Will it Last with Augmented Reality?

Anyways, after the wedding things calmed down.  After a couple of weeks, I got to thinking "Well, it was so exciting when we met, and we had a beautiful wedding, but is there still a connection with augmented reality? Will we stay together?"  I got a little worried and went to do some soul-searching at the local pub.  My football team was playing against their rival, the Dallas Cowboys.  I was only half paying attention to the game when I overheard someone talking about my girl,

"You know it's pretty weird how accustomed we are to augmented reality"

I looked over, "Hey!  Where do you get the nerve to talk about how 'accustomed' we are to my augmented reality"

"Look buddy, augmented reality is important, you see those lines on the screen showing the first down and the line of scrimmage?  Can you imagine football without them?  Look"

"Oh wow..."  I couldn't believe it; the stranger at the bar was right.  Not only was augmented reality still important to me, but I began to realize that I couldn't imagine a life without augmented reality.  AR had become intertwined with some of my most important memories and seemed to have become connected to my hobbies and day-to-day life, from shopping to driving, to watching sports.  I knew that this was a match that was going to last.  I ran home to see augmented reality, excited and hopeful for our future together.  I had no idea what would come next, but I had no doubt that Augmented Reality was here to stay.

Marrying AR and the Honeymoon

So, I am sure all of you are wondering how it all worked out with Augmented Reality.  I have told you how we met and how she taught me about all of the new ways I can enhance the experiences of driving or shopping.   But, is there more?  Is AR going to stick around and be important, or is she going to fade away. Namely, will I spend the rest of my life with Augmented Reality, or will I just move on?  Well I have some exciting news.  A few weeks ago AR and I finally decided we cannot be seperated.  I am getting married to Augmented Reality.  Even though she was exciting at the start, sometimes these things are just a passing fancy, but now I know that I want AR to be a part of my life for a long time.  In fact, from the moment I decided to marry AR, she was immediately able to help me invite all of our friends to our wedding in a new and personalized way:

http://bit.ly/1fHSBND

As you can see Augmented Reality found a way to make the most important announcement of my life even more special.  We had a beautiful ceremony, and even though my family had a great time, they were a little nervous around some of Augmented Reality's ancestors.  AR's grandfather "Boeing’s Computer Services' Adaptive Neural Systems" was a bit out of touch, but AR's great-grandfather Sensorama was very interesting and oddly familiar.  Anyways, after the wedding, AR whisked me off to Paris for our honeymoon.

In Paris, AR (being the sweetheart that she is) invited me to dinner at the Montparnasse Tower, the highest skyscraper in the city.  After dinner she brought me to the top of the tower at which point we enjoyed 360 degree panoramic views of Paris, which were great but it was overcast and dark in some areas.  Thankfully, because Augmented Reality was there, the Montparnasse folks were able to use AR to project perfect images on the glass panels and give us amazing views of the most beautiful city in the world. Click here to see the AR tour at Montparnasse.   Anyways, the future looks bright for me and AR.

How does it feel?

How does it feel?

I consider travelling as one of my hobbies, to discover rest of the world .. and to explore different cultures that I’m not exposed to in the Middle East .. and what is more important is capturing those unforgettable moments in order to remember the experiences and share them with my friends and family .. Instagram it as they say now! Yes I’m an Instagramaholic! J .. but don’t you hate when you miss capturing those moments because your phone’s battery has died? Or when you forgot your camera at the hotel? I know that I do!

Google has made sure that those moments won’t be lost with their invention Google Glass .. 

Say "take a picture" and it will take a picture ..

even share what you see live with your friends and family ..

ask whatever's on your mind ..

Translate your voice .. what a relief for IE students who don't speak Spanish like me!!

So how does it work?

Impressive .. I can't wait to get mine!! 

The expected official release of Google Glass is at the end of 2013 with an expected retail price of $ 1,500. 

Google glass can be useful in real life as well .. Rafael Grossman, a surgeon at Maine Hospital recently performed the world's first surgical procedure that was broadcast using the Google Glass.

"By performing and documenting this event, I wanted to show that this device and its platform are certainly intuitive tools that have a great potential in healthcare, and specifically for surgery, could allow better intra-operative consultations, surgical mentoring and potentiate remote medical education, in a very simple way," Rafael Grossman says. 

