If you start thinking of augmented reality, what will come to your mind first? Well, I don't know about you, but if you ask me, there is no doubt it's the car keys. Yes, car keys. Let me explain. This is one of those weird situations when you're approaching your car from a distance and vainly trying to unlock the door with your fancy wireless keys. You are simply too far away from the car. But if you put the keys next to your head and try again, your brain will do the magic. It will augment the poor thing and considerably enhance the wireless range, and the car will no longer be locked. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself. I don't remember exactly where I saw this, probably in those documentary shows like "Brainiac" or "Top Gear", but it works every time. The human body is a large conductor when it comes to radio waves, and it easily alters the field when it's close to a transmitter or receiver, but still, this is a very nice example of how your body can help you with technology in a way we don't usually apply it to.
So now we know how our brain can help us by augmenting technology, but can we do the other way around? Can we use technology to implant more sensory data or provide useful information to our brains in real time? With new technologies, the answer is definitely yes.
Augmented reality in its current stage of development is more or less just various software applications enhancing the smartphone camera by adding layers of information depending on the image and the data acquired by the phone's sensors, mostly the GPS receiver, compass, and gyroscope responsible for providing the exact location of your gadget and therefore you. But this is just the beginning of an era. The real goal is to reinvent personal computers, but this time with the literal meaning of the word 'personal'. To truly augment the reality, we need to wear a network of microcomputers so they would be with us everywhere we go, even during the night while we sleep. Half a century ago, when computers started to exist, the technology behind them required big rooms with acclimatized conditions for everything to work properly. Today miniaturization of the hardware has reached the stage where a super small smartphone is equal in processing power to a typical desktop home computer, and it is just a matter of time before the fashion industry will start deploying them as part of everyday clothing along with systems of automatically recharging batteries, various types of displaying the data, and real-time interactions with other "units" worn by others nearby you or networked on the net.
I am sure that further miniaturization will be able to provide real skin implants and, along with nanotechnology, monitoring of various health properties of ours. It would even be possible to carry small dosages of various drugs within dormant nano-robots ready to act as soon as some medical condition arises. The cure could be deployed directly to the infected area instead of the bloodstream. But we are not there yet, and even when we get there, implanting computers inside our bodies for purposes other than medical should be taken with care. It's all about privacy and control. If for some reason or if some event is requiring it, it should be able to turn it off at any time. Like mobile phones in theaters or restrictions on electronic gadgets in planes.
While wearing augmented computerizing glasses on your nose, quadruple CPU powered mainframe in your belt, one little augmented hairclip in your hair, along with fully augmented blue jeans could be fun and even educational in various occasions I am also worried about possible health issues caused by possible malfunctions or simple long-term usage. Let's face it, even a completely harmless headphone will give you a bad reddish ear effect after two hours of phone conversation. I would prefer the device to be turned on only when it is really needed. I remember one evening last summer, I was sitting on the balcony, and after one short glimpse by the corner of my left eye, I saw a very bright star on the west, just above the nearby building. It was a couple of hours after sunset, so I thought it was Venus, and just in a moment when I opened my mouth in order to call Viktor to show him how bright Venus is this evening, it suddenly became bigger and brighter. A moment after I realized it was moving directly toward my location, and shortly after it was directly above our house. Now I know it was the ISS flying over that night with a magnitude of -3.5 or so, but if I had a pair of augmented glasses at the time, they would probably have saved me from thinking of various UFO theories or some military malfunction of planes crashing above the mountains and other even more stupid conspiracy theories. The only thing I needed was a NASA augmented layer in my glasses of all satellite orbits overriding my laziness to stand up, go inside, get the laptop, turn it on, google for orbiting data, and satisfy my curiosity.
However, augmented reality is much more than just fun and education. It will have so many practical applications that we are simply not aware of all of them from this point in the continuum of time and space. If you check the above image of a car mechanic examining your car, nothing will stop you from wearing the same technology that would confirm the exact cause of your car malfunction. Also, the first serious "Babel fish", the small fish swimming in your auditory canal and translating all foreign languages, will not be inserted in your ear at all. I guess sci-fi writers failed big time on this; instead, it will be embedded into your contact lenses or augmented glasses, and we will be able to read messages from the translation layer. We can go so far in future applications that even a moderate plane traveler would be able to land the plane with a pair of glasses with all the procedures written in front of every single instrument in the cockpit.
Until all of this comes to our play box, enjoy good movies and shows presenting augmented reality in great fashion, like the recently started "Continuum" by showcase.ca. They created really cool augmented reality gadgets. Also, nice plausible vision of the future regarding corporations and democracy.
The main concern of the future full of gadgets and complicated devices made for everyday use is definitely how to keep all of our humanity and avoid living in one giant matrix game. That will be the real challenge.
