 | The Science Museum in London has recently released an application for smartphone and tablet operating systems that uses a visual overlay of BBC personality James May to provide a virtual tour of one of their exhibits. The idea is to point the smartphone or tablet at the appropriate marker (similar in function to a QR code) in the museum and the video image of May will begin to play. An interesting aspect of the application is the ability for anyone to print images of the markers off of the museum's website and use the application anywhere they are in the world (Baldwin). I think this is a perfect example of some of the limitations of AR right now. The application is not interacting with the real world itself, rather it does not need to interact with the anchor it is intended to interact with in order to function. Another example would be the images of the QR codes on the "QR Codes in the Wild" page. They are a high enough resolution that you can probably scan the codes and get to the intended webpage. The technology is progressing, but an ideal goal may be a combination of GPS and visual overlay in order to pinpoint a person's location in order to show them information about that location on an overlay. An example of this is shown below in an advertisement by AT&T. Note the disclaimer: "Not all services, features and capabilities currently available." While the technology is slowly becoming present, it still needs work in order to become seamless, and then it needs to be adopted by society as an acceptable way to obtain information. |