How does it feel to wear the Google Glass?

What would you do if you had the glass? share your thought using #ifihadglass in Twitter.

Help people who need help. Make their life better.

Help people who need help. Make their life better.

Augmented Reality is a girl with strong social responsibility. I am sure about it after seeing her efforts to improve education by teaching young kids in an innovative way. This time, what she showed to me further proved her warm heart.

With the ability to bridge the gap between the digital and the physical, AR is now trying to bridge the gap between the worlds of the deaf and the hearing, through one of her ‘magic’ tools – DEAF MAGAZINE.

Deaf Magazine aims to improve awareness of sign language in Germany and uses augmented reality to bridge the gap between spoken/written language and sign language. The articles have an AR component with video content that visualizes what is on each page.

Through the use of mixed media and augmented reality technology – through its own augmented reality app, the magazine links the written language directly with the German sign language and makes it easier to his readers to affiliate information and allows to a better understanding of the written language.

The magazine includes articles about events and trends of German sign language, special personalities, news and opinions about accessibility in Germany and information about the deaf culture of other countries. The articles are separated in short sections, which are then extended to printable pictures and videos with subtitles, enhancing the experience for readers.

Deaf Magazine is created by a German design group called Morphoria. The team points out that this application works both ways: Not only can the deaf learn new words in sign, but the magazine can also help teach those who don’t understand sign at all how to speak it. As far as applications to augmented reality go, this one is particularly good, because it takes something static (a magazine page) and creates a better learning experiencing by animating it.

Using innovation to improve everyday life of people, especially those who are in trouble – this is a right way in which technology should be applied. Augmented Reality is doing well on that, and on this way, I will be always with her.

(http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/10/deaf-magazine-uses-augmented-reality-to-teach-readers-sign-language/)

Augmented Reality In Education too!! wow!!!

After she blew my mind away the last time, it was time to get surprised again and she didn't disappoint. This time around she showed me how she's changing the way people will get educated now. 

Have a look!!!


Sometimes when people hear "augmented reality" their minds drift to some vision of a science fiction world. The truth is augmented reality isn't science fiction, it's technology that is readily available now. Here are five potential uses of augmented reality in education today.

Create 3D, augmented reality stories with ZooBurst. ZooBurst is an amazing service that allows you to create a short story complete with 3D augmented reality pop-ups. Students could use ZooBurst to create short summaries of books that really jump off the screen. ZooBurst offers an iPad app to complement the web-based version of the service.

The Getty Museum offers a neat way to view art through augmented reality. As employed by The Getty, augmented reality creates 3D displays of art from printed PDF codes displayed in front of a webcam. The example that The Getty provides in the video below is a 3D display of one of the cabinets of curiosities created by Albert Janszoon Vinckenbrinck. If you want to try it for yourself after watching the video, the directions are available here.

 
Fetch! Lunch Rush! is a neat use of augmented reality to create a mathematics lesson for young students. The free iPhone app was developed by PBS Kids. The purpose of the app is to get kids moving about a room in search of numbers that are the correct answer to the questions posed to them on the app. Students read the arithmetic problem on the app then search out the correct answer. When they think they have found the correct answer they scan it with their iPhones or iPads to find out if they are correct or not.

Spacecraft 3D is a free iPad app produced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Spacecraft 3D uses augmented reality technology to bring NASA spacecraft to life on your iPad. To get started using the app you first need to print out the spacecraft target codes. Then your students can scan those target codes with their iPads. The spacecraft then becomes a 3D model that your students can explore.

Star & Planet Finder enables you to locate the planets and stars in the night sky through your  iPhone or iPad. To use the app, select from a list the planet or constellation you want to locate. Star & Planet Finder will then give you directions to move your iPhone or iPad until you can see through the camera display the planet that you're looking for. The free version of the app only identifies planets. For $.99 each you can add lists of constellations, lists of satellites, and lists of brightest stars to the app. 

