Thomas Caudell, a researcher at Boeing Computer Services Research, first used the term “augmented reality” in 1990 to describe how electricians used head-mounted displays to assemble intricate wiring harnesses. The yellow first down marker that started to appear in televised football games sometime in 1998 was one of the first commercial uses of augmented reality technology. The most well-known consumer augmented reality (AR) products right now are Google Glass, smartphone games, and heads-up displays (HUDs) in automobile windshields. But a lot of other industries, like healthcare, public safety, gas and oil, travel, and marketing, also use the technology. Now is the time to start the topic What is Augmented Reality (AR)?
What is Augmented Reality (AR)?
Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that allows users to see and interact with computer-generated images and data overlaid on top of their real-world environment. This can be achieved through the use of specialized hardware, such as AR headsets or glasses, or through the use of software on a smartphone or other device. In contrast to virtual reality (VR), which creates a completely artificial environment, AR enhances the user’s existing surroundings with additional information and digital content. AR has a wide range of applications, including gaming, education, training, and navigation.
What is the process of augmented reality?
The process of augmented reality (AR) involves the use of specialized hardware or software to overlay digital information and images on top of the user’s real-world environment. This is typically accomplished through the use of a device with a camera, such as a smartphone or AR headset, which can capture and analyze the user’s surroundings in real time. The digital content is then generated and displayed on the device’s screen or through a headset, creating the illusion of an augmented reality. The user can interact with this digital content using gestures, voice commands, or a physical controller, allowing them to see and manipulate virtual objects in their real-world environment.
In addition to smartphones, tablets, and glasses, augmented reality can be delivered in a variety of ways. Another method of delivering AR is through contact lenses. Hardware elements needed by the technology include a processor, sensors, a display, and input devices. These components, which include sensors like cameras, accelerometers, GPS, and solid-state compasses, are typically already present in mobile devices. This makes AR more approachable for common users. The user’s location is determined by a GPS, and the device’s orientation is determined by its compass.
In order to connect animation or contextual digital information in the computer programme to an augmented reality marker in the real world, augmented reality apps are written in specialised 3D programmes. When an AR app or browser plugin on a computing device receives digital data from a recognised marker, it starts to run the marker’s code and layer the appropriate image or images.
Leading use of AR
The following are some applications for AR:
Retail: Before making a purchase, customers can use a store’s online app to preview items like furniture in their homes.
Games and Entertainment: With the help of augmented reality, users can animate their faces in fun and imaginative ways on social media or overlay a virtual game in the real world.
Navigation: A route to the user’s destination can be added using augmented reality to a real-time view of a road. When used for navigation, augmented reality (AR) can also show details about nearby businesses.
Instruments and measurement: AR can be used by mobile devices to measure various 3D points in the user’s surroundings.
AR can aid architects in visualizing a construction project.
Military: Information about destination directions, travel times, weather, and road conditions can be displayed on a car’s windshield.
Archaeology: By assisting with site reconstruction, AR has aided archaeological research. Future archaeologists and museum patrons can virtually visit an excavation site thanks to 3D models.
Instances of AR
The following list includes examples of AR:
Target app: See it in Your Space, a feature of the Target retail app, allows users to take a photo of a room in their house and virtually view an object, such as a chair or a picture on the wall, to see how it will look there.
App for Apple Measure: Users can choose two or more points in their environment and use the Measure app on Apple iOS to measure the distance between them, acting like a tape measure.
Snapchat: Snapchat filters use augmented reality to apply a filter or mask to a user’s Snap or image.
Pokemon Go: Pokemon Go is a well-known augmented reality (AR) game that uses the player’s GPS to locate Pokemon creatures in their immediate vicinity that can be captured.
Google Glass is the company’s first attempt at a commercially viable glasses-based augmented reality system. Users can operate this tiny wearable computer hands-free. Frontline employees at organizations like DHL and DB Schenker can ship customized orders more effectively thanks to the use of Google Glass and third-party software. Google is also developing a new set of glasses for 2022 that will overlay a real-time transcription or translation of what someone else is saying in text.
Tactical Augmented Reality is an eyepiece that the U.S. Army uses to use augmented reality (TAR). TAR attaches to the soldier’s helmet and helps identify where another soldier is located.
Future of augmented reality technology
As more people become familiar with and use apps and games like Pokémon Go or in-store AR apps, augmented reality technology keeps expanding. By giving AR applications faster data speeds and lower latency, the development of 5G networks may make it simpler to support cloud-based augmented reality experiences.
ARCore, the Android version of ARKit, is also developing and getting better. For instance, ARCore uses a geospatial API that draws information from Google Earth’s 3D models and Google Maps Street View image data. Similar to ARKit’s Depth API, ARCore has enhanced its Depth API by making it more suitable for depth sensing at greater distances.
People who speak different languages will be able to communicate more effectively thanks to contemporary innovations still in development, like Google’s smart glasses that can translate audio to text in real-time. More opportunities and experiences across various platforms and media types are on the horizon thanks to AR’s use of immersive technology.
So, the future of AR is looking very bright, with many experts predicting that it will become increasingly prevalent in a wide range of fields, including gaming, education, healthcare, and retail.
