What’s Augmented Reality?

In daily educational humbug, we’re almost halfway with our Mobile Business Design ‘minor’ (a free-of-choice-half-year-course to enhance the bachelor level). And while the students did their first written exam in this context, it struck me that we are talking a lot about locative or Location Based Services but not a lot more about Augmented Reality.

Sure, three of the five teams use Layer or likewise as a technological solution to their heavyweight assignments. But nobody uses the word Augmented Reality anymore. That’s strange. So, in retrospect, what is Augmented Reality?

 

According to Wikipedia[1], Augmented Reality (AR) is “a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one”

 

Portalés, Lerma, Navarr (2009) describe AR “as a relatively new technology that is based on mixing computer generated stimuli (visual, sound or haptic) and real ones, keeping a spatial relationship between synthetic and physical data and allowing user interaction in real time, as described in Azuma (1997)[2]”

. Furthermore the authors state that AR provides

 

• Seamless interaction between real and virtual environment
• The ability to enhance reality
• The presence of spatial cues for face-to-face and remote collaboration
• Support of a tangible interface metaphor for object manipulation.
• The ability to transition smoothly between reality and virtual-
• The ability to transition smoothly between reality and virtual-
• The ability to transition smoothly between reality and virtuality

 

Now, let us see what some our students think Augmented Reality is[3].

• AR can be described as the changed reality. Think of Layar. An extra layer is added (read reality) to the world, seen through a mobile phone.
• AR is the creation of an extra dimension, using a mobile phone with a screen.
• AR is the addition of image and/or user experience by means of digital shapes, sound and/or image to real surroundings.
• AR is the adaptation of reality by means of modern technology.
• AR is added reality by means of smartphione.

 

Okay. Fair enough. Not all definitions are of the same quality. Still, the idea is clear; by adding something to something – in this case extra digital information of some sort to a reflection of reality i.e. what you view on a screen of a (digital) device – we create a new reality. The question is whether this new – augmented (as in enlarged) – reality can only be created through digital devices. What about this ‘augmented’ reality, a shot taken from a train window? The window has added information which, I know it is disputable – creates a new enlarged reality. Isn’t it?

---

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality, visited 27 October 2011, 3.30PM

[2] Cristina Portalés, José Luis Lerma, Santiago Navarr (2009). Augmented reality and photogrammetry: A synergy to visualize physical and virtual city environment. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensin (http://www.sciencedirect.com.www.dbproxy.hu.nl/science?_ob=MiamiImageURL&_cid=271826&_user=2849566&_pii=S0924271609001208&_check=y&_origin=search&_zone=rslt_list_item&_coverDate=2010-01-31&wchp=dGLzVlS-zSkzS&md5=aabce609b1e2abae785316954b3a0a01/1-s2.0-S0924271609001208-main.pdf)

[3] The exam was taken on 24 October 2011 in Utrecht. For obvious reasons I will not mention any names. The exam was in Dutch, I translated the writings of our ‘young colleagues.

Social media marketing on the increase in Asia but issues remain

Social media marketing in Asia has doubled in the last year however companies in the region are still to master the potential of the medium, according to a new report from Burson Marsteller.

The public relations firm found that 81 percent of the companies listed on The Wall Street Journal’s Asia 200 Index use social media, which is up from 40 percent in 2010, however it also identifies a number of issues around the use of the channel in the region.

Many companies in Asia are not making use of social media as part of a long term plan, according to the report which finds 62 percent of the social media accounts recorded to be inactive. Equally, “the great majority” of active accounts are updated infrequently having been set-up for short-term marketing initiatives.

Of those that are active, the report concludes that strategy is lacking with firms not adapting their communications to the demands of new media. One third of the companies using social media are focused on basic outreach to media and influencers through ‘pushed’ messages – chiefly around new products – while many fail to create new channels for corporate news, instead piping all communication to consumer audiences.

Social networks and microblogging – which includes China’s Sina weibo and Tencent weibo as well as Twitter – were unsurprisingly the most used mediums across the seven markets, although the use of video grew significantly as the chart below shows.

via Social media marketing on the increase in Asia but issues remain.

Renate Blommers, artist from Amsterdam, Netherlands

Renate’s exhibition poster for ‘La Table’ at Grote Kerk in Naarden, Netherlands, 10 till 13 November 2011. Great work in the line of the old Dutch Masters. The pictures with a lightb green line are Renate’s ‘Jewels from Amsterdam’. Check out her work at renateblommers.nl

Mobile Plays Pivotal Role in Coverage of Moammar Gadhafi’s Death | Mobile Marketing Watch

On Thursday, international news organizations and media outlets were largely dependent on mobile phones and social networks to gain insight into what proved to be the final moments of former Libya strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s life.

