Week 5 [18.04 - 24.04] - Augmented Reality througout history

Most of you might have come across the phrase “Augmented Reality” but there still is some confusion in differentiating between augmented and virtual reality. So what is it? Augmented reality, as the name implies, is an augmentation of real world, while virtual reality replaces real environment by computer generated graphics. So the user using a VR device sees nothing but CGI and in AR it’s all about embedding some elements in a regular field of vision.

The idea was first mentioned by Frank L. Baum, the author of “The wonderful wizard of Oz”, in his story “The Master Key”. Baum writes about a device called the character maker, special glasses, allowing people to see a note on the forehead of the person they looked at. That note mentioned something related to the target’s character. That does sound a lot like Google Glass, but for many years that remained just a dream.

At the turn of the 50s and 60s, Morton Heilig, a camera operator and a pioneer in VR, invented a machine called Sensorama. It was used to display 3d videos and additionally it released various scents. 

Source: U.S. Patent #3050870

Another milestone in both virtual and augmented reality was creating the first Head Mounted Display (HMD) by Ivan Sutherland. That was a direct path for displays we know today - like Google Glass or Oculus Rift.

In the 80s Steve Mann developed first wearable devices, also first augmented reality glasses. We can thank the same man for smartwatches as well.

The real boom began in the 90s when Augmented Reality found its use for military purposes. In 1992 Boeing’s researcher, Louis Rosenberg, prepared a system called Virtual Fixtures for the United States Air Force. It was used for enhancing efficiency of remote operations. After that, in 1999, Naval Research Laboratory, began working on another system - BARS (Battlefield Augmented Reality System). Keeping in mind that military operations in future could take place in urban locations, they came to realise such places bring a lot of difficulties, like limited visibility, ineffective communication, sniper threats, being unable to differentiate between enemies and allies. Radio communication and using paper maps are unhandy to say the least. That’s where augmented reality helps. BARS came with a portable computer, a wireless network receiver and an HMD, allowing all the necessary actions without ever looking away from the battlefield by displaying data on HMD.

Source: BARS: Battlefield Augmented Reality System

Istanbul, 2000 

From then on the path was clear for AR in everyday life. In the year 2000 Bruce H. Thomas remakes a famous game, Quake, and makes it augmented. That means theoretically you can just equip an HMD and shoot computer generated enemies outside. Although it is said by the author that it would be very expensive (thousands of dollars).

But not everything is lost for a casual user. In 2008 we were presented with first Android smartphones and first Android apps working in augmented reality. Since then there have been many applications using AR, but most of them are meant to enhance sightseeing experience, either outside, showing where you can eat fancy food or do some fun activities, or inside, like museums, where you can get additional information about exhibitions.

The most awaited moment came in 2012 when Google announced Google Glass and started beta tests in 2013. Everyone is more or less familiar with the gadget. It includes a camera, display, microphone and gains wireless Internet connection via smartphone. Not much different from regular glasses, Google Glass provides users with graphical and textual information right before their eyes. 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glass

Nowadays a lot of hope is put in using augmented reality and mobile and portable devices to enhance the learning process. There are developed apps teaching children simple maths, colours and general basic knowledge. Personally I hope more effort will be put in developing educational applications for older audience because natural science offers so many opportunities to put AR to good use and make studying easier and more fun.

What are your thoughts? Are there any AR apps that you like? Or maybe you’d like something to be developed in near future?