Augmented Reality ? Virtual Reality that?s Real Today

This is not virtual reality which is 100% simulated environment and characters. But it’s close and more useful in the real world.  If you’ve watched any of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator movies where they show what the terminator sees from his perspective (displaying data while looking at a person or object) that’s the general idea of what AR is.  

As you look at a building or object through a sensitized pair of goggles, you get real time information related to what you are looking at. It could be a street or a landmark and your goggle displays information about it and your location using GPS navigation. Or you could look at an artifact in a museum and get information readout on your goggles.  

Changing the Way We Look at Things and People

AR straddles somewhere between the immersive computer-generated graphics that have high realism on one end of the spectrum and the real world at the other end. Superimposing graphics, images and information as needed over real images we see through cameras constitutes Augmented Reality. Just like Virtual Reality, you need a pair of Goggles or heads-up display screens in a helmet that are transparent enough for you to see normally through them.  

But the glass surface is actually an LCD screen that can display information depending on what you are looking at. You could be looking at a person and your goggle shows you some information about the person taken from a social networking site or remote database.  CIA and FBI operatives would love this. You could look at a landmark and you get information about it and your exact location from GPS data.  Tourists would be delighted with this. You could look at a car and the goggle display technical data about it.  Car aficionados and prospective buyers would like that as well.  

Games and More Games

Video games have been with us for almost 40 years now and they’ve grown to be sophisticated right down to your portable mobile gaming handsets and mobile phones. There are already games using AR technology in mobile phones with even the most rudimentary imaging system or camera.  Set the camera against a table and you see characters walking or battling it out on the table from your screen. Some use printed surfaces in books which the AR application on your handset can detect and display images accordingly.  This gaming technique saves the application some computing time to render 2D polygons for backgrounds and thus minimize file sizes.  

Military Application

The military already has projects in AR. The concept is about providing troops with instant information about their target surroundings in real time. This includes displaying on their goggles exact enemy locations that would otherwise be hidden from view without it. It can show egress points when entering structures, something like an X-ray vision or night vision. AR can assist them to skirt through mines and booby trapped locations.  

What is Needed

Goggles that display the information superimposed on what you see through them as well as mobile phone screens set in camera mode are prerequisites to the AR technology.  The intelligence could be in the mobile phone or a belt-strapped device that can communicate with remote databases through WiFi. The goggles can eventually evolve into simple eyeglasses. AR is still in its infancy but the promise is there alright.  GP

Free Dog And Puppy Games Taking Steps Towards Virtual Reality

Some of us may have already noticed the surge in free dog and puppy games available to play online. Arcade websites have been featuring all sorts of dog games portraying puppies and dogs as the main characters in the adventure. Their popularity has grown to such an extent, that a simple search in Google for the term dog games will return over fifty million results. The themes in these games vary from veterinarian clinics, pet care center and fashion salons, where children can play dress up games with their favorite pet. However, a special kind of theme sets itself apart, while catching the eye of technology enthusiasts like me. A new concept in free dog games places the player in control of a virtual room or house, with the sole objective of caring for the dog or puppy inside.

Free dog games in which the player’s only objective is to care for the pet are called pet caring games. The player starts off in a virtual room, inside a house, with a list of actions and items at his disposal. For example, he would need to click on the bowl, and place it somewhere in the floor in order to feed the dog. Other actions include voice commands in the form of praise or reprimand, pretty much the same way they are used by dog trainers. To help gamers get the ball rolling, there is usually an icon in the corner of the screen advising on the situation and making recommendations for actions to take. For example, the image may alert you that the dog is hungry, or thirsty. You might also be advised of the animal’s wrong doing, and that he needs to be corrected.

In any event, these online free dog games aim to encourage children and adults alike into getting their feet wet in terms of caring for a dog at home. In the same way young, want to be mothers take a doll home that can scream, cry and mess their pants, these virtual dog games attempt to do the same thing for a pet at home. Thus, the use of virtual reality is essential. The better the realism aspect of the game is, the more entertaining it will be for gamers. Nowadays, we are only enjoying the rudimentary stages of virtual reality, as it is being used in free dog games online. The use of detailed graphics as a tool is very helpful. Background artwork and character images can be made to look very real. Although most of the 3D artwork and high resolution graphics are limited to console versions, ever increasing Internet speeds and processor prices are sure to bring some improvement to the home Internet user.

Sound scores also add realism to free dog games online. With the use of stereo speakers hooked up to your computer, you are sure to hear a real dog barking while playing the game. All these features which add realism to dog games are only in the beginning stages. However, in dog caring games the only way to improve on the experience of game play is by adding realism, and with new technology advances being implemented day by day, we are sure to see improvements in this area as well.

Innovation: Physics brings realism to virtual reality