When augmented reality hits the Internet of Things

Wired.co.uk contributor Anna Leach examines how Augmented Reality and The Internet of Things could impact each other in the coming years.

Both the Internet of Things and augmented reality (AR) are hotly tipped computing trends and both are in their infancy. Where they intersect could be an engrossing area — with the visual and location-based aspect of augmented reality providing a real-time, real-place interface for the data being pumped out by objects. We’ d be able to see not just whether a bus is behind a building but how many people are on it, whether it’ s on time, where people are sitting on the bus, what the name of driver is and well, any other information you decided to put out there.

Using augmented reality as an interface for the Internet of Things has many advantages. As an immediate and visual medium it can display a lot of data clearly and quickly — a string of temperature readings could be displayed as changing coloured patches on an image for example. It will allow us to engage much more deeply with what’ s around us. Scanning down a street we could see which restaurants are full, which have seats, which shops have that game/coat we want in stock or where our friends are. Other applications for this engaging technology are likely to be games, or maybe training exercises because it’ s engrossing and fast-moving.

Source

Wired.co.uk – When augmented reality hits the Internet of Things