The rate at which mobile device popularity grew was beyond what most had predicted or expected. The growth and use exploded, and since then developers have been on overtime, trying to keep pace with our demands for more. One product that is finally gaining some traction is augmented reality (AR) applications.
Augmented reality (AR) has been around for quite some time, but applications and programs just recently began to get attention. AR is a live direct or indirect view of the physical, real world environment, with computer graphics (or sound) added to augment, or change the view.
This can be observed with a Smartphone or other “smart” type device by downloading an AR app from your phone’s marketplace. There are several places that do the applications but one of the more popular is Layar, an AR browser. Augmented reality is being used in several areas now, such as maps and location based services, marketing, games, architecture and art.
While some developers and merchants as well, have all ready written it off as a passing fad, others are finding new ways to bring it back to life. Games are fun and cool, but research shows that as soon as the new wears off, it’s quickly left behind for bigger and better things.
People want useful tools, that are cool, yet offer value to their lives. That is why AR is being developed and used for things like training simulations, marketing and advertising solutions and engineering and architecture projects. To make it a useful tool that adds value to our lives or makes certain tasks in our life easier.
Without proving itself to be a useful tool, it will be discarded quickly like so many other novel ideas or ill planned products.