Augmented reality solutions examples - Augmented reality videos

Interior design is one of the areas where we can find many augmented reality (AR) solutions.

World famous Swedish furniture retailer IKEA has mobile phone application that shows IKEA furniture in real life. The IKEA furniture augmented reality application works together with IKEA catalogue. Below you will see IKEA augmented reality app. demonstration video.



Even more sophisticated augmented reality interior design software is VividAR. VividAR is an interior design AR solution where you can add 3D models of furniture to the 3D picture of the room you are designing. As in many other 3D AR solutions you need to have a picture of the room with marker and then you can start. Below you will find VividAR introduction video.

Augmented reality summit - Augmented reality events - AR summit

One of the biggest augmented reality events is the Augmented reality summit that takes place in London at June 20th 2013. This yearly event uses marketing line "Augmented Reality - Where the physical & digital worlds meet", which describes very well what augmented reality is in practice. 2013 AR summit is third year when Augmented reality summit takes place.

In the AR summit competition they are seeking best augmented reality solutions in the following categories:

• Best AR Technology Platform 2013
• Best AR Hardware Innovation 2013
• Most Innovative use of AR 2013
• Best AR Practical case study 2013
• AR Developer of 2013
• AR Awards Champion 2013

History of augmented reality (AR)

The idea of the augmented reality (AR) was mentioned for the first time in the texts of author L. Frank Baum in 1901. L. Frank Baum mentions for the first time the idea of an electronic display or spectacles that overlay data onto real life. L. Frank Baum names this as a "character marker". For more than 50 years augmented reality was only a fictional element but 1957 cinematographer Morton Heilig got patent to his simulator called Sensorama. Before 1990's augmented reality solutions were mainly prototypes of individual developers and scientists. In 1990's more advanced computing enabled more sophisticated and practical augmented reality solutions and this development has continued with growth in the new millenium. Today we see many augmented reality softwares, techical devices and cyberspaces. The most well known augmented reality solution at the moment is Google Glasses. Beta version of Google Glasses has been presented to the audience.

What is augmented reality?

At the beginning it's good to define what actually is augmented reality (AR). Usually augmented reality is defined as a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video or graphics. A very simple example of augmented reality is real online picture which has some added computer generated graphics. Example of commonly used augmented reality solutiosn is for example interior design software where you can add certain elements to the real picture of the room.