Page 41 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014application that projected their works inside the galleries.Although most of the instances of the use of this technology have so far been in museums, it has also been suggested that augmented reality could replace the manuals used by technicians in many sectors of industry, such as car repair, and so the same might happen in the field of education in general, with a consequent impact on the book industry.CULTURE SEEN WITH OTHER EYESGoogle Glass was the star launch from Google in 2012, the first commercial augmented reality product, which inaugurated a new generation of wearable devices. Its promotional video shows a modern version of Leonardo’s bird man and it transports us to a land where its users control their experience in the world while barely grazing it, with the utmost lightness and freedom.The glasses show significant information on a little screen located in the corner of your eyes, making it possible, among other things, to take photos and shoot videos. They are voice‐sensitive. The user orders Glass take a picture! and the glasses obediently snap your sky‐diving experience. The world seen from above, at your feet, without needing your hands to press any button. Glass record a video!, you could go on, or Glass share this!, and the device, that is, the pair of glasses you are wearing, records and shares the unique, interactive experience you are having with the world around you. The glasses elegantly superimpose all manner of useful or commercial information on the images of the real world, and as though that were not enough, last month Google announced that it would add the possibility of controlling music with the glasses.The experiments by museums to develop AR applications for mobile devices will soon beAC/Eimproved by equivalent applications for Glasses so that there will be no need to use your hands. The mobile devices we are used to are beginning to turn into rather old‐fashioned devices. The media are also pioneers in using the glasses, for example the Google Glass application for the New York Times or for CNN News.The tourist industry has been amongst the first to see the potentialof Google’s newinvention andthe Glasses arespoken of asbeing the touristguides of thefuture. The useof augmentedreality, which enables users of the glasses to magnify what they are seeing down to the tiniest detail and to see real‐time indications based on maps, will make future applications for cultural tourism extremely valuable, both for the tourist and for museums, libraries, theatres or exhibition galleries or cinemas who wish to reach a localised, more attractive public. Probably one of the most interesting uses of this technology will be the ability to record and share one’s personal experiences. By way of example we might cite this experience of a visit to the Metropolitan Museum using it. Who would not like to repeat the experience of Vargas Llosa on a visit to the Prado?Although still very expensive—they will cost about €1,500—they will not be on sale until 2014 and probably we will see more applications for Google’s invention as the price goes down, driven by amongst other things the competition of new suppliers such as Apple, who have already announced their version of augmented reality glasses, presumably in white to give continuity to the company’s trade‐mark colour.Wearable devices are clothes and accessories that incorporate electronic or computerised technologyWHERE WE ARE HEADING: DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF CULTURETHEME 4: CULTURE IN THE CLOUD CURRENT PAGE...41