Concentric Sky, Inc.

It sounds like science fiction - but as mobile devices make more and more computing power available on the go, cyberspace and physical space are beginning to intersect in some very interesting ways. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the trend toward Augmented Reality. AR aims to make the entire world digitally interactive - and this opens up some fascinating possibilities.

In its simplest form AR on a mobile device can be thought of as an overlay on the world. For example: You point your mobile phone at a building near where you are standing. An application on the phone can determine your position and the direction you are facing. Using this information the application can look up the address of the building, whether it’s for sale, even if any companies in the building are hiring.

Applications like Layar (shown above) or Wikitude are great if you are able to correlate information with geo-spatial elements. Often times however, this kind of information is not available - or is simply not accurate enough.

Virtual Bookmarks

In situations where the use of real-time location data is not practical, several other technologies come into play. Of particular interest are QR codes. QR codes are a simple method of encoding information in such a way that a mobile device can retrieve it. Think of it as a virtual bookmark in the physical world. Google uses such “bookmarks” extensively in its Favorite Places initiative.

QR codes are quite popular in countries outside of North America. In Japan, QR codes are used on everything from advertisements, to fast food wrappers, to buildings. They have also become something of an art form around the world. A standard QR code is shown below on the left. A stylized Japanese QR code is shown below on the right.

Although the right image has been stylized, both codes are machine readable. The left code will take the user to google.com, while the right code will take the user to Louis Vuitton’s Japanese mobile store.

In the US, QR codes are just starting to gain momentum with a strong showing last week at SXSW. Esquire Magazine recently published an AR focused edition that used a custom QR code. The same trend can be seen in retail stores in Texas.

RFID tags - which can be scanned at a distance - are also staring to move into the mainstream. There are even rumors that Apple might include an RFID reader in a future version of the iPhone. Notably, Apple did just hire wearable computing guru, Richard DeVaul for top-secret research.

Future Trends

As we move towards a more interconnected world, we can expect AR to get better and better. Google is leading the way with Google Goggles, an application for Android-based phones. Google Goggles allows users to search on theoretically any image and retrieve information from the Google search engine. Another Android app - Recognizr - can search social networks based on an image of someone’s face. This, of course, raises serious privacy concerns.

Despite those concerns, AR is a rapidly growing trend and will likely lead to numerous exciting developments as companies continue to explore the intersection of the Internet and the physical world. We’re glad to be along for the ride.