There is no doubt that Augmented Reality is hot right now and only getting hotter. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, Augmented Reality is live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery. Basically, digital elements are overlaid on top of a viewport, such as a camera/phone display.

Over the last couple of years, Augmented Reality has been on the rise. It’s almost as if a new experimental Augmented Reality platform is released monthly. Companies are finally catching on to the idea and realizing that this will inevitably be a part of our world in the near future and they want to get in on it. However, most Augmented Reality platforms currently available are rather crude in my opinion. It will still take a good bit of research and at least a little market adoption and traction for Augmented Reality to actually become commonplace in our society, which we haven’t really seen yet.

So what’s so useful about Augmented Reality?

It really comes down to the fact that for years we have interacted with our data through simulated images on a screen. With the proliferation of smart phones and other devices, this has become a huge part of our physical lives. Augmented Reality is a way for us to go even further and merge the physical and virtual worlds together for a deeper level of media interaction. Imagine a plain old advertisement in the Mall. View it through your iPhone camera and it instantly comes alive! Visit the products website, add it on twitter, enter a contest, or even purchase the product all from a plain old physical advertisement. Or when you’re watching your favorite TV show, you view it through your camera and media instantly surrounds your TV. Engage in an interactive tweet stream, visit the shows website, view behind the scenes extras during the commercial break or become a fan on Facebook.

The possibilities really are endless and these examples are just the tip of the Augmented Reality iceberg.

Merging of Physical and Virtual

If the TV and Ad overlay seems too obvious, how about we go even further into the our new reality? Recently Facebook launched their new “Places” feature which ads your basic check-in functionality to the Facebook mobile platform. The initial phase of the places feature might not grab your eye given the wealth of competition from products like Gowalla, Foursquare and Bright Kite but let’s look look to the future and add Augmented Reality into the mix. Imagine that you’re walking through a crowded mall. You pop up the Augmented Reality application on your iPhone and are immediately presented with a small icon floating above the head of the passers by. Click one of these icons and you have instant access to that users public Facebook & Twitter profiles. If the “icon above the head” approach is too gimmicky then why not pull up the map application which overlays an icon for each Facebook or twitter friend that’s nearby? Interact with their profile, chat, share media or just agree on a meet-up spot!

This type of approach is already being implemented in a basic form. Yelp’s Monocle let’s you view nearby businesses through your phone’s camera, allowing you to easily see what’s nearby and giving you easy access to reviews and ratings. Layar has created the “Layar Reality Browser” which renders a UI over any scene which gives you access to nearby Wikipedia information, YouTube videos, web sites and more. Wikitude (pictured above) offers multiple Augmented Reality platforms and gives you the ability to create your own world..

Privacy Issues

It’s obvious that there are some key privacy issues with Augmented Reality. At the moment, most people might not want their public profile accessible by any passer by. However, you might have heard the same argument in the early days of cell phones. I can imagine that the “I don’t want people to be able to contact me whenever they like” stance was brought up and debated often. But we slowly adapted to the idea and became more open as a society in terms of communication. The same type of adaptation may be required for the successful integration of Augmented Reality platforms into our lives.

Conclusion

In the future, our reality will inevitably become more and more entwined with digital media. Much like the innovation of the cell phone or the Internet, with it will come new legislation, best practices and consequences and some amazing benefits. We just have to be ready for it. What do you think? Is augmented reality a good thing? Do you think it is inevitably going to become mixed into our culture like the cell phone? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section. Thanks for reading!