What is AR? AR is the acronym standing for augmented reality. Let"s take a look at that before we move into augmented reality application development. What exactly is it? What"s it do? What"s the point? Augmented reality is the process of merging an existing piece of digital information with a real-life happening situation. So that means that AR takes a current video of something happening (you recording something) and then overlays a picture on top of it. So you might be taking a video of a birthday cake and suddenly have the recipe flash up on your video. This is an example of what AR is. The point is to make our lives easier.
The Applications for AR
There aren"t very many applications out there yet for AR because it"s still a relatively new concept and developers are still working on making it easier to understand and use. However, for the smartphones there are a couple applications that exist already. These applications make use of your global positioning system (your GPS) and your compass system. Imagine that you can aim your phone somewhere. Your compass knows which direction your pointing it and the angle of the phone. Your GPS knows your location. Suddenly the app knows where you"re looking at! If there"s an augment available, it"ll show. The more work that gets done on these applications, the more likely there will be an augment available.
AR: Understanding the development
The applications for AR aren"t simple to build. The programmers working on them have to be specialized in the field in order to be able to work on it. This takes a lot of training and the ability to understand and work in the special 3D language that augmented reality calls for. They literally have to find a way to merge the present in with a digital information source from the past.
AR and Its Goals:
Where are we headed with AR? With the augmented reality application development that continues to evolve almost daily, it"s impossible to tell where we"re going with this. One thing"s for certain though: the future is looking great for AR. We live in a world where everything is constantly evolving and changing and AR in the day to day world could easily be the next step. If you can imagine something that involves AR then most likely it"s the next foreseeable step. Just whip out your smartphone and check out the emergency room waiting list! That kind of thing is the ideas that we need to imagine.