Up until now I’ve managed to deal with technology. Being a part of the first generation that grew up with computers and mobiles nothing has really phased me before. I’ve been able to programme the VCR, establish an internet connection, and (more recently) engage with web 2.0. But a new departure in digital video technology called Augmented Reality is the first thing that gave me the same sense of amazement that my grandparents felt when they first saw television. Augmented Reality is part of a revolution in the way that we interact with on-screen information that began with the Wii but has taken big steps forward with microsoft’s (xbox thingy) and non-glasses 3D (more of which next time). Essentially what Augmented Reality does is take a live picture feed from a camera and insert scarily real 3D images into that picture making the person viewing the camera think that they’re actually there. For example you can look at your nice normal hands with nothing between them whatsoever apart from a normal piece of card and then look up at a screen and see you’re holding a skeleton. As this video demonstrates.

As with so much technology Augmented Reality was first used by the military. The army use it for training exercises such as having a soldier in a real field who can put on an augmented reality headset and suddenly a digitally generated helicopter can appear to circle above; which he then has to shoot with a digital gun. Kind of sounds like the greatest computer game ever. And indeed games is exactly where many were predicting augmented reality’s future would lie. It’s easy to imagine lots of teenage boys wandering round fields pointing imaginary guns in the air. After all until my generation that’s pretty much what boys used to do anyway, just using their imaginations instead of digital trickery.

But some breakthroughs in iphone apps amongst other things have shown how augmented reality can be used for other purposes –businesses included. An app is already available where you can be walking down the street in London and look at a live picture on your iphone’s camera and digital signs will apparently float in mid air telling you the direction and distance to the nearest tube stations. One can immediately see this kind of thing being rolled out to big department stores to direct customers around the shop floor and inform them of items they might like to purchase and exactly where they can be found.

But the possibilities extend far beyond that. Augmented reality is already being used for product demonstrations and brand engagement. With a small amount of imagination and a lot of technical know-how it’s perfectly possible for someone to virtually step into a website or be trained in any number of complex manual tasks that would normally require a novice being risked on real and highly expensive equipment.

The only problem I can foresee with Augmented Reality is some sort of horrific realisation of a sci-fi horror where people end up becoming so addicted to a computer generated alternative reality that gradually everyone stops living in the real world. But that’s just silly……..right?