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!

Technology on the move in 2012

2012 will see technology continue to become more mobile, whilst web and social media will integrate further into our lives and the devices around us.

Increased processing power for smartphones and tablets will see mobile devices moving closer to fully-fledged computers and super lightweight and portable laptops will make computers more mobile.  Cloud storage and sevice-based software will continue to grow, making less reliance on local storage, and allowing content to be easily shared and viewed across multiple devices.  Social media platforms will be introducing more apps to broaden their experiences and engage us for longer, and ‘clickstreaming’ will allow users to constantly log their activities, creating a seamless web narrative, while web and social media platforms will be spilling over into smart TVs and the upcoming next generation consoles.

SocialMedia

Predicitions are that social media adoption will begin to slow and level out in 2012.  The buzz word for social media in 2012 is “engagement”.  Instead of harvesting more users, social media platforms will be looking for new ways to keep their users interested for longer, with platforms like Spotify and Twitter introducing apps to broaden their service.  Meanwhile, Facebook will extend it’s reach to more rich media such as newspapers and video channels, with the aim of keeping people on the site for more of their web-browsing time.

Nokia Windows Phone

Microsoft have had little success so far with Windows Phone.  Perhaps this is because the Microsoft brand association is not particularly sexy.  But we like Windows Phone, with it’s colourful box menu, reminiscent of the Xbox live interface, it’s a refreshing change from the iPhone-style rows of icons.  Having joined forces with Nokia, many are predicting that 2012 will be an important year for Windows Phone.

 Ultrabooks

Netbooks received a lot of criticism when they were introduced due to the heavy sacrifices made to performance, memory and screen-size in order to make them portable and affordable.  Whilst sounding good in theory, for many, this was not an acceptable trade-off, a point that Steve Jobs emphasised when he announced the first iPad.

Intel has put a huge amount of effort into developing a laptop which retains portability as the focus, but without the sacrifice in performance, coining the term ‘Ultrabook’.  Intel are not alone in this category, with other PC makers producing thin lightweight models.  Apple clearly see that the future of computing is in portability and mobility, with their entry level range of Macbooks being replaced with the Macbook Air, arguably the first ‘Ultrabook’.

Storage

One of the key space-saving measures for these devices is the removal of the optical drive.  This comes as the industry continues to move towards digital distribution.  Digital stores such as Steam, Xbox Live, PSN, the Apple AppStore will become more dominant for software distribution, and Microsoft will release their own app store with Windows 8.  Cloud storage and services, and streaming media will also take the burden away from local storage.

iPad 3

Many competitors have jumped into the tablet market, notably Samsung and Amazon, bringing some choice and variety to the category.  But Apple still remain ahead by some distance, the iPad being the most desired.  The iPad3 will be announced this year.  Apple are fairly good at guarding the secrets of their products before they are released, but some of the most popular speculations include a higher resolution ‘retina’ display, possibly that runs right to the edge of the device (ie, there is no border around the edge of the screen), more powerful processor and greater graphics capabilities.

 Augmented Reality

Faster processors, graphics capabilities and better cameras in smartphones means that we can expect to see even more exciting augmented reality apps on mobile devices.  As more developers are being attracted to the technology, we will start to see more exciting and practical applications, such as virtually trying on clothes or makeup.  Here at Scribble,  we love to hear about new AR developments, and we can’t wait to try them outfor ourselves!

2012 is going to be an exciting year of Scribble, as web and social media evolve and spread onto more devices and platforms and as digital technology becomes increasingly mobile…. watch this space!

Augmented reality is going to play an increasingly important role in mobile technology into the future.  Our mobile, web and social media are becoming more integrated every day, with every piece of internet content bearing the obligatory line-up of ‘connect’ and ‘share’ icons along the bottom.  Even this approach to connecting services is likely to change.  Facebook is leading the way, absorbing many more content and services so that users access third party content without leaving the site – creating a seamless experience.  In the same way, augmented reality promises to integrate our mobile devices with the world around us.

