Ripe Technology

11 years ago I saw a demo by a senior lecturer at a UK university of Augmented Reality. Someone moved in front of a camera and the image was overlayed with a simple face mask. Amazing though it was, it took a whole university department to create and a fair few of them to keep it working.

Last week I ran an augmented reality 1950's inspired Retro toaster designing event. For 12 students in Leicestershire I delivered the event through Google Sketchup (STILL my 3d design program of choice) and through studying aspects of 1950's product design. Students used this knowledge to design their own toaster around a 3d model of a mechanism I had previously created for them.

At the end of the day all the students were able to view their model by holding up a printed sheet to a webcam, turning the paper to make the model appear to be turning in their hands. Even more remarkably, it has been possible to create a stand alone file (a few clicks within Sketchup) that students emailed to their friends which when run, just needs the printed out 'marker' design held up to a camera for their friends to view it as well.

The 11 years this has taken between a technology demonstration and now is a good example of how the best Technology is not necessarily the cutting edge stuff, but that which has matured. I am confident now that I can teach staff to run their own Augmented reality events, integrate it into the curriculum and ensure that EVERYONE in a class of 32 students can do their own. At the point where everyone can participate, then the technology is truly, IMHO, ready for schools. ANYONE can show a demo, but it takes time and careful selection of equipment, software and project to ensure that EVERYONE actually does something educationally worthwhile with it.

Last week I did the mask thing. I knocked up a quick GoatBird mask in Sketchup then invited students to stick the 'marker' to their heads. A rather awkward student normally instantly changed and danced in front of the camera, wearing this non-existent but very real mask.

Today I took delivery of a PICO Projector, a tiny battery operated LED projector which I am experimenting with for taking augmented reality on to the next level. Again the PICO projectors have been available for a few years, but now I believe the technology is now mature, and like all things mature, ripe for use