Augmented reality interface

Recently I’m searching a lot for some kind of inspiration. I’ve came across interesting project from MIT – Smarted Object Augmented Reality User Interface. From my point of view this project is much more interesting than usefull.

What is it ?

Let us start from video:

As you can this is a kind of extending standard interfaces. My favorite example is the one with virtual keyboard for entering password. Smart way of locking your door. This project allows to make every item smarter than it is in everyday life.

Very useful…or maybe not

As I’ve mentioned, this type of interfaces are much more interesting than useful. For example you can achieve the same goal using standard mobile app and you won’t have to go near the device, you would be able to change the radio station siting on the second end of the room. I think this is more comfortable. But – yes, there is always a “but” – as a technology, as a proof of concept this is fascinating example of augmented reality.
From my point of view, nowadays we can divide augmented reality project in three different groups.

1. Totally waste of time. You won’t use it, you even don’t know what to think about them. You can find a lot of this in the internet.
2. Truly useful applications/projects. Something that has future, something you can call a meaningful usage of augmented reality. It is a bit harder to find but you can read about some of them even here

• http://www.augmented-universe.com/2015/10/lyteshot-augmented-reality-gaming.html
• http://www.augmented-universe.com/2015/09/augmented-reality-in-business.html

3. The “wow” projects. This is my favorite group. This projects shows the true potential of augmented reality. But I need to be honest with you, they are always a useful projects. But it is not about using them, this group is about inspiration, about showing possible paths. This is a very good example, in the movie below you can see another example of the “wow” project

So, is it bad that you probably never use this project in your home ? No, no, no, no…it is a fantastic project and I hope we will see more and more augmented reality projects like this.