Augmented Reality

I have a program on my phone called Wikitude. It's hard to describe, but what it does is take advantage of the compass and camera in the G1 (the phone with Google's Android software). It allows you to point the camera in a certain direction, and it will identify wikipedia articles about what you see through the camera. So, for instance, if you are standing on the Empire State Building and want to see what the name of that other big building is (the Chrysler building, say), it will tell you the name of the building, and link you to a wikipedia article about it.

Here is a video that will show you what I mean.



Their website has more information about it.

The educational possibilities of something like this are mind- boggling. When I was in New Orleans, I used it, and it works really well. You point it in the direction you are looking, and get all the information you want about what you see. I imagine this will soon be combined with Sky Map, which is the app that will show you what constellations are in the sky in the direction that your camera is pointing. Here's a video of that one. Not sure why the person didn't demo it outside. (!)



These things are so easy to use, I am certain they will become a regular part of our lives in the very near future.

We are living in such a different world than we did just a decade ago.