Thing 14: Augmented Reality

When I first read the title for this session my brain went straight to Virtual Reality, from the holo-deck in Star Trek to the full world immersion of Sword Art Online or The Matrix.

After several mutinies of Sci- fi nerdyness and daydreaming… I mean…contemplation; I immersed myself in the week’s literature and even read an extra article or two.

You might ask why did I go straight to Virtual Reality?

There are many reasons the main one being that I have had a keen interest in Virtual Reality from a young age and have enjoyed many books, movies, TV Shows, games and Anime/Manga which covered the subject.

I am fascinated by being able to project your own visualized world and share it with others, perhaps one day you will be able to project your inner thoughts and mind and share your own experiences and memories this way. (Using a mix of VR and cybernetics). This might be a way to store memories that can then be used to help Amnesia or Alzheimer’s suffers recover or keep recovery journals.

Are Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality really different?

The simple answer is yes but there are similarities. The main difference is that Virtual Reality is a full world immersion experience (the 3 examples at the start of my post), whereas Augmented Reality is not even though some of the AR technology involved is the same but only up to semi-immersion. (You still see and interact with the real world).

Here are two articles if you would like to find out more of the differences.

Tech Times and Wareable.com.

I also read an article on where augmented reality is today. 

Dueling Realities. 

Back on topic…

I was introduced to Augmented Reality (AR) as a first step towards Virtual Reality (VR) technology.

This was at an Augmented Reality panel arranged by Epic-con, in the conventions second or third year (can’t remember which) which demonstrated a certain companies (Can’t remember) AR technology. They asked for a volunteer from an audience member to try it out. The only conditions being you couldn’t be epileptic, light sensitive or a migraine suffer because not enough research had been done at the time as to the effects on these groups AR might have at the time. The volunteer also had to sign a disclaimer. This reminded me about the main character in The Last Book in the Universe by Roadman Philbrick.

The set up involved electrodes, goggles, gloves and a toy and lots of electrodes.

Exploring AR Applications 

I downloaded and tried out several AR applications. Layar and Aurasma required you to scan images with their logos to access AR content. I scanned a few images I Googled. One of the images allowed me to change a models outfit by swiping.

Aurasma also had image banks, but I was unable to figure out how to interact with them on the phone except for adding to favorites. 

The LibrARi was not available to download on the playstore, I am not sure if this is an iPhone only app. I also tried Anatomy 4D but again I didn't have anything to scan for it.

I remembered that one of the IT guys in Teagasc had suggested to try the Augment AR app, so I downloaded it a gave it a try. Again like Aurasma and Layar, Augment requires a specific type of picture to be scanned for material. I tested it out all three using AR cards and materials I already had. I found Augments image banks much more user friendly, you could just select the image you wanted to interact with using AR. The image banks even had moving images, my favorite being the dancing skeleton. 

And then I got distracted by the nerdy AR applications, in particular the Vocaloid ones...

The more interactive the AR is the more fun it is. Nintendo are planning on releasing an AR Pokemon game for the mobile phone.

I have not experienced much AR in libraries, the closest being QR codes. QR codes can be used for AR material but I have not seen any myself. I have used AR in gaming before. My 3DS was pre-installed with some AR games one was Face Raiders and one simply called AR Games. For Face Raiders you simply take a picture of yourself and shoot at flying AR heads. The other you simply scan one of the AR cards, depending on the card you played different games. Also the rhythm game projectMiraiDX came with 19 AR cards which has extra playable content as well as extra intractable characters and songs. 

How AR will affect the library…

I can visualize several uses for public libraries and some for academic and special libraries. 

When you scan AR material you get:

1.  A download of the poster, flier or brochure instead of the website link, or 
2. Details that can be added to your mobile devices or Google calendar, or
3. Preview chapters of books (scan covers or barcodes), or
4. Book reviews, or
5. A copy of the page(s) you need in a college text (under copyright), or
6. Animated book characters in the children section, or
7. Promotional videos or animated promotional materiel 

I think for AR to be effective there needs to be a generic AR application that can scan all the different AR object just like the QR scanners. If you want to scan a QR code you don't have to worry what app you have, but for AR you do. For the most accessible it might be best to distribute AR content with QR codes at least for the moment. Unless there is an application that already exists, if anyone knows of one let me know.

I will probably try to create an AR campaign sometime in the future.

Part 14: 23 Things Course Rudaí 23.

Tasks: Take a look at Aurasma or Layar apps and try creating a campaign with one of the apps OR Take a look at another AR app such as Anatomy 4D or LibrARi demo.