Augmented Reality
I've been studying themes of Virtual Reality, and have seen some great work on Augmented Reality. The applications for this type of technology are limitless, with obvious uses in education, health care, architectural design, and gaming etc.
While still in development, some technology has been implemented already, like this educational kiosk in a New Zealand museum in the clip below.
At the moment the hardware is still pretty clunky, but we are moving away from the cumbersome equipment associated with VR. When these technologies are fully developed, whole new ways of learning, communicating and socialising will be opened up, and as the software becomes more accessible, we will start to see lots of user generated content appear online. This technology could be much more exciting than Virtual Reality, as it offers us more freedom of movement around our environment, and could be used in more everyday applications.
If in the future, RFID tags (An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radiowaves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.) become common place, you will never loose your keys again - their location will be instantly displayed in graphics over your field of vision.
Games offer great possibilities, turning your real urban environment into a puzzle game, a battleground, or setting for a quest.
As media gets mashed up and mixed together, apps like google maps could prove useful in 3d, directions displayed right in front of your eyes. Historical info could be revealed as you pass buildings, or sale items in your size be advertised as you pass by the shop or you could be informed if items on your shopping list are stocked there.
While, undertaking repairs in the home or at work, instructions could be displayed and updated as you progress. There really is no end to the uses for these, the more you think about it the more ideas come to mind. All we need is the technology to become small and fast enough to look cool and render images well, and we'll have some funky kit to play with
Tuesday 9 October 2007
Augmented Reality
Monday 8 October 2007
Sunday 7 October 2007
Design Futures
The Future Is Here.
Whatever trends shape future technology, designing products that are energy efficient will be a top priority. With increased demand on natural resources, we are at the stage where we have to act now to eliminate the burden we've placed on the planet. Looking for alternative forms of energy will be of paramount importance to meet rising population levels and ever our increasing rates of energy consumption.
Electric cars will go a long way to reduce our use of fossil fuels, but have had a bit of an image problem in the past. This is set to change.
Switching to sustainable energy will be more of an option when technology enables cheaper equiptment production and increased efficiency at harnessing and storing renewable power. New techniques for producing the latest lcd monitors is a step in the right direction for solar energy
Clever Cutlery ?
For all those cooks who are too pissed to taste if the soup is properly seasoned, at last comes the Intelligent Spoon . With an array of sensors, it can tell you if there is too much salt in the bouillabaisse, or if the cake batter is of dropping consistency and ready to bake.
What next - the DigiBowl - it's advanced nanocircuits can detect when the bowl is empty of soup, and can vocalise the words 'fat bastard, that was your 3rd helping' in 36 languages.
