What’s Augmented Reality?

By Kees Winkel on 31 October 2011

In daily educational humbug, we’re almost halfway with our Mobile Business Design ‘minor’ (a free-of-choice-half-year-course to enhance the bachelor level). And while the students did their first written exam in this context, it struck me that we are talking a lot about locative or Location Based Services but not a lot more about Augmented Reality.
Sure, three of the five teams use Layer or likewise as a technological solution to their heavyweight assignments. But nobody uses the word Augmented Reality anymore. That’s strange. So, in retrospect, what is Augmented Reality?

According to Wikipedia(1), Augmented Reality (AR) is “a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one”

Portalés, Lerma, Navarr (2009) describe AR “as a relatively new technology that is based on mixing computer generated stimuli (visual, sound or haptic) and real ones, keeping a spatial relationship between synthetic and physical data and allowing user interaction in real time, as described in Azuma (1997) (2)”. Furthermore the authors state that AR provides
• Seamless interaction between real and virtual environment
• The ability to enhance reality
• The presence of spatial cues for face-to-face and remote collaboration
• Support of a tangible interface metaphor for object manipulation.
• The ability to transition smoothly between reality and virtual-
• The ability to transition smoothly between reality and virtual-
• The ability to transition smoothly between reality and virtuality

Now, let us see what some our students think Augmented Reality is(3).
• AR can be described as the changed reality. Think of Layar. An extra layer is added (read reality) to the world, seen through a mobile phone.
• AR is the creation of an extra dimension, using a mobile phone with a screen.
• AR is the addition of image and/or user experience by means of digital shapes, sound and/or image to real surroundings.
• AR is the adaptation of reality by means of modern technology.
• AR is added reality by means of smartphione.

Okay. Fair enough. Not all definitions are of the same quality. Still, the idea is clear; by adding something to something – in this case extra digital information of some sort to a reflection of reality i.e. what you view on a screen of a (digital) device – we create a new reality. The question is whether this new – augmented (as in enlarged) – reality can only be created through digital devices. What about this ‘augmented’ reality, a shot taken from a train window? The window has added information which, I know it is disputable – creates a new enlarged reality. Isn’t it? 

Footnotes:

1-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality, visited 27 October 2011, 3.30P

2-Cristina Portalés, José Luis Lerma, Santiago Navarr (2009). Augmented reality and photogrammetry: A synergy to visualize physical and virtual city environment. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensin (http://www.sciencedirect.com.www.dbproxy.hu.nl/science?_ob=MiamiImageURL&_cid=271826&_user=2849566&_pii=S0924271609001208&_check=y&_origin=search&_zone=rslt_list_item&_coverDate=2010-01-31&wchp=dGLzVlS-zSkzS&md5=aabce609b1e2abae785316954b3a0a01/1-s2.0-S0924271609001208-main.pdf)

3-The exam was taken on 24 October 2011 in Utrecht.For obvious reasons I will not mention any names. The exam was in Dutch, I translated the writings of our ‘young colleagues.

tagged with: reality, ar, augmented reality

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