The Opportunity Space: Augmented Reality

by Kim Gaskins
October 28, 2009

Contributing editors: Ian Schulte, Neela Sakaria.

Latitude pooled its collective intelligence and identified what we think are five emerging areas of opportunity for augmented reality:

  1. Social “Gaming”

    We like the idea of social scavenger hunts which involve “marking up” or accessing information that’s been “marked up” by individuals at physical locations; generally, explorations of physical surroundings through collaborative game tactics which serve as social discovery mechanisms–by which we mean, that are both socially gratifying and contextually tied to interactors’ specific physical locations.

  2. Learning

    3. People learn best contextually. Take a tour of a historical town through the simulated re-enactment of events that happened there, provided via mobile AR experiences; learn a foreign language by pointing your mobile device at 3-D objects relevant to your everyday surroundings, and receive the translation alongside phrases used in context.

    Or how about if your phone remembered which objects you cared to learn translations for, and offered you constantly refined, environmentally-relevant language learning resources? How about if your phone quizzed you about your knowledge later to reinforce what you’d learned?

  3. Local Businesses, Tourism, & Events

    4. Expanding the notion of what “information overlaid onto the physical world” means, what if you could project how an article of clothing would look on you without actually trying it on, via an “augmented polaroid”? (This would be the mobile wish-fulfillment of Alicia Silverstone’s futuristic outfit visualizer in 1995’s Clueless).

    Or consider the dilemma of where to dine on a little-explored street. Aim your phone at a restaurant and receive the full menu on your screen (in your own language, if you happen to be just visiting a foreign country). From the sidewalk, filter restaurant menus based upon pre-specified preferences: “Show me only vegetarian options.” “Nothing with peanuts or shellfish, please.” “Options under $10 only.” “Just items specified as healthy; I’m dieting.”

  4. Civic Engagement

    5. Make civic engagement information available locationally, and render it two-way accessible. iPhone apps like CitySourced, which allow individuals to report civic issues related to graffiti, sanitation, roads, and more, directly to relevant local officials, are stellar foundations for the next iteration of mobile (i.e. AR).

    Additionally, the next generation could provide a “download” mechanism for users to see more information relevant to where they are (i.e. criminal reports, zoning regulations, energy usage, etc.), and the ability to”mark up” their present surroundings, rather than sending information off solely to a remote aggregator. More engagement, anyone?

  5. Personal Communications

    6. We think it’d be nice to email, tweet, Tumble, Posterous-ize, Facebook, etc.–in other words, share, from a singular point of origin–a hyperlink or a piece of visual media supplied by the rich AR environment around you.

    Sharing remote environments is nothing new. AR adds an enriched later of information onto one’s physical environment, and ease of accessibility; ease of sharing (whether one-to-one, or one-to-many) should follow naturally from this commixture.

Header image courtesy of mr_mt_02’s flickr, (cc) some rights reserved.

19 Tweets

  1. Marshall Kirkpatrick says:
    October 28, 2009 at 4:43 pm

    Nothing about medical or technical implementations?

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    • Kim Gaskins says:
      November 3, 2009 at 6:32 pm

      Marshall,

      Thanks kindly for stopping by.

      As far as AR goes, I see some intersection in the opportunity space for medical—-primarily surgical for the purposes of this relationship—-and technical industries. (Together, let’s call these “mechanical.”)

      Basically, AR would allow “mechanical” professionals to overlay a blueprint onto their field of view while they work-—be it x-rays onto a body, or electrical schematics onto a vehicle—-and, if appropriate, to view step-by-step instructions about how to accomplish the task at hand as well.

      For example:

      “New augmented reality goggles are helping Marine mechanics perform maintenance on vehicles in about half the usual time. The futuristic headgear displays precise instructions on top of real-world settings, and shows how to complete certain tasks, such as wiring up an ignition coil.

      Similar augmented reality (AR) devices have already helped astronauts carry out repairs on the International Space Station, and could aid civilians tinkering with their BMWs in the home garage…” (http://bit.ly/3PuLnl)

      Essentially, it seems that “mechanical” professions, where time and accuracy are of the essence—-could benefit very tangibly from AR technologies.

      I think a more “everyday,” user-centered application of AR in this space would deal with access to health information:

      Some of the most compelling opportunities seem to arise when AR technology (improved access to information) converges with personal filtering (a device that “knows me”).

      I could shop for new OTC medications and have my AR-enabled device not only display general drug facts, but highlight ones relevant to me-—alerting of interactions with other medications I take, etc. Maybe if it nixed a product I selected, it’d then recommend a product that I could use in its place?

      If I were food shopping, AR could also tell me if a new food meets my dietary preferences (and make recommendations besides). I suppose it could even be used to help individuals who take a number of different medications ensure that they are, in fact, taking the correct pills at any given time.

      A bit less oriented to AR, but interesting nonetheless—-there was a nice podcast on mobile computing [NPR] last week which touched on health & medical implications (largely from the user’s perspective) that will likely arise when sensors become more fully integrated with mobile devices. (It’s near the end of the discussion: http://bit.ly/5B4bZ.)

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  2. Revolución Tecnológica!! | Cómo evoluciona la comunicación says:
    October 29, 2009 at 1:30 am

    [...] the opportunity space augmented reality 16 key augmented reality business models Tags: [...]

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