Combined with location services, augmented reality is an attractive technology that promises the potential to enrich mobile maps and directory services with information relevant to our immediate surroundings:  simply point your phone at the theatre building to find out what plays are on, see on-screen directions to find your way to the nearest oriental restaurant, or point at a bus stop sign to find out when the next bus is coming.

 Just as social network integration enriches our web experiences by connecting them with our friends or social contacts, augmented reality will integrate our mobile devices with our locations and physical surroundings, making experiences more relevant, engaging and real.

The technology is still new, however, and it will be some time before the technology becomes settled enough to provide a set of standards and become seamlessly integrated into our phone’s camera and map apps.  In the meantime, developers are hard at work innovating with new features and exciting applications.

Augmented reality games using a device’s camera are popular, particularly with marketers looking to create an engaging experience connected with their brand.  Recently at Scribble, we have received a number of briefs showing interest in another area: location-based augmented reality apps.  There are already some great examples of this; marketers have started using this technology to incentivise users to ‘check-in’ to a particular location, rewarding customers for attending specific events, for example.  A popular concept that we have received inquiries about from clients is the AR ‘Treasure Hunt’: this involves hiding virtual ‘treasures’ that users have to find using their phones, and can take place on any scale, over an entire city, or around a building or venue.  New applications are emerging that can trigger events or gameplay features based on the user’s location, or incorporate real-world locations into the gameplay experience.

Being a new technology, there are some good and some bad examples of augmented reality in action.  So why not try some out yourself?  To make this process a bit easier for you, we’ve tried and selected a few great examples that we feel really show the potential of augmented reality:

Shadow Cities, created in Finland, is a game that combines augmented reality and geo-location to create a unique gaming experience.  The game turns the player’s local area map into a game ‘board’.  Players move around the area, battling for control of territories, casting spells by making gestures on the phone’s screen.  This innovative approach exploits new technologies whilst harking back to childhood playground games.  Shadow Cities has become a popular title in Finland and has recently launched in the USA and Europe.  The game is a MMORPG, an online multiplayer game, and as such requires quite a commitment to get anything out of it.  The real meat comes from forming teams with other players.  But the concept of battling it out for control of real-world locations is great.  It’s worth checking out just to see what an imaginative use of the technology this is, and a glimpse of things to come.

MyTown takes a great spin on the concept of town-building by letting you choose real businesses in your area to add to your town.  It’s a simple concept that adds a unique level of personalisation to the game.

Star Walk is not only a wonderful idea, but is amazingly well executed.  Point your phone at the sky (or even at the ground), and you will see a representation of what stars and constellations you should see in that direction.  It’s great for learning about stars and constellations, but it goes much further.  The whole picture is zoom-able to an amazing extent, like Google Earth for the stars, and each and every star in the sky can be tapped to show extra information or will take you to an online encyclopaedia.

I would expect to see something like Layar built into our mobile devices in a few years’ time.  Layar helps you to find points of interest in your local area.  Locations are sorted into ‘layers’, which anyone can create, and you can select at will.  You can point your device at points of interest to show more information, or get Layar to give you directions.  Layars layers are user generated, and sorted by local relevance, which allows for some interesting content.  Firing it up in the Scribble office allows me to view a guide to nearby street-art in Brighton, nice!

Augmented reality is a technology that allows information or graphics to be superimposed onto the real world in real-time, usually via a digital camera, webcam, or smartphone.  The concept has been around for years, being popularized by films like Terminator and Robocop, where we see the world through the robot’s eyes – with overlays of information appearing over people and objects in the world. Since Augmented Reality requires a mobile or wearable computer, applications have been restricted to specialized fields, such as aircraft construction or aircraft head-up-displays.  The recent rise in the computing power of mobile phones and tablet computers, however, has brought augmented reality technology into the mainstream.  The addition of accelerometers and geo-location in smartphones and tablets, too, has made augmented reality viable for mobile devices.

Here at Scribble, we have developed solutions that use augmented reality to engage audiences and link in with social networks.  The use of geo-location and 3D content is a great way to bring content out into the real world and then link back to web or social media platforms, for example virtual ‘treasure hunts’ or location based games.

