What is augmented Reality and how might it be used?

Augmented reality is an active 3D environment that blends our physical world with the capability to link it with the virtual world. An example that I have read about is a thing called 'Superman Vision' and this is where a video game image is superimposed with a 3D model of the current environment and this is also capable to add hidden information accessible from sensors such as RFID.

Augmented reality can be as simple as as small image like this but as technology has progressed, more complex images have been developed and brought it today's world.

Journalism has now been linked to augmented reality and this is going to be really useful to them. When information is gathered, they have to right down where they obtained it from and possibly take a picture, but with this development, they are going to be able display where the information got picked up. this will be especially interesting for event reporting.


Augmented Reality system is based upon 3 main components which are the Head-Mounted Display, Tracking system and mobile computer for the hardware and the goal is to merge all 3 of these.


It is going to be applicable to many working and leisure environments such as Gaming and Entertainment, Education, Security and Defence, Medicine and also Business. The one I found most interesting was the Medicine Section because in surgery, surgeons may have the opportunity to better their sensory perception of their patients body during an operation. This is going to aid in reducing errors, more efficient surgical operations and to be less risky.




A current Application for the iPhone is something called Junaio and it is growing daily with interesting content relevant to your location or about images and objects your camera is pointing at. This can be your instant source of information about places, events, bargains or objects around you. This is going to helpful source of information for tourists visiting the area that they know nothing about or maybe even for residents that want to look for a shop or monument or event that they nothing about.


So as I have described, there are many current worldwide applications for augmented reality but there will be many more to add to today's current technological situation.

What is RFID and how is it used?

RFID stands for Radio-Frequency identification and it is use of an object that can be implemented into any item, product, animal or even a human. This can then be used for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves.

The main purpose of this technology is to track and technology allows us nowadays to create RFID Tags that are literally rice-sized. This makes them very easy to plant beneath skin or hide. The market is now embracing this technology and has been used for years.

The most common example example that RFID tags are used for that I know about is animal tags. Owners were reliant on tattooing their pets which would cause them pain and very hard to examine when wanting to know if it was your pet or not. But now vets are advertising the fact they can implant tags into their pets just beneath the skin which causes them very little pain as they are very small chips, they are also reasonably cheap. People are able to do this as seen below:

When recently watching a TV Programme called NCIS, I discovered that an example similar to this is that they use an Ultraviolet Fluorescent Powder that can also emit a radio frequency, which I found pretty cool.

They are now used all over the world and you can find websites online that will enable you to get hold of one with ease. There are many retailers that use this technology such as supermarkets and I have been told that they use them on trolleys and they are then able to track where they are, although it will be no use when it is at the bottom of a river.

Something I did in After Effects

Right, heres my first decent post on this blog. So basically I was asked by this guy on Youtube to make some sort of intro for him in Adobe After Effects... and this is what I come up with. This took me a couple of hours of concentration and im happy with the result I got. Let me know what you think :)

My first Prezi presentation

This was my very first task to complete for ICT. This involved creating a presentation on a new piece of Online software called Prezi.

The topic I was giving to write and talk about was Blogs. I found this very interesting to research as I did not have a clue about what a blog was.... Now I have just successfully completed my first blog quite easily using this website (Blogger) and logging in with my google account.

Blog attempt 2 on Prezi