A introduction to Augmented Reality!

It is exciting to live in a time where technological advancements are taking place at a breathtaking pace and science fiction seems to come true everyday. Here is one of the things that will amaze you. As you can see in the picture above, just holding a display in front of the real world object gives you an image of the object in real time as well as addition of information such as the name of the building, its details like the number of floors or perhaps the blue print. All this is done right there in real time. This mythical device isn't a piece of science fiction and the truth is that such devices have not only been made but are commercially available for everyone to buy. Nokia has a portfolio of softwares in their OVI store where augmented reality can be used on your smartphone to maybe point at historical buildings with the camera and the information comes on the screen regarding historical significance and such. Google as always will not let anyone outsmart them and has introduced a product called Google Goggles. It comes as an application that is available for all android phones and the iPhone. What this application does is, it attaches the search function to augmented reality. In essence, you point you camera at a Snickers bar in a grocery store and it will search online for all the close locations where the chocolate is available and will let u know through GPS the nearest and cheapest location!

Another implementation of this technology is in an iPhone game. Where any surface like a table or the floor can be used as the venue for a two player fighting game! The wolrd is just opening up to the beauty and possibilities that are within this technology and with stronger processors and wider use of smartphones, there is limitless potential. It can make life so much easier in a country like Pakistan where information is hard to get, street signs are few and life is generally tough!

 We will keep you updated on this technology as and when things develop.Until then, feel free to leave any comments or questions you might have!