Many of the current examples of 3D augmented reality involve the use of a ‘marker’ onto which 3D content is superimposed.  This is usually an easily recognizable logo or symbol in printed form.  The software searches the image to find the marker, and then calculates the orientation of the marker relative to the screen to show the 3D graphics at the appropriate angle.  Whilst this approach can be fun and engaging for promotional material, it does not really embody the spirit of the technology; holding custom markers up to a camera is not a good representation of ‘reality’.  Used cleverly, though, this kind of 2D image tracking can have very effective results, such as Intel’s recent ‘Digital Box’ augmented reality demonstration, allowing users to see what Lego products would look like when constructed simply by holding the box up to the camera.

Augmented reality technology depends on the device being able to understand the environment, and recognize and track objects.  This  is a tricky task, and one that requires heavy processing power, which is why applications so far have often resorted to tracking pre-determined markers.  New technology and increased processing power will bring new possibilities.

The limitations mean that many applications are gimmicks, and as a result only technology-savvy people really know what augmented reality is.  However, there are already some great examples of how augmented reality can help us to visualize how things will look in the real world, and these set a tantalising precedent of what possibilities lay ahead.  IBM’s ‘Virtual Mirror’ technology allows users to preview how different styles of makeup will look in real time and Silhouette’s iMirror app for iPad and iPhone allows users to virtually ‘try-on’ different kinds of eyewear . Augmented reality also offers exciting possibilities for visualizing spaces in different ways; imagine being able to preview how different brands of furniture would look in your living room – this is already possible with Bosch 3D Studio, an iPad App that allows you to design your kitchen before purchasing.

Increased processing power and improved image processing techniques will greatly improve the capabilities of augmented reality applications.  Face recognition is already built in to some PC applications, such as Apple’s iPhoto: real-time face recognition could enable all your friends to appear as life-size 3D avatars – take this a step further and we could have Kintect-style full body tracking or motion capture in handheld devices!  Big players are involved, rumours are circulating about Apple integrating augmented reality into the maps app, and Microsoft are demoing their own ‘Augmented Vision’ technology.  At Scribble, we will continue to work on exciting new applications for the technology as it evolves.  Augmented reality is yet to find the ‘killer app’ that will truly announce the arrival of this technology to the mainstream, but technological improvements and many companies investing into development mean that our worlds will soon be digitally augmented.

I’m sure you all will have come across or at least heard about Augemented Reality (AR) over the last year.  If not, Augmented Reality, popularised recently by mobile devices adds layers of graphics, sound and information over the natural world.  For today’s blog post we thought we would have a look at some of the best examples of Augmented Reality we have seen and speculate at where it could be heading over the next year.

First up, AR games. A product called AR Sports which will be used on tickets for the Rugby World Cup 2011.  Point your phone at the AR tag on your ticket and the app will fire up a game which lays a virtual rugby pitch over the ticket on users’ phone screens. Players can then pick a country and are challenged to ‘kick’ goal conversions using their smartphone interface, with points contributing to the country’s leader board score. A nice way to keep you entertained before the match and during half time.

We feel the use of Augmented Reality with physical products has the most benefits for consumers at this time.  High resolution scans of products can then be accurately recreated in to a 3D model and viewed using an AR tag.  This can then be put on websites, packaging and in stores. A clever use of this is the ‘Lego Digital Box’ where you can see how the Lego model will look when finished in full animated 3D.

So this is what is going on now.  What will we be doing with Augmented Reality in a few years time? It looks like it won’t be limited to phones and computers but incorporated in to more and more devices furthering the link between the physical and digital.

Augmented Reality windscreens and passenger windows will offer information and entertainment on car journeys, linking the car to its surroundings.

AR contact lenses are most definitely the coolest idea we have seen. Imagine walking down the street with information flickering up about your surroundings, Terminator style.

So we hope this blog post has got your juices flowing with some of the possibilities of Augmented Reality.  Scribble offer a variety of Augmented Reality and 3D scanning services.  For more info follow the link or get in touch!