Reality Check

By Rob Lovitt  |  July 22, 2010

Emerging Augmented Reality technology provides a new view for those on the go

The concept of Augmented Reality (AR), i.e., overlaying digital media on the physical world, isn’t all that new, but thanks to the iPhone 4 and select Android-powered devices, the technology is going mobile in a big way. Right now, its most popular apps involve geo-tagged tweets and location-based games. But when it comes to accessing pertinent local information, AR may prove to be a business traveler’s best friend.

As vice president of marketing for Emeryville, California-based ZipRealty Inc., Leslie Tyler knows both the value of aggregated data and the importance of real-world experience. With offices in 35 markets, she often finds herself exploring local neighborhoods in order to get a sense of what’s selling, what’s not and the relationship between prices and properties.

Lately, she’s been making those trips with a new tool in hand: her iPhone 3GS loaded with HomeScan, ZipRealty’s (free) AR app. Pointing her phone’s camera at a local street, Tyler gets not just the local view but also a wealth of information—price, property details, etc.—on homes that are for sale or have recently sold.

“Of course, you can get the same information with a 2-D map,” says Tyler, “but it’s a lot easier to just point your phone at things.”

META-DATA VIA MAGIC LENS

In a nutshell, Augmented Reality refers to the concept of taking digital media and overlaying it on the physical world around you. Long a fixture of sci-fi movies—think Arnold Schwarzenegger cyborg digitally sizing up bar patrons’ clothing in the Terminator—it’s also the technology behind everything from integrated windshield displays to the yellow “first-down” stripe used on televised football games.

For travelers, though, AR is just now making the shift from fantasy to reality thanks to the introduction of the iPhone 3GS, T-Mobile G1 (a.k.a. HTC Dream) and other devices equipped with a camera, compass and GPS. The phone becomes a “magic lens,” as AR aficionados like to call it. Use the phone to pan your surroundings and bring up everything from Wikipedia entries on local landmarks to the location of the nearest public toilet.

Which, if you think about it, underscores the unvarnished (un-augmented?) reality of mobile AR: Cool factor aside, many of its current uses—social-networking games, tourist tidbits, etc.—are of little use to the folks who might best be served by the technology, i.e., business travelers. As Joe Francica, editor-in-chief of Directions Magazine, puts it, “Do we really need to have the market flooded with yet another application that shows us where the nearest Starbucks is?”

The problem, suggests Francica, is not just the hype factor—really, when was the last time you had trouble finding a Starbucks?—but that such uses may also divert resources from developing more practical and more powerful applications. Fortunately, the focus is already showing signs of a shift.

“The business traveler may not be the first person affected by AR,” says Gene Becker, founder of Lightning Laboratories, an emerging-technology consulting firm, “but businesses everywhere will have a vested interest in making more of their physical-world information digital. It’s not just name, address and contact information, but creating a touch point for some kind of interactive application.”

FROM SCI-FI TO STREETWISE

As CEO of Mobilizy GmbH, Philipp Breuss-Schneeweis is among those helping AR make the shift from attention-getter to business tool. Take Wikitude (free), the company’s original product, which, as the name suggests, displays Wikipedia information geo-tagged to a user’s location. Having opened up the platform to other developers, companies are now creating their own overlays—“worlds” in Mobilizy parlance—displaying the specific content they want. Currently, there are some 200 worlds in the Wikitude universe, including ones developed by Hertz, Harley-Davidson and, not surprisingly, Starbucks.

The idea, says Breuss-Schneeweis, is that companies can design their own application programming interfaces, or APIs, and configure them so they provide the most appropriate information: “When you go to a city you don’t know, your company might give you the relevant worlds—hotels, FedEx locations, client offices—so you have the information right there where you really need it.”

Likewise, with the right resources, the possibilities are only limited by businesses’ willingness to develop their own apps. Commercial real estate, suggests Francica, would be a natural: “Say you’re looking for Class A office space for a new branch. If you can tie what you’re looking at to additional information—availability, square footage, the number of parking spaces—you can determine the benefits of one location vs. another.”

In fact, a few business-friendly apps are already available. Looking for a public workspace with WiFi in San Francisco? Bring up WorkSnug (free). Need to catch a subway in New York? Download AcrossAir ($1.99). And the next time you head to Vegas for a convention, consider outfitting your iPhone with the free Vegas Reality app from the folks at MGM Mirage. Strolling the Strip, you can bring up information on the company’s resorts, catch up-to-the-minute deals and even book your evening’s activities. Between these and other apps, Augmented Reality is poised to make the transition from over-hyped toy to genuinely practical travel tool.
Take that overworked Starbucks scenario: “It’s not just where it is,” says Becker, “but also being able to call up their Web service to pre-order your drink, maybe even make a mobile payment. You fly in; they have your drink ready, and you fly back out again. It’s a small thing, but if you can save five minutes in the morning, you might have five more minutes to finish that presentation before you meet with your client.”