Augmented Reality

If you haven’t heard of it, or don’t understand what it is, “get the break down here”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Augmented_reality#Definition_of_augmented_reality. Or in simple terms, AR(Augmented Reality) is:

# Combine the virtual and the real
# are interactive in real time
# registered in 3D

A friend of mine, from back in my “SENet Web Design”:http://web.archive.org/web/20000302203139/www.senet.com.au/ days, has been into AR(Augmented Reality) for a long time and is currently lecturing at “UniSA”:http://www.cis.unisa.edu.au/. As part of his “Computer Science PHD thesis”:http://www.tinmith.net/wayne/thesis he developed a backpack-mounted AR(Augmented Reality) system which he demonstrated using a “ported version”:http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/arquake of “Quake source code”:http://www.idsoftware.com/business/techdownloads/. I thought that was impressive until I came across a new evolution of his AR(Augmented Reality) research, “a-rage”:http://www.a-rage.com, a prototype unit intended for the mass market. I thought _that_ was impressive until I my friend said:

bq. The A-Rage stuff is designed to be cheap and for the consumer market … We are working on a full blown military simulator right now. Super expensive backpack $40k, plus guns and explosions and stuff like that. That will totally blow everything away you’ve ever seen before.

Damned military! Always taking fun ideas and making them all serious, with stupid one-hit kills and no chance of doing “rocket-jumps”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_launcher_jump… But really the possibilities are endless for a commercial version! Imagine if you could make your girlfriend’s boobs appear larger, but only to you! How about during that big presentation when you try to imagine everyone naked so you’re not as nervous? No imagination required!

Bring on the future…