I've been interested in Augmented Reality and Gaming for some time now. Augmented Reality is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. AR for games is cool, but as Karl Kapp recently pointed out, the uses for training may be astounding.
One of the earliest examples I saw of this was from the 1990 movie Total Recall. If you saw that movie, remember when Sharon Stone (in her debut screen role) was practicing tennis? She had a hologram instructor upon which she could model her swing. Neat stuff. Or as Arnold would say, "Auuggghhhh!" She needs to raise her elbow a bit more, however.
But what can we actually do right now, or at least in the near future? We don't have viable holograms, so we're forced to look through something like a computer, smart phone, iPad, or glasses to "get augmented."
BMW has a great example of how this might work. Heck, even I might be able to do car repairs with something like this!
For something like cars, this makes great sense. You can't bring a car into a computer lab and run a training module beside the car while you work on it. You can take a laptop to a car, but it's less than ideal. You've have to stop what you were doing, tap the keyboard (greasy!), etc. Glasses, augmented reality, a voice over, and perhaps voice-activated commands ("Show me that last step again.") would be of great benefit to anyone.
For the types of training many of us do around computer-related applications, would we need AR? I don't see the benefit, but maybe I'm missing something. What do you think?
One of the earliest examples I saw of this was from the 1990 movie Total Recall. If you saw that movie, remember when Sharon Stone (in her debut screen role) was practicing tennis? She had a hologram instructor upon which she could model her swing. Neat stuff. Or as Arnold would say, "Auuggghhhh!" She needs to raise her elbow a bit more, however.
But what can we actually do right now, or at least in the near future? We don't have viable holograms, so we're forced to look through something like a computer, smart phone, iPad, or glasses to "get augmented."
BMW has a great example of how this might work. Heck, even I might be able to do car repairs with something like this!
For something like cars, this makes great sense. You can't bring a car into a computer lab and run a training module beside the car while you work on it. You can take a laptop to a car, but it's less than ideal. You've have to stop what you were doing, tap the keyboard (greasy!), etc. Glasses, augmented reality, a voice over, and perhaps voice-activated commands ("Show me that last step again.") would be of great benefit to anyone.
For the types of training many of us do around computer-related applications, would we need AR? I don't see the benefit, but maybe I'm missing something. What do you think?
That's very cool stuff. I like the possibilities for learning, it's endless.
Oh, and BTW....Sharon's big break came in Total Recall but she was around for a while. How can you forget her Razzie-nominated role in this classic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Quatermain_and_the_Lost_City_of_Gold
;)