Your Phone In 2012 Meets AR

The New York Times came up with their predictions regarding what mobile phone technology might resemble in 2012. The big thing is mobile phones may look like a current version of your smart phone – but they will be much more computer than phone. Look for 8-inch fold-out screens, a big virtual keyboard for easy text input, numerous sensors to detect your surroundings (detect what?), and software smart enough to anticipate your needs and sharp enough to respond to conversational commands. Go to www.senseboard.com to look at the virtual keyboard technology.

Augmented reality (AR) also might be an addition to the 2012 version of your phone. Augmented reality really starts with the understanding that virtual reality (VR) never quite lived up to the hype. What was always missing was a convincing sense of immersion. Virtual reality doesn’t feel like reality.

Rather than trying to create an entirely simulated environment, AR starts with reality itself and then augments it. Fundamentally you are overlaying digital information on top of the real world. Using a display, such as the screen of a mobile phone, you see a live view of the world around you – but with digital annotations, graphics, and other information superimposed upon it. The data can be as simple as the names of the mountains visible from a high peak, or the names of the buildings visible on a city skyline. At a historical site, AR could superimpose images showing how buildings used to look. On a busy street, AR could help you choose a restaurant: wave your phone around and read the reviews that pop up. In essence, AR provides a way to blend the wealth of data available online with the physical world - the bridge between real and virtual.

The driving technology behind some of this is the emergence of mobile phones equipped with GPS functions, tilt sensors, cameras, fast Internet connectivity, and crucially a digital compass. The combination of all these functional elements enables a handset to determine where it is, its orientation relative to the ground, and which direction it is being pointed in. The camera allows it to see the world, and the wireless Internet link allows it to retrieve information relating to its surroundings, which is combined with a live view from the camera and displayed on the screen.

A good example of AR can be viewed at - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b64_16K2e08

If in 2012, you still drop your mobile phone/computer/sensor assistant into the toilet - - Best Buy’s Geek Squad suggests a bowl of uncooked rice. First, take out the battery and memory card. Then, leave the back of the phone off so the rice can get into the small places. For best results, leave the phone under the rice for several hours. Then make sure all the rice is out of the cell phone. Next use a hair dryer on a cool setting to ensure there is no water left before putting the battery back in.