And now the best one: have a look at the video below, these are the school children from Shaw Wood Primary school, Doncaster, UK who are shown using Aurasma, the world's leading augmented reality platform. It is available as free application for iOS and android and is being used the world over for classroom teaching purposes.
So guys once again i am super amazed by her and her ability to keep surprising me time and again. Lets see what she has in store for me the next time, till then adios!!!!

A GIRL TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE ?

A couple of months have past and Augmented Reality and I have become quite close. I mean, what’s not to like about her? So far she has been nothing but fun, entertaining, and helpful.

This week I’m going to ask her to help me refurnish my flat. What wouldn’t I do to please her? After buying a new car, I’m now replacing all my old furniture. Love is in the air.

-       Let’s buy them from Ikea, she said, and I’ll surprise you once again!

      -   Awesome! I love Ikea! Let’s go!

      -   Who said we needed to go there?

-   Well....

…. crickets ….

       -       I just said I’d surprise you, so I might as well start now.

She pulled out an Ikea catalog and took my cell phone.

-       Simply place the catalog in the room where you're considering adding a new piece of furniture, she said, scan the catalog with the augmented reality app on your cell phone and select the desired item. An image of the room with the furniture in it will appear.

I bet you guys are thinking what I’m thinking right about now: "this girl is crazy!" Well, quickly check that short video before making your mind up about her:

Impressive isn’t it? It’s like this Augmented Reality girl is too good to be true. I mean, do you guys remember what trekking to Ikea is like? It is often an exercise in futility. The armchairs and bookcases never look as perfect in your cramped apartment as they do in Ikea’s color-coordinated showrooms. After 15 minutes, you're tired and overwhelmed and you can't even remember what you came for in the first place. It all just seems like a bad dream.

When you consider that I’m a man of no taste at all when it comes down to interior design and that my perception of space is equal to the one of a drunken camel, you will certainly understand what a blessing she is to me.

So after a careful selection of items using my cell phone, we went to the store, got everything that we need and went back home. Well of course, we still have to “enjoy” the Herculean labor of building up the furniture we just bought. She also cannot make the delicious Swedish meatballs appear in front of me. Augmented Reality is not a magician; she’s just a girl.

The perfect girl you say? 

A THIRD DATE TO SCORE!

So after our second date, I thought I could take Augmented Reality out for a car ride…you know just to...well you know… it is our third date after all.

“Great Idea”, I said, but I forgot one tiny little detail: I don’t own a car. Even though I got my driver’s license 10 years ago, I’ve never actually owned a car or driven one since then. I believe cars have changed a lot since my good old Chevy.

So to increase my chances on that third date, I decided to buy a new one and not to borrow my mom’s.

I thought: what kind of car would impress her? One that is fancy, sophisticated, and modern would do no harm.  So, I settled down for a European one, an Audi A3 to be exact.

So I picked her up in the early evening and brought her to see the sunset up on Hollywood hills. Once we get there the moment is magical and we just stay there enjoying the view.

It is now time to head over to dinner. But wait, night has fallen and I can’t see anything. The dashboard of the car is nothing like the one in my old Chevy. It looks more like the control room of a spaceship, with buttons all over the place. I’m confused and starting to lose it. AR sees this and feels like it’s time for her to jump in and to help me: she pulls out her smartphone from her pocket, downloads the new Audi A3 manual app and just holds her phone near the dashboard. Unbelievable! Each time that she passes her phone in front of an item, the name and user manual for it just appears on the screen. Even though I fee like a douche, she sure did help to find that traffic light remote. Thanks Augmented Reality!

It helped big time to let me familiarize myself with all the features of the new car. I became an Audi A3 specialist in no time.

On our way to the restaurant, I am thinking: “now, nothing will get between me and her”. That was until I start hearing a weird sound coming from the engine. Without further notice, the car just stops in the middle of the road. Talk about the perfect date! Don’t panic she says. She stepped out of the car and opened the hood to reach the engine. She, again, passed her smart phone over it to find where the oil reservoir is. That girl sure knows her mechanics and the guys back at Audi don’t know hoe to fill oil in a new car! Again, that Augmented Reality app really helps us tonight.

We finally reached the restaurant, had a lovely dinner, and I drove her home without any more trouble. On the doorway, I asked her if there’s augmented reality for a kiss? Not yet she said, only plain reality works for those things…chapter close!