Married To The Game
(Photo via Flickr)
Growing up I remember begging my parents to get me a video game system. Those crocodile tears and pre-teen pleas went unanswered until one Christmas I ripped off the colorful wrapping off of a shiny new Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In hindsight it wasn’t that big of a deal but at the time my parents might as well have given me a BMW with a full tank of gas. Within hours I was dodging fireballs and bottomless pits with Mario and Yoshi and loving it.
Flash-forward to modern day Sean. I’m still obsessed with video games but now I’m old enough to see how spending a decade staring at television sets has prepared me for the onset of augmented reality.
“Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality.” (via Wikipedia)
Simply put, augmented reality is infusing our view of the world with additional, relevant data/information. What I realized while I was in the midst of a 6 hour Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 binge is that I’ve been experiencing the precursor to augment reality for a decade, the video game heads-up-display. This concept is not exclusive to the world of video gaming but I guarantee its where the majority of my generation became exposed to the term.
Currently the best way to serve data through augmented reality is through the use of computers and mobile devices but in time as display technology gets lighter and thinner augmented reality won’t require having to walk around your city scanning the air like a Star Trek extra.
With a heads up display information is displayed in such a way that the user can refer to it at a glance without being too distracted from the task at hand. In the case of the above screen-shot the information being conveyed (radar, score, ammunition, etc.) is relevant to fighting in a simulated death-match but there are tons of other possible implementations.
- What about a pair of shades that displayed Google Maps data so you can navigate a busy city on a bicycle?
- Or a special pair of protected laboratory goggles that displayed the temperature of the materials in your lab?
- Or a protective mask that allows fire-fighters the ability to see a trapped child on the other side of a burning wall?
The possibilities are seemingly endless but one thing is for sure, there is an entire generation of young people walking around today (with their pants on the ground probably) who were raised on video games.
These kids have been reviewing information relayed to them in a heads up display for as long as they’ve been old enough to hold a controller and soon… they’ll be old enough to drive.