William F. Garrity

"Augmented reality" "... combines a smartphone's ability to take pictures, pinpoint your location, and search online to put information about what the camera sees right on the screen," as Stepehn H. Wildstrom puts it in his TECH & YOU column in the November 30, 2009, Business Week.  

 Augmented Reality: Not That Real Yet

Why iPhone apps that act as a digital guidebook aren't quite ready for prime time

While standing on the sidewalk in downtown Washington, I hold up my iPhone and slowly turn around, watching the camera image on the screen. As I rotate, a Washington Metro icon appears superimposed on the picture. Avoiding some curious stares, I follow the direction indicated by the icon until I reach a subway entrance. 

The application I have just described is an example of augmented reality. This long-awaited technology combines a smartphone's ability to take pictures, pinpoint your location, and search online to put information about what the camera sees right on the screen. There are just two problems: As it exists today—mainly in the form of iPhone apps—the technology doesn't work all that well. And the cool stuff it can do today is often a step down from just using conventional mapping and search applications. Someday I may be able to walk down a street, point my phone at a building, and get guidebook information on what I am seeing, but that day seems to be a ways off.

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