Before you read any future, if you do not understand the concept of Augmented Reality (AR), please watch this video by BMW because it will give you a quick picture in your head: YouTube link. The concept of AR is that with either glasses, a visor, a camera device, or eventually direct to our retina, we can look at anything and have the scene we are looking at enhanced with information driven from the Web, or any other data source. There are starting to be iPhone apps written that use AR to accomplish things like advertising, or scene enhancement for a computer aided tour of a location. Since AR is beginning to run up the hype cycle, I thought I would give you my top applications that I would like to see soon…

First, I need the facial recognition tie in so I can just look at an individual and have the AR system go out and check that face against all social media profiles and bring back all the profile information immediately. This would help solve the problem of me forgetting names, or of strangers knowing my name as I walk off the stage, and me not knowing theirs. Throw in an automatic search to show me anyone we might both know and I could actually network like some of my friends who seem to always be able to find someone they know in common with some new contact.

Next, I want the ability to have the GPS system just overlay a map on what I am looking at so instead of talking to me, the nice lady on the NeverLost could just point which way to go, and which sign I need to pay attention to. (Imagine seeing a sign on the interstate and it has a soft luminescence that tells you to take this exit.) Add a flashing icon at the top of my view that shows me the general direction of my destination so I can see if I am actually headed the right direction, and we are in business.

For the next need I have, let’s broaden AR to not only the visual, but also the auditory. I need the system to listen to every question someone asks me, or every statement they make and do a couple of things. If it is not in English, translate it on the fly. That would be really be handy in most cabs these days. Set that aside, imagine if someone asks me from the audience what I think of Google Wave, and a stream of data on Wave comes on the screen to aid me on the answer. How about if I had the ability to add my own rules based system that gave me preset warnings to remind me how to respond to certain phrases. I could then create a set of warnings so that if my wife asked me what I think about…. A preset would come up that would say “WARNING, Think carefully about this answer.”

Just for fun, my last AR application idea is back to the visual. I would like to have the ability to augment retail stores with all kinds of visuals that are specifically tied to my profile. For example, I could walk into a Walmart, and it would be decorated (virtually through visual augmentation” with a theme like a Colorado mountain scene. As I walked down the aisles, specials would flash when I looked at specific products. Health information could be turned on and would be color-coded so green would be products I really should buy, and red would be products that are outside my predefined health parameters. As I looked at the check out people, they would all look like healthy mountain hikers (to stay in theme) and best of all, the greeter would look like a park ranger – green outfit and all. Then on Tuesday, with a flick of an icon, I could change the whole Walmart scene into Italian flavored theme.

Don’t laugh, we are not that far away from making this happen, The concept of augmented reality is going to cause a dramatic shift in how we relate to the world, and once mainstream, will make the times we are living now seem like the dark ages.

Scott Klososky
Scott@klososky.com