Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
with content and interaction from artificial worlds overlaid. This is best explained
by an example. Suppose a group of friends were playing a game involving chasing
software-generated monsters. They could be running around in a public place
outdoors but would see and hear (and potentially feel) the monsters using a variety
of multimedia devices, some of which would be carried and have screens (along
the lines of a camera viewfinder or even a head-up display) and some of which
could be (multipurpose) public displays. Some examples of some recent research
experiments are given in [9, 10].
Whereness is a key component of these systems since the media is locative
(i.e., connected with a location). The exact temporal-spatial positions of the users
in the real world are linked very closely with their equivalents in the virtual world
or worlds.
Augmented reality is a very important aspect of the future in many ways.
First, the experience is likely to be highly engaging and entertaining in a human
way and thus likely to be both popular and lucrative commercially in common
with most computer gaming (now larger than the movie industry). Second, the
technique suggests that perhaps we should start to think of virtual worlds as extra
dimensions of the real world. Rather than concentrate on totally artificial world
creations, some of which have raised concerns about the psychological dangers of
decoupling from reality and thus by extension from the norms of morality,
perhaps it would be better to add extra layers and dimensions to the real world?
An example might be the apparent ability for quasi-time travel. For example, here
is a scenario that might appeal to a student of history.
Ten kilometers from the author's home is the famous Anglo-Saxon ship
burial site of Sutton Hoo, where it is thought one of the first kings of England was
buried with his treasure, in a ship covered by an earth mound near a river bank.
The only traces of the ship found by the archeologists were the iron rivets and the
impression in the soil of the wooden planking that had rotted away during the past
1400 years. It would be an amazing educational and cultural experience if we
could now recreate an augmented reality version of the ship and site, where one
could walk around and see (via a personal display) what it would have been like in
600 AD. For example, see the (software-generated) ship sailing on the real river
and be ushered into the presence of the (virtual) sovereign. Although there is a
modest real tourist experience today, the costs of providing the augmented reality
version would also be modest in comparison with a major theme park that would
be unlikely to be funded in this example.
The technical challenges of providing vector graphic VR models that are
linked in real time to personal positioning systems of high accuracy are only just
becoming feasible, but it is likely that in a few years' time the technique will be
commonplace.
