Here at Scribble, we love augmented reality.  Augmented reality is being marked by many as a key area to watch in 2012, and with more and more exciting examples of the technology are coming onto the market each day, we cannot disagree.  So we thought it would be a good idea to take stock of things that are going on in the field.

There are a number of different categories that augmented reality apps so far fall into, we take a look at a few which promise exciting things in the coming year…

3D Augmented Reality Games

These games allow the user to use their device to look around and shoot or interact with 3D objects superimposed onto the real world via the device’s camera.  The systems in these games are pretty simple in terms of the broad vision of augmented reality, they do little to interpret the world around us, the simulated 3D objects thus do not interact or correspond to objects in the real world, but the direction the device is facing is tracked, giving the impression that objects are floating in 3D space around the user.  Despite the simplicity, however, there have been a huge number of games released, not just on smartphones, but handheld consoles such as the Nintentdo 3DS and forthcoming Playstation VITA (check out this amazing video where the user places multiple cards onto the table to build a virtual football stadium!!).  In the future, augmented reality games will be able to interpet the 3D space around us, such as in Ball Invasion, a game that employs technology created by NASA!  This is still a simple demonstration, but it shows what exciting possibilities lie ahead.

Image Comprehension

This concept is at the core of augmented reality: the ability of the software to comprehend what it is looking at and then perform some relevant task.  Image interpretation is one of the big challenges in computing, but we are beginning to see some tantalising prospects of what this could bring us.  SREngine is an app that uses image recognition to identify objects and scenes – the demo shows the app recognising an office building and items on a menu.  WordLens is another innovative concept, this time using augmented reality to perform translation: point your device at some text on a sign or product packaging, and WordLens will replace the text in the image with it’s translation into French or Spanish right before your eyes!  TAT Augmented ID uses facial recognition to create a visual tag-cloud of a person’s interests floating around their head.

GeoLocation

This is likely to become the most widespread use of augmented reality: hold up your phone camera to view information about your surroundings.  Big players are moving into this field – Layar is growing in popularity and Microsoft’s Bing are invested in the technology.  Now LG is including an Wikitude, an augmented reality browser, on the LG Optimus.  Adoption by handset makers is a significant step on the path towards augmented reality becoming an integral part of the technology we use.  It may still be a long way off, but companies such as Google and Nokia are already looking at ways that indoor environments could be mapped to allow the same kind of navigational tools that we now take for granted with services such as Google Maps.

Many of these technologies are still in their infancy.  But improvements technology and infrastructure will help bring augmented reality to fruition.  There are countless startups coming out with innovative new uses and examples of the technology, and we will see more of this as the technology matures.  The presence of major players and the first signs of widespread adoption from handset manufacturers is a clear indicator that the technology will be able to move forward and fulfil many of these exciting promises…. hopefully some of them in 2012!