Augmented Reality... why care?

Technology is catching up to our wildest dreams. The candy of the day is augmented reality. AR can pull graphics out of the computer screen and into the real world and enable consumers to physically manipulate 3-D objects as displayed on a monitor, further blurring the limit between the real and the computer generated world—even more.

Although the technology is quite niche and yet to be fully developed, few International examples begin to emerge in areas such as sports broadcast, and advertisers have quickly embraced it as a cutting edge way to engage audiences and customers (Check out GE's smart grid).

Geeks and gamers are the obvious outlets for this technology to explode, however there are other markets that could benefit from this technology:

Instant Information for location and tracking purposes. Imagine Google Maps out on the streets and the implications for travel and tourism.

Work and Training Tool for design, architectural, construction, medical, etc.

The potential applications for this technology are hundreds, gaming and entertainment being the most obvious ones, and will depend on the technological development and the survival of all the hype.

Regardless of where and when the future is going there are a few learning we can extract from AR:

• Technology continues to be preeminent in our society
• Human fascination with the visualization of information
• Human obsession with seen the unseen

Gobama!

"This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you".

This is one of my favorite parts of Obama's victory speech last night. After a long time the word democracy is starting to make sense again.

compete with this

Being an inherit part of human nature, competition naturally finds an outlet through gaming. Video games easily bring us the excitement and thrill that we search for in our lives. Many argue that video game competition makes us aggressive and frustrated. Gamers, on the other hand, describe the experience as "enjoyable" and in any case "intimidating".

Interestingly video game competition taps into traditional aspects of competition, such as traditional sports, and take a social form, through multiplayers and online networks. These social interactions can be viewed as collaborative efforts that ultimately help us thrive and enrich our lives.

It comes as no surprise that the Major League Gaming (the only professional gaming league in North America) has recently added ESPN to it's impressive partner line up. ESPN will be the main news outlet for MLG and ESPN.com will stream competitions and add a section devote to Competitive Gaming.

The video below is a newscast for a Halo 3 competition, with exciting live-like commentary of the play. Regardless of the discussion of whether or not gaming can be considered a sport, I can say that this video frightens me in many different levels.