Image ref:
Continental’s portfolio of diagnostic tools
Showcase's Continuum
http://continuumtheseries.com/
'Car Keys' phenomenon by Mr Bean
http://youtu.be/qsHnbfqxd8M
Augmented Reality - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality
Google Sky Map & Escapist Games Star Chart
http://www.google.com/mobile/skymap/
https://www.facebook.com/StarChart
So now we know how our brain can help us by augmenting technology, but can we do the other way around? Can we use technology to implant more sensory data or provide useful information to our brains in real time? With new technologies, the answer is definitely yes.
Augmented reality with contact lenses
Augmented reality in its current stage of development is more or less just various software applications enhancing the smartphone camera by adding layers of information depending on the image and the data acquired by the phone's sensors, mostly the GPS receiver, compass, and gyroscope responsible for providing the exact location of your gadget and therefore you. But this is just the beginning of an era. The real goal is to reinvent personal computers, but this time with the literal meaning of the word 'personal'. To truly augment the reality, we need to wear a network of microcomputers so they would be with us everywhere we go, even during the night while we sleep. Half a century ago, when computers started to exist, the technology behind them required big rooms with acclimatized conditions for everything to work properly. Today miniaturization of the hardware has reached the stage where a super small smartphone is equal in processing power to a typical desktop home computer, and it is just a matter of time before the fashion industry will start deploying them as part of everyday clothing along with systems of automatically recharging batteries, various types of displaying the data, and real-time interactions with other "units" worn by others nearby you or networked on the net.
I am sure that further miniaturization will be able to provide real skin implants and, along with nanotechnology, monitoring of various health properties of ours. It would even be possible to carry small dosages of various drugs within dormant nano-robots ready to act as soon as some medical condition arises. The cure could be deployed directly to the infected area instead of the bloodstream. But we are not there yet, and even when we get there, implanting computers inside our bodies for purposes other than medical should be taken with care. It's all about privacy and control. If for some reason or if some event is requiring it, it should be able to turn it off at any time. Like mobile phones in theaters or restrictions on electronic gadgets in planes.
Augmented reality, practical application
While wearing augmented computerizing glasses on your nose, quadruple CPU powered mainframe in your belt, one little augmented hairclip in your hair, along with fully augmented blue jeans could be fun and even educational in various occasions I am also worried about possible health issues caused by possible malfunctions or simple long-term usage. Let's face it, even a completely harmless headphone will give you a bad reddish ear effect after two hours of phone conversation. I would prefer the device to be turned on only when it is really needed. I remember one evening last summer, I was sitting on the balcony, and after one short glimpse by the corner of my left eye, I saw a very bright star on the west, just above the nearby building. It was a couple of hours after sunset, so I thought it was Venus, and just in a moment when I opened my mouth in order to call Viktor to show him how bright Venus is this evening, it suddenly became bigger and brighter. A moment after I realized it was moving directly toward my location, and shortly after it was directly above our house. Now I know it was the ISS flying over that night with a magnitude of -3.5 or so, but if I had a pair of augmented glasses at the time, they would probably have saved me from thinking of various UFO theories or some military malfunction of planes crashing above the mountains and other even more stupid conspiracy theories. The only thing I needed was a NASA augmented layer in my glasses of all satellite orbits overriding my laziness to stand up, go inside, get the laptop, turn it on, google for orbiting data, and satisfy my curiosity.
Augmented reality, star charts
However, augmented reality is much more than just fun and education. It will have so many practical applications that we are simply not aware of all of them from this point in the continuum of time and space. If you check the above image of a car mechanic examining your car, nothing will stop you from wearing the same technology that would confirm the exact cause of your car malfunction. Also, the first serious "Babel fish", the small fish swimming in your auditory canal and translating all foreign languages, will not be inserted in your ear at all. I guess sci-fi writers failed big time on this; instead, it will be embedded into your contact lenses or augmented glasses, and we will be able to read messages from the translation layer. We can go so far in future applications that even a moderate plane traveler would be able to land the plane with a pair of glasses with all the procedures written in front of every single instrument in the cockpit.
Until all of this comes to our play box, enjoy good movies and shows presenting augmented reality in great fashion, like the recently started "Continuum" by showcase.ca. They created really cool augmented reality gadgets. Also, nice plausible vision of the future regarding corporations and democracy.
The main concern of the future full of gadgets and complicated devices made for everyday use is definitely how to keep all of our humanity and avoid living in one giant matrix game. That will be the real challenge.
Image ref:
Continental’s portfolio of diagnostic tools
Showcase's Continuum
http://continuumtheseries.com/
'Car Keys' phenomenon by Mr Bean
http://youtu.be/qsHnbfqxd8M
Augmented Reality - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality
Google Sky Map & Escapist Games Star Chart
http://www.google.com/mobile/skymap/
https://www.facebook.com/StarChart