Augmented Reality today is possible because through the combination of GPS + Compass your location and direction are determined. Data can be added to coördinates, so when your GPS+Compass device is in range of these coördinates it will show this data. The problem is that GPS chips are not very accurate. There is another way.

Google has the streetview technology. If we have software that cross-references images of what you see with this streetview database (kind of like how Shazam cross-references the music you hear with their music-database) we can accurately determine what your position is. Google plans to do so with Google Goggles.

Microsoft is working on similar technology. After Bing Search, they created Bing Maps and Bing Explore and Photosynth. Their getting pretty good at it. With Photosynth microsoft can now create streetview perspective from user-generated content. So Microsoft doesn’t have to drive through every city with a camera mounted to a car, all the photo’s people shoot get synthesized together to make a streetview perspective. What they can do with this? Check it out, it’s amazing.

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Augmented Reality is a phenomenon, constructed by fusing many digital technologies together. On this blog I will post updates on these layers of technology that are a part of Augmented Reality, or will be so.

I want to start out by showing you this TED talk by Pranav Mistry. Pranav invented Sixth Sense during his work at the Fluid Interfaces group of MIT’s Media Lab, which is showcased in this movie. I was stunned. So will you be.

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Archadia is a future avantgarde city. This city was designed after Augmented Reality became omnipresent. The possibilities this gave architects, softwaredevelopers, townplanners and governments led to a new way of city-building and architecture. Now that we can assign digital skins to every part of the town, many aspects of the city didn’t have to be planned, they can be assigned in real-time to suit the needs of the individual users. Road signs don’t have to placed along the road, they can be added digitally. Buildings don’t need color, every inhabitant can choose how to paint the city. However, the shapes of the buildings and their functions are still needed. Roads and sidewalks still need physical locations.

New materials were invented that would fit well with these new requirements. White standardized buildingblocks that would allow for complete formal freedom were introduced. The city that was built was completely white, clean and generic. Digital designers made skins and themes for users to install and to determine how their surroundings and the people in it look.

Off course these changes didn’t make everybody happy. The idea of a clean white city is not everbody’s dreamworld. Slowly I will tell the story of this city and of the people who live in it. I hope to show you what the embrace of Augmented Reality can lead to. I hope you will like the story and help me write it.

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