Augmented Reality Tourism

pershino writes "Augmented reality is gaining real world application to take us backwards. The BBC has a story about a European Union-funded project providing tourists with computer-augmented versions of archaeological attractions like Pompeii."

Comments

How long to the augmented Mars experience?

[syrinje]

And more importantly - will my stupendously Total Recall memory of the vacation be rudely disturbed by strange freaky humanoid maritian colonisers trying to kill me in the subterranean hum of the power plant?

Character responses ...

[isometrick]

"Pompeii would be peopled by computer-generated characters"

How would they respond to you running around saying "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE IN A FIERY DEATH!!!!"

Re:Character responses ...

[MikeXpop]

They would probably wonder what language you were speaking.

am I the only one...

[nbert]

who read "Augmented Reality Terrorism" the first time? Note for next time: Read the headline twice before reading the article. Saves you from a lot of confusion...

Re:am I the only one...

[Anonymous Coward]

too much fox news for you.

and lay off the crack.

AR isn't quite the same

[bobhagopian]

Augmented reality is definitely cool, and it has a lot of useful applications. However, I don't think it's quite the same as visiting a place for yourself. That's not possible with Pompeii, but I don't think "Augmented Reality Tourism" can approach the majesty of seeing the Niagra Falls or the Pyramids at Giza for yourself. There's just something special about seeing things in real life.

Re:AR isn't quite the same

[Anonymous Coward]

but I don't think "Augmented Reality Tourism" can approach the majesty of seeing the Niagra Falls or the Pyramids at Giza for yourself ...if only there were a way to see the pyramids of giza without being pestered every five seconds with shouts of "hey mister!" from people trying to sell you things you don't want. i don't know about niagra falls though. i've never been there, but i usually tell everyone that i met a girl there.

Re:AR isn't quite the same

[nbert]

but isn't this exactly what they want to do? To visit the place and wear some VR display which augments the parts which aren't there anymore? Walking through the remains of Pompeii *seing* what the city used to be like sounds like a great idea to me.

Might look even more disgusting than those audio guide headphones, but I think it's still a good tradeoff ;)

Great

[Sipos]

so now I can spend my holidays with computers too.

Games section?

[jamesgray]

Interesting how this was put in the games section. Since when was tourism/archaeology a game? Not to mention it make my eyes hurt, ha. Cheers, james

Pompeii

[GrAfFiT]

Everyone knows there are several brothels in Pompeii... right ?
Pompeii would be peopled by computer-generated characters
That would be cool, for sure. More interesting, immediately.

Does not seem very appealing

[Timesprout]

computer-augmented versions of archaeological attractions like Pompeii

What do they do, lock you in a server room running 10,000 AMD chips spiked at 100% usage and wait for your skin to start melting?

Technology behind Augmented Reality

[FiReaNGeL]

The tech behind this amazing stuff is from 2d3, a UK company. Among others, WETA digitals (responsible for the LOTR CG effects) used their camera-tracking soft for post-production.

Holodeck, closer than we think?

Virtual Life next?

[mikewas]

Why limit yourself to archeological digs. Have an entire Virtual Life. Make everything better -- all day -- and all night.

Where do I sign up?

Could be usefull

[Nikkos]

I think we've all been waiting for good VR tech to start becomming a reality, but what would people most like to use it for?

I can think of a few ways... Tour of the Playboy Mansion
Tour of the Penthouse Photo studios
Tour of the Dallas Cheerleader locker room (or any Cheerleader's locker-room..)

Virtual Robotic Tourism

[HRbnjR]

I want to rent a robot in a far away place which I can control over the internet from home. It would let me drive around the attraction, and have a video camera I could aim (direction, raise, lower), along with a microphone. The software client for my computer would not only display the video/audio stream, but show an interactive GPS map of where I (my robot) am, and provide context sensitive supplementary text, audio, and video information akin to a tour guide - especially at any places my robot could not maneuver. I could even be able to interact with people in these places, and possibly so far as to purchase items that would be shipped to me. I would like to be able to rent such a robot (by the hour) at any major tourist attraction around the world (ie, Pyramids). And, of course, the rates would be really reasonable :P

An interesting research project...

[suso]

You know, some day someone is going to do their PhD thesis on what types of words and stories are most likely to attract the attention of geeks.

"Augmented Reality"

*click*

*webserver breaks*

Fashionable

[Lord_Dweomer]

This is what will make Augmented Reality devices mainstream.

Once cellphones became compact, well-designed and a social accessory, they went mainstream much faster than they could have if they weren't.

