Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
Augmented Interventions: Re-defining Urban
Interventions with AR and Open Data
Conor McGarrigle
4.1
Augmented Reality
In many ways the term 'Augmented Reality' (AR) is problematic in itself but as
with much in the field of 'New Media' it appears that for the moment it has
gained wide acceptance in the absence of a suitable replacement. The term was
originally coined by Tom Caudell and David Mizell in
1992
for applications in
aircraft manufacturing at Boeing. It was associated in the 1990s with virtual reality
type headsets such as prototypes like the
Touring Machine
(Feiner et al.
1997
)
and
Map-in-the-Hat
(Thomas et al.
1998
) which were accompanied by weighty
backpacks carrying the necessary computing, GPS and communication equipment,
which now fits in a cellphone. Even today the HUD (Heads Up Display) paradigm
still has traction as demonstrated by the interest in Google Glass,
1
however despite
Google's intervention, the HUD as a model of AR can be still said to exist in the
nostalgia of “yesterday's tomorrows” (Bell and Dourish
2007
).
This association of AR situated somewhere along the real-virtual continuum, not
quite real but not fully virtual either, serves to situate the practice in a scenario
which I suggest looks toward the utopian values and ambitions of virtual reality
and as such runs the risk of not attending to the real value of AR, which is its
ability to contextually situate data. It is necessary to further distinguish the version
of AR currently available for mobile devices from the richer conceptualisation of
augmented space as articulated by Lev Manovich (
2006
) which encompasses the
