After years in the making, Augmented Reality has finally reached the consumer markets worldwide. This new technology, Augmented Reality, integrates 3D objects into video that is digitally processed and “augmented” with the 3D components.
Welcome to Augmented Reality Apps, the source for discovering new and exciting applications of augmented reality.
What is Augmented Reality?
In 1990, Boeing researcher Tom Caudell first coined the term “augmented reality” to describe a digital display used by aircraft electricians that blended virtual graphics onto a physical reality. As for the computer science world’s definition of augmented reality (AR) though, it’s more detailed, but essentially the same: Augmented reality is the interaction of superimposed graphics, audio and other sense enhancements over a real-world environment that’s displayed in real-time.
AR is not a new concept either. In fact, we’ve seen it in many different ways over the years, but we just might not have noticed. From the yellow first-down lines sketched over a televised football game to the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit—or even examples as basic as where a projector’s been used to project images atop a real setting—all are examples of virtual graphics being superimposed upon a real-life situation.
So what’s with all the recent hype? Well, most AR researchers say there’s been hype for the idea of augmented reality since the 1930s. But most of its modern enthusiasm has been contained within the computing community. As for the sudden upsurge in public interest though, the mobile community has brought on this recent hype due to the increasing number of AR smartphone apps released this summer and following slew set to appear this fall. Here’s a neat video to show how Augmented Reality would work on a Smart Phone if you were looking for a house…say, by the beach, or in another area you really liked.