Augmented Virtual Reality… Closer than you think!

Every one loves talking and reading about VR (virtual reality) but few think that it can be realized within next few years. Well, the good news is, it is already at a stage where people can benefit from it right away… here’s the concept.

It’s not just VR but actually AR or augmented reality, i.e VR overlays on real time images.

Intrigued!? Read on…

What you need is a mobile phone with:

• A good quality camera
• Accelerometer (like iPhone or G1)
• GPS enabled
• WiFi, 3G , GRPS (any form of internet connection)

Here is what to do:

When the phone camera will point at some popular place (say, Taj Mahal or Red Fort), the software in the phone will detect the direction / orientation (using accelerometer API), calculate the place on earth (using GPS and Google maps via internet). There can be a database like Wikipedia which can provide information about that place overlayed (semi transparent layer) on the phone screen. So when you move the camera, you can actually see the details of the popular buildings you are shooting overlayed with realtime information.

There are a few applications (for iPhone and G1) that are trying to achieve this but are in their infacy. But, within a few years such type of AR (augumented reality) could be a common feature of any smart phone.