augmented reality

Looking to get away to Paris this winter, but concerned about the cost? Worry not; for the price of a pair of lab safety goggles, a cardboard box and an HTC Magic (even better if the HTC magic comes in a large cardboard box), this DIY augmented reality headset can transport you anywhere in the world, just as long as the Google Street View team has been there first.

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.

Researchers from Georgia Tech have devised methods to take real-time, real-world information and layer it onto Google Earth, adding dynamic information to the previously sterile Googlescape.

They use live video feeds (sometimes from many angles) to find the position and motion of various objects, which they then combine with behavioral simulations to produce real-time animations for Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth.

The movies make space flight seem easy. A simple flip of the joystick or twist of the knob and any asteroid or space creature is done for. Sadly, the reality of space flight involves the constant monitoring of, and fiddling with, a near-endless set of dials, switches and buttons. In fact, so much of modern space craft are packed with gear and doodads that even astronauts have trouble keeping everything straight.

Here’s an innovative application for augmented reality: telling you how to do stuff you should already know how to do. BMW have developed a concept for AR glasses that can assist their own mechanics in performing maintenance on the company’s high-performance cars. The glasses read the field of view, point out the part that needs replacing, the screw that needs turning, or the cap that needs tightening (and even tells users which way to turn it).

It's the year 2023 and you're lost in a gigametropolis full of flying cars and robots who have achieved singularity. A guide literally appears before your eyes, giving you enough info about your surroundings to guide you on your way. The computerized contact lenses that Babak Parviz is developing could make this fantasy a reality.

The BMT Group and the Fraunhofer Institute have teamed up to work on an EU-funded project to offer Augmented Reality content on smartphones to tourists visiting historic sites throughout the continent. This would make it possible to see those buildings and paintings that have since been destroyed, or haven't aged so gracefully.

Every little boy lives in a world that is as much fiction as reality. For a kid sitting in the back seat of a car during a long road trip, that Batman action figure isn't a plastic doll, it's actually the Dark Knight himself. And that arm rest with the drink holder? The towering precipice of a Gotham high rise. And its exactly that imaginary world that Frantz Lasorne looks to make a bit more concrete with his augmented reality toys.

This, friends, is the future of mobile apps continuing on its march. Augmented reality--the ability to overlay various data sets on a real-time view of your surroundings--will change the way location-based data gets presented.

Now, using the new iPhone 3GS's compass (sorry, older iPhone folks), app developers Acrosshair have put together a subway finder app for New York and London that overlays the direction and distance to the nearest station, depending on the direction you point your phone.

Think you have a snazzy business card? Perhaps one with a cool graphic or one-of-a-kind shape? Well, think again. No matter how impressive, it's unlikely to beat this augmented reality card from ActionScript developer James Alliban for coolness.

The major obstacle facing online clothing shoppers is the inability to try on a garment before purchasing. Webcam Social Shopper, a new virtual dressing room concept, is hoping to change that. Blending Project Natal-like motion-capture with scenes from Clueless, the webcam-based dressing room allows you to, sort of, try on clothes you see online.