From CNN to BBC, gruesome photos (taken via mobile phone) of an apparently lifeless Moammar Gadhafi were used to underpin reports that the former leader had, in fact, been killed in crossfire earlier that day.

According to CNN’s coverage, the mobile phone images were not only instrumental in proving Gadhafi’s death but also further weakening the late leader’s lingering supporters.

The images will be a big blow to the morale of his supporters, who have been clinging to the hope he would seize power again, during the weeks he has been on the run.

Five years ago, images also taken from a mobile device were released of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein at his execution. Unauthorized cell phone footage showed the world Hussein’s final moments on the gallows. This incident followed other images that surfaced three years earlier of Hussein’s two sons, Uday and Qusay, who were killed in a firefight.

Shortly after the images were released publicly, former CIA Director James Woolsey told CNN: “I think it’s necessary for the world to see and particularly for the Iraqis to see that these two are, in fact, dead, that this is not some ginned-up story from the United States.”

What was true at that time in Iraq is also true today in Libya. And those who are rejoicing in the death of Libya’s former tyrannical leader are especially thankful for the mobile devices that made proof of Gadhafi’s death possible in close to real-time.

via Mobile Plays Pivotal Role in Coverage of Moammar Gadhafi’s Death | Mobile Marketing Watch.

Washington Hospital Using Mobile Apps in Care of Critical Patients | Mobile Marketing Watch

Mobile applications are playing an increasingly larger role in the way doctors and hospitals care for patients.

The hospital at the center of today’s mHealth buzz is Washington Hospital Center, the facility behind “CodeHeart,” the highly secure mobile application solution developed and customized in collaboration with AT&T that provides a real-time video and audio stream that can be used in critical care situations, such as ambulances in transit.

According to an example presented in a press release issued by the medical facility, the solution can be used by hospital cardiologists to view, in real-time, a patient’s condition while simultaneously speaking with the patient’s first responder or the attending Emergency Department (ED) physician. Importantly, the solution also provides physicians the ability to view vital signs and test results–like electrocardiograms (ECG)–captured through the real-time video feed.

Continue via Washington Hospital Using Mobile Apps in Care of Critical Patients | Mobile Marketing Watch.

Brilliant: This Android app lets blind users type on a touchscreen [Video]

Via The Next Web:

Ankit Daftery is an engineering student at the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute in Mumbai, India and he decided to take it upon himself to add the ability for the blind to type on an Android device. He was convinced he could add Braille support to the mobile platform.

Today, he is starting to turn that idea into a reality. OnlyGizmos brings us this video where the enterprising student earnestly speaks about BrailleType, a simple but ingenious application that will allow blind people to type on a smartphone using the Braille alphabet much in the same way that they use it for reading.

BrailleType gives the user a blank canvas, with the top 90% of the screen available to the user for entering in the characters and a strip at the bottom displaying them as they are typed, in addition to reading them out using Android’s built-in text-to-speech synthesiser.

Just like Braille users read text written in the language by feeling the positions of the raised characters with the tip of their fingers, so they can type by touching the display with their fingers according to the established patterns of the Braille alphabet. Take a look at the video embedded below to see Daftery providing a live demo of the app:

We spoke to Daftery after looking at the demonstration above and he had some more information to share with us. For starters, the app will support not just the 26 letters of the alphabet but also some special characters like whitespace, backspace and newline. To enable it to be used with any application on the system, he is trying to get it to work as an alternative keyboard, which he can then distribute via the Android Market.

When we asked about the price, Daftery said that he hadn’t decided on one yet and remarked that it was too early in the process right now for him to be able to tell us whether it would be released for free or come at a cost. Right now, he says, his motive is to get the app up and running and make it powerful enough that it can actually make a difference in the life of a blind Android user.

Daftery said that he regularly visits schools for blind children in order to test his application in the real world and improves it based on the feedback he gets from them. The gesture for the whitespace character, for instance, was suggested to him by a blind person who was used to working with other technology-based Braille typing solutions for desktop computers.

All of Daftery’s current efforts are directed towards the Android platform, but we wanted to know if he planned to work on solutions for users of Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod touch devices as well. Apple’s development model does not allow for third-party developers to make systemwide keyboards for the device, so we weren’t surprised to hear that he “had no specific plans but was looking into that”.

