It's reality, but not as we know it

It's almost 20 years since the term augmented reality was coined by a Boeing technician to describe the possibility of adding computer-generated information to real-life, real-time images. 

That's a long time in the world of computing and the concept has come a long way since. The original idea was for a head-mounted display that would help workers with wiring diagrams in aeroplane construction and involved a weighty headset and a body-mounted laptop.

But the idea took root and today augmented reality helps fighter pilots by projecting instrument readouts on to their windscreens so they don't have to look away to check readings.

Reality plusAugmented reality (AR), as opposed to virtual reality, adds computer information to images of the real world, rather than creating an alternative, artificial environment. It's already becoming common, almost without us noticing, and becoming increasingly sophisticated too.

Sports programmes on TV have been using it for years, with brand logos dropped on to the field or surrounding spaces on football, rugby and cricket pitches. Computer games such as those for the PlayStation 2’s EyeToy camera blended real-life images of the players with computer-generated game elements.

But the technology is evolving as it moves from incorporating static elements such as backgrounds and pre-programmed images to dynamic ones that change with your surroundings.

Augmenting Wimbledon

At the Wimbledon tennis tournament this year, clued-up users of Android smartphones such as the HTC Magic could download an application called IBM Seer. The app would display the latest match information and locations of refreshment stands overlaid on a live view when the phone’s camera was pointed at the courts. It could even identify which cafes had significant queues.

In Japan, Canon recently unveiled a museum-like “mixed reality experience”, which used personal augmented reality viewers to place 260 dinosaurs in a real exhibition space.

But there's much more that could be possible with augmented reality applications of the future. Various universities and research groups are working on personal AR devices, described by one researcher as “the Walkman of the 21st century, offering computer enhancements for the world we walk around in.

The ultimate goal of such devices is to provide a full AR display in something as unobtrusive as a pair of eyeglasses, or even, potentially, contact lenses. Design proposals are already in place for lenses capable of beaming information directly on to a wearer's retina.

If the required computing power can be incorporated into a mobile phone, we could be viewing augmented reality all the time, without it ever appearing obvious to others.

Facial recognition

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's “sixth sense” project has demonstrated a device that can identify people using facial recognition and thus provide additional information about them. The application is not yet at a commercial stage, but it may not be far away given the competition from others working along similar lines, particularly with mobile phones.

The Swedish technology company The Astonishing Tribe has developed an application that uses facial recognition to identify people, then searches for other photos of them on Flickr using their name tags. In the Netherlands, ING has created an app that can scan a street to identify where the cash machines are.

Military researchers, notably from the US Office of Naval Research, have been at work on a combined display and portable information system that can provide soldiers with real-time information about their surroundings, such as maps, building plans and enemy troop movements via a helmet-mounted display.

Gaming is another fertile ground for AR. All sorts of applications in development, such as W2Pi's Wi-Fi Army, in which players use their mobile phones to identify and photograph their opponents, identifying “hits” via facial recognition.

Enhancing shopping

AR is finding its way into shopping, too. Mobile phone applications that allow you to scan barcodes to compare prices already here, plus further plans to enable visual brand recognition that would allow you to simply point your phone's camera at the supermarket shelf to be offered relevant pricing, nutrition and other info.

Augmented reality is still in its infancy. For all the grand, sci-fi-like possibilities to have been touted, processing power and affordability have so far proved limiting factors, rather than human imagination.

As the technology to create and use it becomes more affordable and ubiquitous, we're likely to see a steady creeping of AR into our lives. The time might even come when reality that isn't augmented in some way could start to seem, well, not quite real enough.