Mobile Dad

Saw this Vimeo video on Techcrunch from the makers of Wikitude which brings back the World Trade Center Towers as they were through augmented reality.  This addition may be emotional but it also brings to light the potential for historical reference.  Can you imagine what historians and archaeologists with the help from a GIS professional can bring to life?  Think about the Mayan ruins in Central America or our fleet at Pearl Harbor before the attack.  How about walking in ancient Greece as it were during the height of their civilization.  You could scan the walls of ancient glyphs and view a restored version with the latest linguist theory on translation.  It would bring forward a more engaging experience to the sites of great historical importance for both researchers and tourists.  Heck, ANY location regardless of significance can restore history lost through modernization.

[Techcrunch]

Babak A. Parviz, a bionanotechnology expert at the University of Washington in Seattle posted an excellent article about the future of augmented reality through the used of contact lenses.  Currently Mr. Parviz has a proof of concept in Rabbits utilizing contact lenses with one LED output.  The article breaks down the process and problem of focusing images on the surface of the eye (using micro-lenses) and solving the power issues through the use of RF and solar solutions.  Some benefits to this research other than superimposing digitally-generated objects into the field of vision is offering another method of monitoring glucose levels:

We’ve built several simple sensors that can detect the concentration of a molecule, such as glucose. Sensors built onto lenses would let diabetic wearers keep tabs on blood-sugar levels without needing to prick a finger.

Fabrication and manufacturing such technologies are limiting factors in it’s current form but not perceived as impossible.  A very entertaining read of what the next 10-15 years will hold in contact lens technology.

[IEEE Spectrum]

Those crazy guys at TAT, designers of great mobile innovations, are at it again with a new concept, Augmented ID.  Using a similar approach of face recognition demonstrated by MIT Media Lab’s Sixth Sense project, you can manage what information is displayed about you when someone uses their mobile phone’s camera.  Crazy huh, yeah just watch the video:

A cool concept that I am sure will be a reality is some form in the near future, but may have stirred the privacy waters a bit due to the instant availability of some one’s online identity.  I might be in the minority but I see no problem with this concept.  Your online identity is available to search without your control.  All you can really do is try to minimize the embarrassing parts of your life from online exposure by managing your virtual identity.  This type of innovation I am looking forward, the type of privacy I worry about is the type that should be under my control like my personal cell phone number!

You are in New York and need to find the nearest subway station, should you ask someone or look up for posted signs? Hell no!  That is so country. The hip-crew folks whip out their uber-cool swanky iPhone 3G s and click on Acrossair’s app.  With the added compass, the new iPhone allows developers like Acrossair to develop an augmented reality interface that melds our world with virtual data, something the G1 was doing for nearly a year now:

Now if we can only remove the awkardness of holding up a phone that broadcasts to everyone, “Hey I am a tourist, please jack my gear!” I must remind myself that I would be one of those out there spinning around with my phone doing just that.

Giz posted info on a new app called Twittaround that blends your physical space with Twitter.  In other words, by aiming your phone in any direction, you will see tweets geo-located from your position.  Right now this is only for the iPhone 3G S and most likely will not be approved by Apple.  I am not seeing any reason why this cannot be ported to Android or WebOS (if we can get the darn SDK).  I like the idea of blending the social online map to that of the space we currently live, though a part of me keeps playing that one scene from the movie The Strangers where the lead female character ask why the killers are doing this and they replied, “Because you were home.” Only now it will be “Because you tweeted.”