People are much more accepting of new technology when it appeals to their eye, and looks like something they'd be familiar with. Luckily glasses are familiar, and thin headsets are starting to be what with bluetooth earpieces and stuff like that.

We just need someone like Apple to come along and come out with something people will want to buy. Once the consumer money is behind it, it could take off in ways the MIT Media Lab never invisioned.

The Implications of AR Tourism

[Spellunk]

Not only does this appear to greatly help tourism by drawing children (and their parents) to sites that may have been dying from a worldwide slump in tourism.

My first thought when reading the article was "they are going to make great interactive video games with this".

Good job posting this in the games section.

Make way for the AR Future

[Billy the Mountain]

While tourism might be cool, I think there's a place for AR in our daily lives. If AR were accessible right now, I'd no longer have to decide whether to exercise or play GTA. I think it would be neat if the First Person Shooter could be integrated with a sophisticated body movement sensor and HUD so that you could get your daily 10,000 steps in and, at the same time, boost your score.

BTM

Interesting Extension Idea

[fwitness]

Actually, I remember seeing a virtual reality tour of the famous Notre Dame. We're seeing this sort of thing more and more, mostly with QuickTimeVR.

As with most of these technologies, I think companies are mostly still a little leary because the average computer is still a little bit underpowered. I'm a tech guy and I still use my 700mhz laptop for daily stuff.

Rats !

[janoc]

OK, I am a sysadmin of VRlab and the Lifeplus project you are Slashdotting is on my server. How nice :)

BTW, Lifeplus is finished already, check out the other projects on our web site.

Regards,

Jan

AR is not VR.

[twitter]

Augmented reality ... I don't think it's quite the same as visiting a place for yourself.

RTFA and think please.

AR is stuff superimposed on reality at the site. If you want the magisty of the site on it's own, take your headset off.

AR's greatest potential is in historical conservation. It should go far to eliminate botched "restorations" as any number of interpretations can be imaged over the actual object without ever touching it. That's very cool.

AR's greatest potential revenue will be in historical gaming. People already pay for laser tag and paintball. AR can take them to any battle field, give them grisly wounds and other fun effects. Others might prefer other illusions all will be willing to pay for them and many more will be willing to share what they make without charge.

Singapore Augmented Reality

[mumblestheclown]

One of Singapore's main historic sites is a series of command bunkers called the "Battle Box." from which the british conducted the "defense" of the city against the Japanese invasion. Being a bit of a World War 2 buff, I paid for the tour. The Battle Box tour was high tech augmented reality - a series of high tech CG stuff and less high tech animatronic whatnots turned what might otherwise be seen as a dull series of bunkers into a living experience.

It was a great idea done at a high budget level. Unfortunately, the underlying story of the defense of Singapore as far as the battle box is concerned is dull ("they've captured our water supply.. hmm.. maybe we should have defended it.. oh well, we're hosed.. i concur.. let's surrender"), but the experience really opened my eyes to the possibilities of this sort of thing.

Tourists & terrorists

[UnConeD]

Don't worry. Not even the US government can keep them apart: just look at the crap people who visit the US have to endure.

Re:Reaction to Pompeii

[mrchaotica]

I've been to Pompeii too, and what I would say would be the best use of augmented reality would be to put back the walls and roofs and such of all the buildings. I wouldn't want it to be photorealistic so that you couldn't tell which parts were real, but I would want something like a wireframe outline, or a semi-transparent thing.

By the way, in that area of Italy the places I enjoyed the most were the town of Sorrento, and the island of Capri. For all I know Lipardi etc. could be even better; I didn't see them.

Augmented Reality vs Real Reality

[QuantumFTL]

I know that Augmented Reality has many places where it can shine - on the battlefield, on the operating table, etc... but doesn't it seem like much of these functionalities simply distract from *REAL* reality? Does it say something about the attention span of this generation that we want to be bombarded with facts everywhere we go, like "Pop Up Video"?

I mean really, isn't the point of being outside to *GET AWAY* from computers and technology, and experience the real world? I mean, I love cyber space, and not that this isn't a cool technology, but really...

A simpler solution...

[AmiMoJo]

I'm not too bothered about augmented reality, what I'd really like to see is a kind of "map wiki".

Imagine being able to walk around a city, with a map on your palmtop/phone controlled by GPS. Interesting sites are marked out, and anyone can add their own notes. Instead of virtual tour guides, there could be Wikipedia style entries which IMHO would be much more interesting and less annoying.