Augmented Audio
- Augmented audio is a part of the Augmented Reality family.
- Audio feedback can be highly improved by adding another layer of media/information on top of an input feed.
- “Augmented Audio is defined as live audio being modified and/or enhanced by computer-generated sensory input.”
- Augmented Audio can be used in many different contexts.
- For example: tourism, location-oriented communication and information sharing, gaming and entertainment and even as a distinctive new interaction technique.
- “Developers have started to embrace the possibilities of augmenting the experiences of real-world encounters; providing incentive to stimulate new ways of experiencing, rather than merely instructing software.”
- There are many examples of Augmented Audio within tourism.
For example:
- Museums and other public attractions can utilize audio tours that customize what a visitor hears.
- Smartphone applications can offer personalized choice of language, length of content and level of detail. By placing QR- codes next to exhibit items, visitors can easily trigger any desirable action by scanning it.
- Location-aware techniques such as GPS and Mobile Network Triangulation may allow both static objects to communicate with each other as well as offering users the opportunity to collectively assemble location-specific information.
- Apps such as google maps can be improved as feedback can be extended with audio “the combination will effectively create an entirely audiovisual experience.”
(Toozla is a mobile service that combines a global positioning system with audio tours and stories, user content, and local information, to give you an all-in-one travel guide that you can take with you everywhere. Discover hidden facts about places, buildings, monuments, and much more. Do this from the locals that already know the best places.)
Key Games:
- TableDrum augments audio, changing the way users create music. It relies on an intelligent sound classification engine that can be taught to identify and map actions to virtually any audible input. Teaching the application will allow the user to construct a virtual drum set from everyday objects, where each contact sound represents a distinct drum component.
- Inception is an application that uses augmented sound to induce dream-like sound sequences through the headphones of an iOS device. The application consists of several different soundscapes that are triggered when certain conditions apply. The conditions are not known before hand, creating a game-like component where users attempt to find and initiate new sequences.
- RJDJ combines incoming real-world sound with normal music to create a unique audio experience that differs depending on the place and situation you are in. It is safe to say that the results are unexpected.
- Konstruct is an application that uses the microphone to capture ambient sounds to influence the creation of geometric shapes on the fly. Use the camera to capture a shape then whistle, blow or speak into the microphone to augment it. The captured shapes support a relative 3D lock which is retained as the user shifts the camera around.
Pokémon Go/Snapchat:
(Entertainment will see a rise of new programs that utilize Augmented Audio and Augmented Reality in various ways, and if Virtual Reality gaming (remember the clunky helmets of the 90s) is ever revived it will probably be through use of Augmented Reality. Museums and other tourism heavy sectors will utilize more customized visitor experiences that augments audio to suit what the tourists are interested in.)
SpecTrek/SpotCrime:
(More and more services will allow people to tag places with their own recordings, images, videos or text. Eventually whole cities will be filled with geo-tagged content accessible to mobile phones. By tracking head movements it can be possible to create virtual surround sound in headphones, following the person’s relative head position.)
Reference:
Augmented Reality Livens Up Musuems:
Although modern living is already heavy with information, there’s something very intriguing about enhancing reality using augmented reality (AR). When Google began development of Google Glass, a wearable AR device, it was a sign that AR was no longer just a gimmick.
ABI Research concluded that AR’s future was in wearable devices, allowing users to be digitally updated on the world before them.
Seeing as most people visiting a musuem these days will at some point use a smartphone whilst viewing, it only makes sense for musuems to encorporate AR into the viewing experience.
An exhibit called ‘Ultimate Dinosaurs’ opened in the Royal Ontario Musuem last Summer allowing onlookers to observe the dinosaurs in the ‘flesh’.
Two Californian musuems, ‘The Laguna Beach Art Musuem’ and ‘The Getty Musuem’, both have incorporated bringing still exhibits into motion and the chance to virtually inspect certain pieces. The Science Musuem in London even employed James May to be a virtual tour guide.
Other examples of the developing technology are:
* MIT’s ‘EyeRing’, which is a camera worn on your finger which sends the photograph to your smartphone providing you with information on what you have photographed.
* Disney Research have created technology which projects texture to smooth surfaces.
* Ikea now provide an AR catalog which enables customers to view the interior of certain products.
* The ‘Los Angeles Times’ once provided information within the paper which was only viewable by AR tech.
* Some Walker’s crisp packets give consumer’s the chance to read the weather forcast off the back of the packet using an AR app.
Reference:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/augmented-reality-livens-up-museums-22323417/?no-ist
How Augmented Reality Can Enhance the Tourism Industry
Tourism is an already booming industry, but could augmented reality (AR) be a valuable asset to its growth? Tourists usually travel for one of three reasons: recreation, leisure or business. The effects of tourism span across numerous sectors such transportation and entertainment and many nations are willing to allocate a large sum of money to boost their tourist intake via marketing and new technology. One such technology is augmented reality, which overlays digital information onto the users surroundings. Lonely Planet Travel editor, Tom Hall has said that AR could “give users a new route into accessing travel information.”
