I know, you see it there… on the screen, but then you look on the table… and it’s not there, IT’S NOT THERE. Ya know why, huh? huh? Because it’s Augmented Reality (AR), and your neural pathways are about to be re-myelinated with 3D augmented goodness.

ISMAR 2009 (International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality) is happening this week in beautiful Orlando, Florida. It’s where anyone and everyone involved in redefining what we visualize in real space is talking about or demoing what’s next in AR.

There are mucho applications for this in product development. Not suprisingly, one of them inolves analysing 3D geometry… via an iPhone. Here’s just one demo you’ll see being shown this week and a link to much, much more.

An international team of computer scientists has created software that lets anyone perform on-the-fly analysis of live streaming video on the iPhone. Used alongside existing methods of displaying data on top of the camera’s view, this new functionality signals a fundamental change in the kinds of Augmented Reality (AR) that iPhone developers can create. Existing AR apps, like Yelp, Layar, Wikitude and others display data on top of a camera’s view but don’t actually analyze what the camera sees. This new development changes that. – via ReadWriteWeb

    Don’t think AR is popular or going anywhere? There’s lots more than this being done with how you view your surroundings through the lens of a camera and some fancy frameworks. With Apple now allowing apps to use the camera view the possibilities or just opening up, I tell ya. Next, they just need to allow the interaction you’ll see in the video below.

    Applying it to Product Development

    Now this ought to have your brain juices flowing a little bit. So, creating 3D models on a lil’ itty, bitty screen is a tad impractical you say? Well, what if that screen just confirms 3D geometry in actual environmental conditions. Maybe projectors are getting to the point that we’ll see them in mobile devices, so what we see augmented on the screen will be projected back onto the surface. Impossible?

    You can see even more examples of the tech at ISMAR this week on Games Alfresco.

    MAKE via Ben. Thanks!

    Author

    Josh is founder and editor at SolidSmack.com, founder at Aimsift Inc., and co-founder of EvD Media. He is involved in engineering, design, visualization, the technology making it happen, and the content developed around it. He is a SolidWorks Certified Professional and excels at falling awkwardly.