When government officials talk about information “transparency,” they don't mean augmented reality (AR). But AR will play a major role in enhancing government transparency, although it won't be welcomed by many officials.
I continue to believe that, eventually, much of the world will wear these types of glasses. Perhaps in 2013 we'll see Apple's iGlasses.
Before iGlasses, though, the camera phone is becoming the AR device of choice. It's still very early days, but geekier cellphone users are downloading AR browsers and applications. One Washington organization, the Sunlight Foundation, recently offered a free AR app that's aimed, not just at geeks, but rather at policy wonk geeks. It works with Layar, the most well known AR browser, in conjunction with data from Recovery.gov, the U.S. government's Website about the economic stimulus funding. Layar is available for Android phones and the iPhone 3GS.
Recovery.gov provides details about the hundreds of billions in dollars in tax cuts, contracts, grants, and loans authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Interestingly, one of the Act's goals is to "foster unprecedented levels of accountability and transparency in government spending."
If you walk down a street and point your camera phone at buildings, for example, you'll see blue circles on a map that indicate companies that received government assistance. The software displays the company name, amount received, and the distance from where you're standing.
It doesn't offer any more, but information can be filtered by amounts of funding and searched by company name. Funds have been provided to everything from power plants, state tourism offices, and railroads to automobile shops, Bible colleges, and Native American youth programs.
The Recovery.gov data is coded in the KML file format, which is designed to display geographic data in such programs as Google Earth and Google Maps.
The Sunlight mashup pales in comparison to the information available on Recovery.gov as well as the wealth of related information on the Web. However, it's just the first step in employing AR for government information.
The next step should be adding more data (either from Recovery.gov or from other sites), such as government agencies that provide the funds, categories of companies, how each company is supposed to use the funds, and who's managing the money within the company.
Ellen S. Miller, co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, participated this week in an Internet Evolution podcast and online chat. She said Sunlight is working on an iPhone app about Congress, but didn't say whether it was AR.
Government stimulus funding is only one of thousands of types of government data that could be integrated into AR browsers. The details for every company or organization that has received any type of government assistance could be added. You could stand in front of a building, and see if AR information pops up.
Technologically, AR works better with advanced camera phones that have faster microprocessors, larger and higher resolution screens, GPS, and a compass. More accurate location technology would enhance AR's usefulness.
Obviously, there are serious privacy and security concerns about the ease of viewing government -- and personal -- data via AR. How much is too much?
But imagine pointing your camera phone at every bridge, tunnel, and highway to see details about pork barrel projects.
What if every citizen in every country could view information about wasteful government funding simply by pointing their camera phones? Many governments already censor the Internet. Perhaps augmented reality will be next on their hit lists.
No -- augmented reality has value. Every technology is hyped. Indeed, it seems that hype is required to generate enthusiasm -- not that I like hype or evangelism.
Today's AR apps are primitive. But that's today.
This isn't baloney. It's the real thing. The integration of the physical world with Internet data is simply a no-brainer and it will get better. It will just take time to develop to apps that cannot be duplicated with non-AR methods.
I certainly won't argue about naming. Augmented reality might indeed be quickly dismissed and another name used in its place.
However, augmented reality hasn't been going on for a while in any commercial setting, except in a few specific vertical markets, such as heads up displays on military planes.
Regardless of what hardware is used -- camera phones, eyeglasses, whatever -- integrating data into physical situations is going to happen for consumers. It's simply too useful and entertaining not to happen.
It will just take time to put together all the pieces.
Frankly, I think AR, as a term, is going to come and go very quickly. People might write about it every so often, but while the concept might remain in some form, it appears to be something that has been going on for awhile without a title.
Thanks for helping me make my points! As I've been writing in my replies to comments, before I just read your second comment, all technology takes time to develop and most (if not all) technology is disparaged at the outset because its purpose seems so unclear and its capabilities soprimitive.
My pleasure! Your article is a great one and as easy as it is to quickly dismiss AR as another passing fad, or as a marketing gimmick, my links and yours have a strong argument for the usefulness and future of augmented reality.
Everyone can have an opinion, but facts are facts and it is difficult to argue them unless one has something viable to counter it with instead of "I personally believe...".
Thanks for helping me make my points! As I've been writing in my replies to comments, before I just read your second comment, all technology takes time to develop and most (if not all) technology is disparaged at the outset because its purpose seems so unclear and its capabilities soprimitive.
With augmented reality, its value is obvious for those with the eyes to see and the brains to evaluate.
From a government perspective, I'd like to combine AR with facial recognition. Point your camera phone or your eyeglasses at a politician, and the recognition software will determine who the politician is and display information about him/her.
Obviously, this also could be done for other categories of workers. (Or, maybe, we'll just force politicians to wear large barcodes on their clothing!)
Marketers will have their fun as long as there are markets! And, to take a marketing perspective, people don't buy products, including useful ones, if they don't know they exist.
In any case....Many technologies are considered "overnight sensations," just like actors who have toiled for decades and finally become recognized for their talents.
Augmented reality has finally reached a point where there's a tiny bit of "there there." It's still in the baby steps stage or, perhaps, the baby crawl stage. But isn't that the way with all technology?
The key is looking at AR and pondering whether it makes sense and should be developed. It does and it will.
Yes, augmented reality is very hot now. Many bloggers and mainstream publications have written about it and even published special reports, such as the current issue of Business Week.
However, I'm enthusiastic because of its value, not because of the hype. It's not a solution looking for a problem but, rather, a solution to problems: Continuous viewing of information that will be invaluable for business and personal lives.
I agree that, so far, there is more hype than value -- just as there was with every other technology that has become invaluable, from telephones to computers.
Fast Company's headline is correct: AR is a fad now (an esoteric, techie-only fad), but it will become the future for mainstream consumers tomorrow.
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In the final episode of this series about the death of Internet anonymity, Saunders describes how the Internet of the future will start to attain a level of intelligence that requires no human intervention. Scary.
What can users today do to protect their online privacy? The simplest and most obvious option is to not use the Internet – at all. However, once all digital information is consolidated over the Internet, trying to protect digital identity by simply unplugging from the Internet becomes impossible – a fact that has manifest implications for civil liberties, Saunders says.
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