as we do on trying to develop them. In answer to that question, I believe that such apps like the ones mentioned in this blog are going to get more and more popular as time goes on. They will soon be something that we use daily in order to go about our business and just like the mobile phone itself we may become reliant on them for finding out information or locations. ‘Brands and agencies can all leverage the huge opportunities of locative media. No matter what industry you are in, there is an app being developed or one that could be developed with location based technology to engage users in a new dimension.’ Soon they will be everywhere and I think it quite an exciting prospect.

Biliography

Books

Bimber O, 2005, Spatial augmented reality: merging real and virtual worlds Wellesley, A.K.Peters, Ltd. P.2

Web sources

Bluestone. D, 2010, BIMA Blog, Locative Media. Available at: http://blog.bima.co.uk/locative-media/ Last Accessed: 24/11/10
Matreen, 2010, Layar, 'Layar launches world's first Augmented Reality content store'. Available at: http://site.layar.com/company/blog/layar-launches-worlds-first-augmented-reality-content-store/. Last Accessed: 24/11/10

Images:

Layar App, Available at http://www.talkandroid.com/1264-layar-mobile-augmented-reality-app/. Last Accessed: 24/11/10

Voodoo festival app, Available at: http://www.mobilebehavior.com/2009/11/23/interview-zehnder-on-voodoo-augmented-reality-concert-experience/, Last Accessed: 24/11/10

Video

Layar Video, Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b64_16K2e08, Last Accessed: 24/11/10

Voodoo Experience, Available at: http://vimeo.com/6798742, Last Accessed: 24/11/10

The rise of Apple...

'Apple Inc. is one of the most influential companies in technology today, but it wasn't always that way. What started out as a one off hobby machine that a talented electronics wiz built for himself became the core of one of the largest and most successful companies of all time' (O'grady, 2009)

For years 'Microsoft Windows' was the number one for computers at home, in schools and at work but, over the past few years the 'Apple' brand has grown and grown. 'Apple has morphed imperceptibly from a small company that made cool computers, but enjoyed minuscule market share, into a global giant.' (O'Grady, 2009).

Apple now has a market cap of £140 billion, which means it is now bigger than 'Google' (£118 billion) and it is rapidly gaining on Microsoft whose market cap is around £170 billion

So where did it all start?

'Apple began in the Santa Clara Valley vicinity of California...when Stephen Gary Wozniak was introduced to Stephen Paul Jobs' (O'Grady, 2009). Wozniak liked to design computers and Jobs liked to build them.

In 1975 the 'Apple 1' was born. ' After the Apple 1 was complete Woz already had something better in mind' (O'Grady, 2009), he was always thinking of ways to improve his product, by using fewer chips and less expensive materials. They wanted to make them more powerful, faster and colourful, but since they were just a 'couple of entrepreneurial guys that didn't have the luxury of large staff or an R&D (Research and Development) budget, they had to preserve and struggle to keep it alive, but they had fun doing it'. It was their passion and commitment that has made 'Apple Inc.' what it is today.

Motherboard 'Apple 1'

Although window remains the dominant operating system, the amount of people turning to Mac's is on the rise and the rivalry between the two is bigger than ever. This is a blog I came across which talks in more detail about the rivalry between the two is bigger than ever Apple Vs Windows

Apple have been very clever with their branding and merchandising if their products. If something has the letter 'i' in front of it we automatically associate it with Apple, 'i-tunes, i-pod, ipad', etc. Apple has also been coined with being cool, fun and exciting. the i-pod adverts are eye catching, fun and colourful, all which are traits of the products themselves? The fun range of colours means that there is one to suit everyone.

When I come to think of it, I don't remember seeing any other MP3 player adverts of the TV. I think that it is fair to say that Apple rule the mp3 world with their i-pod range.I also think that in the future more and more people will turn to Mac's rather then Window's PCs. However, I think a big factor of Window's still being more popular than Mac's is the price. With Windows computers available from around £300, and Mac;s staring from around £850 it is no wonder Microsoft Windows still rule the computer world at this moment in time.

References


Books


O'Grady J, 2009. 'Apple Inc.', Greenwood Press, Westport P. 1, 7


Web


Arthur, C, 2010, 'Apple .thrilled' as quarterly profits jumps 70%', guardian.co.uk. 19th October, Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/oct/19/apple-profits-rise-ipad-mac, Lat Accessed:30/10/10


No named author, 2009, 'Great Corporate Rivalries in 2009'. Lifedividend.co.uk. 10th July, Available at: http://lifedividend.biz/2009/07/10/great-corporate-rivalries-in-2009/, Last Accessed: 30/10/10


No named author, 'Operating systems- History of operating systems-The rise of the Apple comptuer'. psexam.com. Available at: http://www.psexam.com/Notes-for-Computer-Science/operating-systems-history-of-operating-system-article/The-Rise-of-Apple-Computer.html, Last Accessed: 30/10/10


Images


Apple Logo

http://gawker.com/374234/apple-logo-makes-you-creative-really Last Accessed: 30/10/10


Motherboard

http://www.vintage.org/special/2003/apple-1/ Last Accessed: 30/10/10


Video

Nikzarea, 2006, 'I pod AD' Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlHUz99l-eo. Last Accessed: 30/10/10