Augmented Reality: Science Fiction or Reality? (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Computer graphics have come a long way since the birth of Atari Games over 30 years ago. Today, computer graphics seem very real and some day researchers will pull graphics out of your television or computer display and integrate them into real-world environments.

This new technology, called augmented reality or AR, will further disguise what's real and what's computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell.

Up until now AR has been used extensively in movies and been mostly confined to Hollywood. Today, it's now possible to shoot augmented reality by using only a mobile phone.

The video below demonstrates basic AR in action. The AR scene involves an AR shooter shooting at zombies and using skittles as bombs to blow up zombies.

By using Nvidia's new Tegra platform, the game's maps are generated by pointing the phones camera at a 2D drawing printout lying on a table. The end result shows a realistic 3D world with buildings popping up, as players move the real world around the game map placed on the table.

Motion controlled devices for Nintendo Wii and Microsoft's new Natal platform are already being used to enhance gamers experience. By using the Natal platform, as the control mechanism, body movements can easily be converted into game movements. The ultimate goal would be to merge game graphics with the real world. The day will come when video games are played outdoors and project into the real world around us.

In the future augmented reality will have a more profound effect on the way in which we develop and interact with computers.

Via: PCAuthority

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