Good on you, V2_ Institute. You’ve really brought together a truly diverse group of participants from all walks of life and work. Apart from the hum-drum of the regular “AR” (*ahem*… AR-GPS or Augmented Navigation really…) players from Layar and Wikitude, it looks like they had a fair collection of creative, abstract, narrative and magic augmented reality demonstrations and concepts. Presentations looked a bit bland… I really have a problem with these phrases and terms like “re-create the past” when the example shown is no more than a static 3D model plastered over a physical POI (I could have just taken a brochure from somewhere and held it up for a similar enough effect). Ah well. Inviting the ‘big boys’ over to play is a necessary evil for events like this.
Here’s a “teaser” video of the event. Perhaps more video content is on the way? (Please?)
Layar and Wikitude are special guests at first ever Ecosystem event for people in Augmented Reality. Hosted by V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media and PortalToYourDreams. Artists mingled with developers, city planners and industry in this interactive cross-sector gathering. Special talks on fashion business, aura recognition, AR storytelling and the magic couch :-)
Playing with Google trends today and seeing some fantastic stats on the state of public interest in augmented reality. The graph to the left shows the search volume index (average number of searches for query represented as 1.0), with the first significant spike of 2009 in early March.
How can we protect ourselves from something like:
Downhill slope of search volume for "virtual reality"
… from happening in the future? After all, Gartner’s 2009 hype-cycle shows Augmented Reality as being well on its way to the peak of inflated expectations and into the trough of disillusionment.
Let’s take a look at the Nintendo Virtual Boy. Shipping only approximately 800,000 units worldwide since its conception (for comparison, the newer Nintendo Wii console has shipped 52.62 million units globally since its release in later 2006), this head-mounted display game console was an absolute failure despite being conceived in a time and attitude very warm to the idea of virtual reality. The device itself was awkward and head-ache inducing. The prospect of flying around in virtual worlds was so attractive, yet immersive virtual reality never really made it to the mainstream consumer apart from the occasional trip to the local arcade (read: VR Tron game). What advantage does (mobile) augmented reality have over cases like the Virtual Boy? Ubiquity, ubiquity, ubiquity.
While U.S. smartphone penetration is said to be only around 15 – 19%, and app retention rates are less than flattering, it is a number that is growing, and the market is still far from reaching its full potential. When everyone already has the device — the console — augmented reality can and will flourish if the industry plays their cards right.
