Augmented Reality

An article by Paul    1 Comment

I’ve been interested in augmented reality and it’s potential for use by the GLAM sector for some time.

Museums are doing good things in this space and my recent trip to the Powerhouse Museum was in part motivated by exploring this further.

I’ll save the full length feature version of my thinking for my report at the upcoming #lianza12 conference in September but suffice to say it had not yet taken the world by storm as some may have perhaps hoped or thought.

What caught my eye today was a press release from from AR provider Layar touting their new Layar Creator product – billed as a self-service web application for activating print pages with digital content.

It seems Layar have decided “that the print industry is the key industry through which to bring augmented reality to millions of more users”.

That’s an interesting observation and speaks volumes about the on going tensions to find an acceptable use case for the technology.

The Powerhouse data set whilst showcasing a collection of their geotagged historic imagery still requires effort (download, stand outdoors, hold up phone etc.) to engage with it.

Perhaps the future is to have your smartphone camera pointed at a magazine page as opposed to investigating your surrounds in full public gaze?

At the very least you can do it from the comfort of your armchair