Augmented Reality

I could watch these for hours...it's the future Michael J Fox promised me all those years ago in the Back to the Future. I can see a consumer product and service explosion using this technology....can't wait to grab a spare few minutes to check out all these vids.

And for those playing at home here's the 10 second catchup, thanks to Jawbone.TV

"What exactly is Augmented Reality? According to Jeff Crouse of the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, "AR is where you have a special symbol on a physical object that a computer can recognize. So when a camera looks at that object, you can superimpose other things in 3D space around that symbol."

Or to put it another way, Augmented Reality lets you see things that aren't really there, but only through a lens (currently your webcam or mobile phone).

It's hard to describe to people - one of those 'you gotta see it' things. But make no mistake, whatever the 'thing' is, it's coming, and it's going to create an entertainment and marketing tsunami that will make the Internet look like a pond ripple. The key shift will likely occur when the lens becomes wearable. Invisible even. Contacts or glasses that look just like the ones you wear now, allowing you to cross into a 3D interactive world seamlessly transposed onto your reality. To quote Keanu Reeves: "... Whoa."