Page 40 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014Augmented reality, on the other hand, is a much more recent phenomenon that mixes experience of the real world with the virtual one, enabling a different sort of interaction with the exterior. The term was coined in 1992 by the Boeing researcher Tom Caudell.This is one of the cases in which literature and film have been ahead of reality. In his 1993 novel Virtual Light, William Gibson described some glasses that are quite similar to what we now understand as augmented reality. “Whoever wore them could see notes and additional details that were attached to each object in the physical reality before them. They were often used by artists and neurosurgeons. In the frame and lenses there were electromagnetic contacts that acted directly on the optic nerve.” In another passage from the book, in an empty room one of the characters (Rydell) puts on some virtual light glasses that have been lent to him by a policeman, after which he can see in the same room a three‐dimensional image of the scene of a crime that had happened some time before. Also, in Minority Report, a film by Steven Spielberg starring Tom Cruise, there are a number of gestural interfaces tocars will use AR by 2020, enabling users for example to receive traffic statistics via their glasses while they wait anxiously in a traffic jam, as described in this article in the online digital technology site Digital Trends on AR applications for iPhone:Expectations of its impact in coming years have been raised in all sectors and have taken a firm grip in medicine, architecture, tourism and the automobile industry, to mention a few, and the cultural sector could also become an area for application, as for instance in digital television, educational content and virtual exhibitions. One example that can be mentioned is an attempt by the British Museum to improve visitors’ experience through an educational project based on AR launched in 2011.A number of museums such as the Streetmuseum and the London Museum have created an AR application based on the use of historic photographs combined with localisation, allowing visitors to see what the city looked like at some time in the past. The Centro Nacional de Arte of Mexico was a pioneer in using them within the museum, placing children in front of a mirror with digital augmentation. The children could wear various simple clothes and hats as AR markers. Depending on the markers they wore, they would see a projected image of themselves wearing historic garments over their own.In the 2011 British Museum project Passport to the Afterlife, children used mobile phones provided by the Museum to scan markers that showed 3D images of objects from ancient Egypt. Augmented reality markers must not be confused with QR markers. The basic use of QR is to send the user to a Web site, while an AR marker makes it possible to show three‐dimensional objects. In her excellent article, Shelley Mannion, the Museum’s director for digital education, also explains how artists, aware of the potential of the technology, are using it to produce virtual exhibitions, where and how they like, anywhere in the city or in its artistic spaces. For example, on 9 October 2010, Sander Veenhof and Mark Skwarek invaded the MoMA creating an ARplan the future that are not too different from some of the products that are already on the market.Augmented reality technologies (AR) introduce the virtual into the real world in order to improve itA wearable AR device always requires some form of display that can be located on the head or on the retina, for example; there are no limits. To mix in the images of the real world a camera is required. The device usually offers Internet browsing, GPS services, address search, photography, videocalls and ticket sales, to mention some services. Smartphones have many of the elements needed for augmented reality applications, making them potential augmented reality devices.It is calculated that by 2014 there will be 864 million AR telephones and that approximately 103 millionAC/E WHERE WE ARE HEADING: DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF CULTURETHEME 4: CULTURE IN THE CLOUDCURRENT PAGE...40