Augmented City 3D (by Keiichi Matsuda)

[requires simple 3D red/blue glasses for full effect]

The architecture of the contemporary city is no longer simply about the physical space of buildings and landscape, more and more it is about the synthetic spaces created by the digital information that we collect, consume and organise; an immersive interface may become as much part of the world we inhabit as the buildings around us.
Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology defined by its ability to overlay physical space with information. It is part of a paradigm shift that succeeds Virtual Reality; instead of disembodied occupation of virtual worlds, the physical and virtual are seen together as a contiguous, layered and dynamic whole. It may lead to a world where media is indistinguishable from ‘reality’. The spatial organisation of data has important implications for architecture, as we re-evaluate the city as an immersive human-computer interface.

Tagwhat Next Generation Location Browser with Mobile Augmented Reality

Tagwhat is a next generation location browser with on-line map and mobile augmented reality components. 

We’ve started a pilot right out in Madison Square Park in New York City, to showcase the possibilities for an AR powered smarter city. 

 And we working on another to bring our Smarter Leaders project to leading college campuses around the world. Stay tuned as we ramp up our AR efforts in 2010!


Smarter Leaders Augmented Reality Project for the IBM Student Study
To complement the 2010 CEO Study, IBM interviewed 3600 graduate and undrergraduate students on their views about the future of business.
Today from 12:30 -2:00pm ET, you can watch the Live Webcast to kickoff the Student Study at http://www.livestream.com/newintelligence.
You can download the study, Inheriting a Complex World: future leaders envision sharing a planet at  http://bit.ly/c7iNVM.
At you can become part of the continuing dialogue around the findings through our innovative new Augmented Reality (AR) project, which is virtually bringing the key findings, interactive discussion and collaboration to 30 leading college campuses around the world through Tagwhat, a new AR content creation and sharing platform.

Smarter Leaders Augmented Reality Project for the IBM Student Study

To complement the 2010 CEO Study, IBM interviewed 3600 graduate and undrergraduate students on their views about the future of business.

Today from 12:30 -2:00pm ET, you can watch the Live Webcast to kickoff the Student Study at http://www.livestream.com/newintelligence.

You can download the study, Inheriting a Complex World: future leaders envision sharing a planet at  http://bit.ly/c7iNVM.

At you can become part of the continuing dialogue around the findings through our innovative new Augmented Reality (AR) project, which is virtually bringing the key findings, interactive discussion and collaboration to 30 leading college campuses around the world through Tagwhat, a new AR content creation and sharing platform.

Tagwhat Leaves Read-Only Augmented Reality Browsers Behind | ReadWriteWeb
Tagwhat, an augmented reality creation and distribution system, publicly launched this week bringing the world of augmented reality into the realm of Web 2.0. While other augmented realtiy browsers, such as Wikitude and Layar, provide the user with information overlays over live video, Tagwhat allows users to create these overlays. According to the company, its mobile and web application represents a paradigm-shift in augmented reality. Tagwhat also marks an important milestone in the evolutionary path of AR technology, representing a shift from the static Web 1.0 world of AR browsers to the participatory interaction of Web 2.0. Tagwhat is ‘create-and-share’ mobile AR, and is the first mobile augmented reality distribution system where anyone, not just developers, can create their own AR content and share with their friends anywhere in the world, in seconds, for free. 
(And see the Smarter Cities AIR — Augmented Intelligent Reality — pilot  at http://www.tagwhat.com/smartercities or if you’re in New York City, experience the pilot yourself right in Madison Square Park, just outside IBM’s Global Business Services headquarters.)

Tagwhat Leaves Read-Only Augmented Reality Browsers Behind | ReadWriteWeb

Tagwhat, an augmented reality creation and distribution system, publicly launched this week bringing the world of augmented reality into the realm of Web 2.0. While other augmented realtiy browsers, such as Wikitude and Layar, provide the user with information overlays over live video, Tagwhat allows users to create these overlays. According to the company, its mobile and web application represents a paradigm-shift in augmented reality. Tagwhat also marks an important milestone in the evolutionary path of AR technology, representing a shift from the static Web 1.0 world of AR browsers to the participatory interaction of Web 2.0. Tagwhat is ‘create-and-share’ mobile AR, and is the first mobile augmented reality distribution system where anyone, not just developers, can create their own AR content and share with their friends anywhere in the world, in seconds, for free. 

(And see the Smarter Cities AIR — Augmented Intelligent Reality — pilot  at http://www.tagwhat.com/smartercities or if you’re in New York City, experience the pilot yourself right in Madison Square Park, just outside IBM’s Global Business Services headquarters.)

Something in the AIR in Madison Square: Smarter Cities and Augmented Reality

If you stroll outside IBM’s offices at 11 Madison Ave in New York City with an iPhone or Android-powered smartphone, you’ll discover something strange and new in Madison Square Park, and it’s not the Gormley sculpture exhibit imported from London.

home_phone_box_01Using Tagwhat — the augmented reality (AR) content creation service just launched — we’ve scattered bits of content about Smarter Cities, analytics and the Internet of Things throughout the park.  On one corner there is an item about Cabsense, a new app that predicts the best nearby corner to find a taxi, based on crunching a year’s worth of GPS data and traffic patterns from NYC cabs.

(See the rest of the post on the Smarter Planet blog)

smarterplanet:

Augmented Wikipedia Reality Has Arrived on the iPhone
Augmented reality takes virtual data, places it on your phone, and allows you to interact with it using your compass, camera, and GPS. The end result is the ability to see virtual items and information in the real world. Wikitude’s AR app combines Wikipedia (Wikipedia) and geotagged information from its users and places it in your hands.

smarterplanet:

Augmented Wikipedia Reality Has Arrived on the iPhone

Augmented reality takes virtual data, places it on your phone, and allows you to interact with it using your compass, camera, and GPS. The end result is the ability to see virtual items and information in the real world. Wikitude’s AR app combines Wikipedia (Wikipedia) and geotagged information from its users and places it in your hands.

smarterplanet:

WhereMark: More AR Discovery for the Outernet - ReadWriteStart

Virginia-based company WhereMark just released a preview of its upcoming app for the iPhone 3GS. By now we’re all familiar with augmented reality applications that place data above a real-time mobile camera view. Companies like Wikitude, RobotVision and Layar have wowed us with their ability to color what is sometimes described as an “outernet.” While it is not yet available to consumers, it will be interesting to see if WhereMark’s application weaves a similar web of intrigue.

Augmented Reality Virtual Marketplaces

To help spur the economy, I’d like to see Virtual Storefronts created for products or services via Augmented Reality (AR).  In this video demonstrating how AR was used to virtually paint an abandoned warehouse, you can see how simple it would be to create cyber representations of whole stores that people could shop in via AR enabled smart phones.  Each virtual kiosk could have geo-tagged videos demonstrating actual products that people could purchase by simply clicking their screen.  Picture Central Park in New York City or other public spaces that could be utilized in this way by startup companies unable to afford the rents that many urban locations charge.  Supply chain issues would be vastly minimized as products wouldn’t need to go to stores and them people’s homes.  Retail efficiencies would provide more profit to owners, etc. Trash/waste would also be non-existent.

-John C. Havens (VP, Social Media at Porter Novelli and author of Tactical Transparency).