Augmented Reality is on my list of 5 things that will transform the world in the next 5-10 years. It’s a merging of the virtual Internet world with reality. When done right, it’s pretty awesome.
There are several limitations right now:
1. You have to use a smartphone to view things.
2. You need to have a target or marker (basically a 3d barcode the camera detects)
3. It’s slow.
Problems 2 and 3 seem to have just been obliterated by Sony. This video is amazing!
One of the things I love about this video is once the phone starts tracking its environment, the initial tracking object doesn’t have to stay on the screen. You can pan away from it and the object is still rendered. This is really advanced stuff.
Once we have practical glasses based displays, you will be able to move around the world with permanent graphics augmentation.
Applications for Education are huge. It will allow students to experience things and interact with them from the classroom. Virtual field trips will be possible. In fact it’s only a short hop from augmented reality to full Virtual Reality.
You need a camera equipped smartphone right now to be able to do this, which is what all our students will have very shortly.
Awesome!
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This Augmented Reality Needs No Markers to Interfere With Your (Virtual) World
Trackerless Augmented Reality
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I don’t need to tell you how cool augmented reality is, but it’s definitely got some limitations (e.g., barcodes and markers). But Sony’s new SmartAR technology, which doesn’t rely on real-world markers, may put that issue to rest.
Sony’s main win here is that this new technology tracks objects at a much higher speed than previously allowed:
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Education Stormfront 
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