Up-to-date information is a must-have for any tourist in a destination unfamiliar to them and the recent addition of AR software to smartphones makes obtaining that information easier than ever. Using the GPS and camera functions on your smartphone you can gain valuable information on what surrounds you in an instance. With AR it is now possible to superimpose a navigational arrow onto a digital map pointed in the direction you are facing, making navigating as simple as following a tour guide. Apps such as ‘Intelligent Eye’ allow users to seamlessly translate signs and menus, making tourist look less like headless chickens.
The opportunity to include AR tech within tourist attractions is enticing. Having the user engage rather than observe would increase both user interest and ticket sales. Historical ruins can now be rebuilt, extinct animals can once again roam the land and all this just using our trusty sidekick; the smartphone. The Netherlands Architecture Institute is now allowing tourists to have a say in the construction of new attractions. Upon viewing the potential new structures, tourist can give feedback, making information more convenient than ever! AR’s potential has not yet been realized, but it will be an integral part of the days to come.
Reference:
http://www.mixedrealitystudio.com/blog/how-augmented-reality-can-enhance-the-tourism-industry/
How augmented reality will change sports … and build empathy
Augmented Reality as Entertainment
Augmented reality is the means of using computers graphics to create a virtual world where users use their sensory systems. It is mainly used to create technology that a person can wear on their head and be placed in variety of different 3D situations created with visual images and effects. It allows every movement the user makes in reality to be depicted into what they are seeing on the screen before them. For example if the user turns their head in any direction or walks around they will also be doing this in the virtual world.
Augmented reality has also been very successful in the entertainment industry. It has been used in a wide range of television shows and films. Usually using object recognition where you point a camera at a person or wherever you want the virtual object to appear and you will see it as though it was right in front of you. However, this is just a small example of what can be done with augmented reality. With the continuous improvement of electronic devices like iPhones and iPads this allows augmented reality to expand and grow. People can now turn to their mobile devices to use apps that use augmented reality. They can play games, explore locations using virtual maps and now the research and development labs of General Motors are trying to use augmented reality to create a system that helps drivers in difficult situations on the road.
While all these new developments are great, how can augmented reality actually be used for entertainment? Well with the fact that it can adapt with a wide range of situations and has superb tracking qualities it is creating a new world for producers to come up with some great ideas. But augmented reality can be pricey so producers would need to be able to back up their ideas and have a plan thats justifiable. And to keep people interested in whatever they create they will need to be coming up with ideas consistantly on how it can be improved. A challenge surrounding augmented reality is getting products to the masses. A possible solution to this is using already popular activities like tourist attractions. Imagine using augmented reality devices to witness a battle that took place 1900 years ago at the ruins of the roman colosseum.
Reference:
Pokémon Go and the Future of AR
Pokémon Go has become a viral sensation, after only two weeks of being released the game had over 20 million users passing out Facebook and Twitters daily hits. The game encourages players to go outside, interact with other users and even get some excercise while catching Pokémon. While Pokémon Go drove users out into the world to play it was also helping the economy. However, the idea of augmented reality is far from new. In 1990 a boeing researcher named Tom Caudell came up with the phrase augmented reality to describe an idea he was working on that would help workers install the electrical parts in aircrafts. Augmented reality was a notion that many people were fascinated with but that was all it was just an idea with not many advantages.
Over 20 years later Volkswagen brought out a very useful app that allowed mechanics to repair parts of a car using a virtual guide that projected instructions and labels into reality right before your eyes. In 2013 Google released a new product called Google Glass in hopes of bringing augmented reality to the public. But the product was not as popular as Google had imagined it would. Consumers expected to be able to see an array of information just by looking at something while using the product. However, this was not the case and the Google Glass did not succeed.
Pokémom Go was slammed by critics saying it shouldn’t even be labelled as augmented reality because of its poor visuals and graphics when it was released. But amid all this negativity from outsiders Pokémon Go has taken the world by storm and people can’t get enough of it. The change that we see in technology today is also down to social evolution. As new forms of entertainment started to appear manufacturers had to improve and produce better products to keep up with these changes. Showing us how manufacturers were influenced by eachother to keep up with the times.
Pokémon Go has changed the expectations of society making them want more information from technology. People will want to go into a museum and know more about the pieces on display than what is just shown to them. They will expect technology to allow them to explore the unknown making more and more companies invest in augmented reality. This is just the beginning of the future for augmented reality.
Reference:
What Pokémon Go’s Success Means for the Future of Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality as Entertainment 