Qualcomm, an innovative technology company, has been working on developing advanced uses for augmented reality technology. Unwilling to let the technology be relegated to be used as a gimmick for marketing campaigns, developers at Qualcomm have been developing ways for the technology to see some practical use. At this year’s IQ2011, a technology convention, Qualcomm’s CEO, Paul Jacobs, demonstrated how augmented reality could be used as a “digital sixth sense.” The demonstration showed that the company has come a long way in making augmented reality a practical, perhaps even revolutionary, technology.
The first demonstration was a peek at how the technology could be used for entertainment purposes. Qualcomm has developed a mobile application that uses augmented reality to play movie trailers when a smart phone is pointed at a DVD case. The app can play as many trailers as can fit in the limited viewfinder of a phone’s camera.
The second demonstration was the one in which Jacobs showed off the more innovative uses of the technology. Normally, augmented reality applications are limited by the size of the touch screen on a mobile device. This can cause some problems when interacting with AR user interfaces. To bypass this problem, Qualcomm’s new technology makes use of a smart phone’s microphone, using it as a form of sonar capable of tracking the movements of its owner. This allows mobile users to interact with augmented reality displays without having to use a touch screen or camera.
This use of the technology could make augmented reality more reliable as a whole as it would no longer rely on physical interaction from a user in order to function.
