Strata Gems: Kinect democratizes augmented reality

Tomorrow's reality will be prototyped on phones and gaming consoles

We’re publishing a new Strata Gem each day all the way through to December 24. Yesterday’s Gem: Manage clusters with Mesos.

Strata 2011 The combination of augmented reality with data and analytics will bring radical change to our lives over the next few years. You’re probably carrying a location-sensitive personal AR device right now, kitted out with motion sensors, audio-visual capabilities and network connectivity.

Microsoft’s Kinect technology has now made the Xbox 360 gaming console a perfect experimentation platform for augmented reality. Marketed right now as a camera-based controller for video games, the Kinect’s longer term impact might well be in the creation of augmented reality experiences. And of course, the world of advertising will be first in line to exploit this.

Dustin O’Connor has been busy hacking with the Kinect and producing a number of very cool demos. In the video below, he demonstrates the ability to manipulate a 3D object using multiple touches.

kinect augmented reality multi touching from dustin o'connor on Vimeo.

Between technologies such as Kinect and the widespread availability of smartphones, the means to create augmented reality experiences is now highly democratized, awaiting exploitation and experimentation from hackers and innovators.

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