The End of Hardware

I'm reading a book which bears the title of this post. It is by Rolf Hainich. The link to it on Amazon. I think the author has many valuable points about display technology. The book provides insights on the history of Augmented Reality, however, the work really needs to be edited (by a native English speaker) in order to be enjoyable.

There are problems with the book's formatting, the structure of sentences and the way the ideas are communicated (not sufficiently succinct). I'm only in the second chapter and every other sentence I want to scream because this could be so much better and I need a resource like this to distribute/recommend to people who want to get up to speed on Augmented Reality. Perhaps I could propose to the author that an investment in a copy editor would generate more sales. Or, maybe I will have to write a competitive resource on the topic, including the state of the art in 2008.

I'm sure that there will be significantly greater interest in this topic in the next 12 months so...the ultimate written resource on the topic of mobile augmented reality needs to be published.

Revival of the FP7 proposal?

I got introduced to the whole mobile augmented reality concept when brainstorming with researchers about future projects of potential interest for the Framework Programme 7 funding. Then, I invested considerable time in the summer and fall of 2007 around facilitating the development of a group/consortium to work on a proposal.

Until this week, I thought that the project proposal avenue was dead or dying but this week I got indications that there may still be hope. If a proposal is to be developed, it must have a coordinator of record, the institution which will manage all the administrative overhead and finances for the group and certify the work. A meeting on Wednesday will be held to see if we can revive the proposal development process.

Microsoft Research

I have anticipated that Microsoft would be looking into augmented reality. Afterall, the concept is not a new one and MIT, Cambridge and other academic groups are highly active in the area.

The next step is for me to find the experts who are working on the technologies which Bill Gates spoke about at CES earlier this week. Apparently he spoke about a device on which Microsoft is working for Mobile community participants and those who capture mobile social media.

The new Microsoft handset (features?) will combine live video capture with location recognition and 3D mapping. Although it has not yet been named, Gates anticipates these features to be integrated into Windows Mobile devices.

The "intelligent agent" will provide the user details on locations, people and other objects it views through a built-in video camera! This is a perfect cross over between the Mobile Social Networking market and the Mobile Augmented Reality. If anyone knows who is working on this at Microsoft, I would appreciate an introduction.

When everything points to the obvious

It's time to admit it. There is enough technology and and a lot of people who need the InfoScope. After nearly 18 months of rumination, 2008 is the year in which to act and get this idea to the next level of reality.

In this blog I hope to keep a running log of the news, applications and drivers for the InfoScope, where I can come back and see that everything points to this new way of experiencing the world.