Augmented reality

‘’Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality.’’

I find augmented reality really fascinating as a concept, it has been around for many years, 1957-62: Morton Heilig, a cinematographer, creates and patents a simulator called Sensorama with visuals, sound, vibration, and smell. I love computer games, and in this form it started as virtual reality and the old 3D holographic fighters from the late 80’s. More recently it has become more commercial for the Sony Playstation with the ‘Eye’ range of games and most recently with London Studio’s ‘Eye Pet’ where players interact with a virtual pet via a unique symbol being read by the camera on the TV, and creating an object which is interacted with by manipulating this physical piece of card.

Below is an example which one of our group members, Luke Mears, created using the AR application found at ecomagination.

eco AR from Luke Mears on Vimeo.