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.