What the Hell is Augmented Reality?

           It escaped me that I might be actually read by those who might know a lot about augmented reality.  Having been a fan of science fiction and ardent fan of both written and film speculative works, it is something that I’ve always imagined as being very real although it really has not been.  If you’ve ever seen Star Trek and saw the captain or his crew access the Holo Deck or read the pages of Marvel and saw the X-Men go in the danger room then you can imagine what augmented reality has to offer to society and especially our students.

            Augmented reality are computer simulations on mobile devices that are triggered by real world locations and environmental influences or surroundings.  Augmented reality(AR) combines physical and virtual world contexts, dually.  AR embeds learners, or any audience, in authentic situations enhanced by computer generated graphics and sound.  AR also strives to engage users in a socially facilitated context, whose confluence elevates the interactivity and truly enhances communication and interactivity to new levels.  The term augmented reality is used by me very broadly in my discovery process and blogging to include elements that others might not consider as what is popularly defined as AR.

Equipment

Light Augmentation – Provides small bits of information of data to the user that may not be provided very rapidly.

Mobile Phones, PDA’s and Smartphones

Heavy Augmentation – Provides a great deal of virtual information (possibly including more immersive visual feedback).  The larger amounts of data are also provided to the user very rapidly to better simulate near live environments.

Immersive helmets and Goggles

Resources:

http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality