The Evolution of Augmented Reality

In the previous two blog posts we have given you a small introduction to Augmented Reality (AR) and seen the difference between Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. In this post, we will look more at the history and evolution of Augmented Reality.

Augmented Reality as a concept is born

For most people AR as a concept can be seen as something very new. And the introduction of new products and gadgets like Google Glasses has created an increased awareness around it, and is sometimes referred to as the "wearable revolution". But as this blog will show you, AR, is a lot more than just wearable gadgets. When that is said, similar to most technologies, AR has been present in labs and research institutions for nearly half a century. The introduction of AR, can be tracked back to Ivan Sutherland, a scientist from University of Utah who in 1965 introduced a head-mounted display, with mirrors attached, allowing the wearer to see a very limited virtual world superimposed on the real world.  The display was too heavy for a human head to carry, and was therefor suspended from the ceiling in the lab (See below for pictures)

 Source: http://www.computerhistory.org

Augmented Reality as a name is born

The name Augmented Reality (AR), was first introduced in 1992, by Tom Caudell, working for Boeing. He was working in an area where also the US Army and related industries was looking at Augmented Reality, as a way to improve their manufacturing and engineering process. They used AR to present very simple layers on top of the real world (i.e. in the process of laying cables in certain airplane components, the software and the hardware, could indicate where which cable should be placed, without the user having to look up in manuals for every single one)

During the 90s there was a rapid technological development, which also lead to a rapid development in the space of AR. 1999 is by many seen as the turning point for AR, when Hirokazu Kato introduced the ARToolKit, an open source software package which is still one of the main technologies used for today's AR applications. The software would be taking output generated by a simple camera and overlaying it with simple virtual 3D objects

Augmented Reality today

As we moved into the new century mobile computer devices became more apparent (including mobile phones and smart phones), we saw the introduction of GPS and compasses into mobile devices and wireless data communication was introduced. All this created a foundation for several projects looking at combining this with camera processing (Cameras was becoming integrated into phones). And as of this, we saw the introductions of different Augmented Reality Browsers, which basically uses the camera on your smartphone, the GPS and data available on the World Wide Web, to display virtual information on top of the image of reality you see in your display. Examples of such browsers today are Accrossair, Google Goggles, Google Skymap etc

Then as many people are aware of, Google launched its Google Glasses for developers and testing in February 2013, and is expecting to release them to the public during 2014.

 
So looking at what Sutherland came up with in 1965, Google now is taking the same concept to the next level. Google Glasses are now more like a wearable computer, with a small optical head mounted display and will display smartphone like content in a hands-free fashion and you can communicate with it through your voice. Stay tuned for more information around today's usage of Augmented Reality and the gadgets available, or soon to be.