Even if iOS support never comes to BrailleType, however, Daftery thinks that he may be able to finalise the features for the Android version by next week and then release the app soon after. What we are seeing here is an impressive demo of the way technology can be used to enable people with physical disabilities. We’ll know how well it works once it is released and being used by people with visual impairments, but we’re hoping for the best.

Top 10 luxury branded social media marketers of Q3 – Luxury Daily – Internet

Almost every luxury brand has a Facebook page or Twitter account, but at this point it takes a little more than just showcasing campaigns or breaking the latest collection to get consumer attention.

At first just used to connect with up-and-coming aspirationals, luxury brands have been tapping social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and blogs in an entirely new way. There is a thin line between marketing to all consumers or just to a niche audience, and these brands have mastered the art of appealing to younger audience without appearing intimidating or losing their luxury luster.

Here are the best social media luxury marketers of the third quarter, in alphabetical order: via Top 10 luxury branded social media marketers of Q3 – Luxury Daily – Internet.

What marketers can learn from Southeast Asian mobile commerce – Mobile Commerce Daily – Columns

By David Eads

I just returned from two weeks discussing strategy with mobile commerce executives across Southeast Asia. Despite having spent considerable time in North America, Latin America and Europe, this was my first trip to the region. I found the similarities and differences intriguing.

In North America and Europe, executives I meet often mentally write-off Asia as so foreign and different that their experiences are not relevant. Perhaps this is true for South Korea and Japan, which have very specialized market.

However, in Southeast Asia, there continue to be far more similarities than differences.

Asian tappers

For example, everyone is struggling with mobile adoption growth.

Mobile is happening – and it is happening fast – but it is still around 2 percent to 4 percent of online.

Everyone wants it to grow faster, while struggling to support what they have. Many companies simply turn mobile on and customers show up with little or no promotion.

Similarly, travel and financial services lead the way.

via What marketers can learn from Southeast Asian mobile commerce – Mobile Commerce Daily – Columns.

Jil Sander launches mobile phone, pushes branded content – Luxury Daily – Mobile

German designer Jil Sander has delved into the world of techy accessories with the launch of its first mobile phone that comes preloaded with branded material.

The Jil Sander mobile phone will contain exclusive content including a mobile application, access to behind-the-scenes photos and videos and a store locator. It will run on the Windows operating system.

“Overall, I think it is a pretty good strategy because it is forward-thinking and phones are as much of an accessory as anything else today,” said Rex Whisman, president of BrandED Consultants Group, Denver.

“I think it could be effective,” he said. “It is an innovative approach. But do they have all their technology ducks in a row?

“If they don’t, it could hurt the brand. But if they do, I think it could be a good thing.”

Mr. Whisman is not affiliated with Jil Sander, but agreed to comment as a third-party expert.

Jil Sander did not reply by press deadline.

via Jil Sander launches mobile phone, pushes branded content – Luxury Daily – Mobile.

Twitter Analysis: Massive Global Mourning for Steve Jobs (Infographic)

Taken from Wired

• By Brandon Keim  
• 
• October 7, 2011  |
• 11:54 am  |
• Categories: Internet Culture & Etiquette, People, Social Media

In the hours after Steve Jobs’ passing, researchers at the New England Complex Systems Institute tried to track the spread of memorial tweets spreading through the internet. Their computers were overwhelmed.

Rather than focusing on network dynamics, they decided to analyze the tributes by language. Jobs wasn’t just an American visionary, but truly global.

Above is a breakdown of two million tweets containing the name “Steve Jobs” and posted between 9 pm on Oct. 5 and 9 am the next morning. Each dot represents 1,000 tweets, and they’re colored according to language. A high-resolution version containing the most-retweeted messages can be downloaded here.

Though the methodology’s a little rough — tweets didn’t mention Steve Jobs by name aren’t included, nor are languages with non-Western alphabets — but it’s enough.

“I have been looking at the tributes,” said NECSI president Yaneer Bar-Yam, “and their extent is itself a tribute.”

Images: Amaç Herdagdelen, Alexander Sayer Gard-Murray, Yaneer Bar-Yam/New England Complex Systems Institute

See Also:

• Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011
• Remembering Steve Jobs Across the Web
• Steve Jobs Through the Years
• ‘This Stuff Doesn’t Change the World’: Disability and Steve Jobs …

 

Brandon is a Wired Science reporter and freelance journalist. Based in Brooklyn, New York and Bangor, Maine, he’s fascinated with science, culture, history and nature.
Follow @9brandon and @wiredscience on Twitter.