Augmented Reality and You

[124-C]

I'll start this off with a little introduction of just what augmented reality (AR) is. AR is overlaying digital or virtual information onto a real or physical space in real time. You can see simple examples of it in such things as sports. In American Football, they "paint" a yellow line on the monitor to show the audience at home where the first down line is. In hockey they'll use it to show a trail behind the puck, so it's easier to see the action.

Car GPS systems are also examples. But more impressive implementations include smart phones turned into travel guides. You point it at a scene and it loads information based on recognizable landmarks. And where this is eventually heading, in theory, is a heads up display like those seen in many video games, or, for those of you that have seen Watchmen, Night Owl's goggles. Basically, you interact with the device and the information that it provides, in a physical manner and in realtime.

Back in February of this year, a project was presented at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talks that dealt specifically with this sort of technology. Basically, a group at MIT has a working, though limited implementation of such a system. [Watch the presentation] The part that I really want to emphasize is the ability of the system to find a person's face and to pull up information about them. This can be seen more clearly in the CLOUD MIRROR project.

Is it okay to pull up information on a person in such a manner? And would you really want to, or would you rather learn about a person gradually?

More spoon feed:

• Do you want people to be able to freely access that kind of information?
  
• Do you/Are you going to limit the information you post online knowing that such a system could be possible in the near future?
  
• Have you ever seen Dennou Coil?
  
• How bad my grammar and typing are in this post...
  
• What cool implementations of AR have you seen?
  
• Socks.

 

[Erverain]

While it would be interesting, this sort of thing has just as many downsides as it has upsides. It all depends on how it used, as opposed to its actual design. Also, this reminds of the thing from Minority Report.
As for socks, nice woolen ones are the best.
(Edit: After watching the video, I see I'm not the only one who drew that conclusion...)  

[The Dinosaur Next Door]

[>{+:. Stephasaurus Rex .:+}<]


I agree with Erv, here. I think that this technology (like most) has the potential to be extremely helpful and advantageous if used properly. Which, as history indicates, is a big "if."
I don't know that I would like to be summed up by someone else on a data sheet. Perhaps the main issue is the privacy one - who would get this information? Who would have access, and what would they use it for?


[/>{+:. Stephasaurus Rex .:+}<]

 

[Sentama Lin]

It all depends on how the information was gathered. I'm the kind of person who has a lot of information out on the Internet describing me, but despite the lots of information I've posted, I was the one who chose to make the information public and noticeable to the world. If the technology was used to only display the information people have explicitly (and willfully with all awareness) allowed other people to see I don't see a problem.

However, there is a Minority Report type thing about this, especially when people are able to access information that they did not give permission to release. Hrm, I didn't really answer the questions did I?:

1. As long as the information being accessed is information that I posted and I was aware that people can search this I'm fine with it. I just won't release information I don't want people to see.
   
2. I'll probably just keep it the same, to be honest. I've never revealed information that I didn't want people to know (and if I ever needed to share information securely I'll have the tools to make that happen).
   
3. I have not seen Dennou Coli.
   
4. Your grammar didn't seem bad.
   
5. I like them; I find them comfy and nice.
   

Also, while I do have a lot of information up on the Internet I much prefer getting to know people face to face.