Augmented Reality (or) Computer Generated Reality

Are you the one who amazed when you have watched the alien warship dashboard in films ? Are you the one who asked yourself “is it possible in real time ?” when arnold was scanning environment as he was walking, in the Terminator sequel. Some of you might not be, but i am really longing to develop like these ?. Imagine, how would it be interacting with web without computer and you  just sees the data in virtual screen ?. Yes we can make it possible all of these  using  Augmented reality (AR).

What does it mean ?

It superimpose graphics, audio and other sensory enhancements over real world environment in real time and allows to interact with three dimensional computer generated graphics.It blurs the line between what is real and what computer program gives you to feel, smell and hear which is actually not real. In short, it combines the physical world and three dimensional virtual world.

Where was it started-off ?

It is originated from virtual reality also known as user’s physical reality. Its an virtual environment that is generated by program and rendered to the user in such a way that the user ignores belief and accepts it as a real environment. VR  is primarily experienced through two of the five senses: sight and sound.

At first augmented reality applications found his way in to mobile platform especially IPhone and Android OS based mobiles. One of the applications is Layar, which examines the real world environment,  process it and projects the relevant information in computer generated graphics. The other worth mentioning application is Wikitude which retrieves the information from Wikipedia.

Later MIT Media Lab came with brilliant device named sixth sense which processes the image, gathers GPS coordinates and pulls data from the Internet and then projecting information onto the surface in front of the user.

Where would it go from here ?

Now augmented reality is getting adopted in all the possible areas ranging from gaming to military devices all around the globe. It will surely redefine all the gadgets so far invented, in the way it looks and works. Because it provides rich user interface by adding colors and effects and make the users to experience reality and also the computer generated graphics (sorry!!! computer generated reality) is less expensive with current technology so it would not find any barrier in its way.

I hope, few years down the line we don’t need multiple gadgets to make our life easier, all in one would become reality with the help of augmented reality. Thank you for reading this post.