In the marketing of Augmented Reality how tempting is the AR on the end of everything? A little corny…but I mean Layar makes perfect sense…right? Get it? Kudos to the dutch for that smart and simple name which can describe what our new information revolution is all about.

Perhaps adoption and conversion is as simple as the name telling the story. In any case it is refreshing that in a society that has become very materialistic, we see an imaginary digitized new layer of the world open up that no government, corporate entity or others really have strict rights to. This can perhaps be perceived as total democracy and freedom to express and inform or complete anarchy. Will be interesting to see what different people focus on and feel grateful or threatened by.

The broad question is how tempting is AR to be used in our everyday life? Sure it has its “magic” and “gimmick” side but so did TV at some stage in the early Brian Henderson days. Maybe other communications devices had their birthing struggles too. It’s not like every need for a technology item is fed to us whilst receiving eye drops to some weirdo movie and classical music. Not every technology gets a fair go Glynis.

I dare raise a quote that I have no reference to cite at all. I feel the urge to raise it nonetheless. I once heard that Alexander Graham Bell took one year to realise the telephone was to call people. For that year he was apparently firm in the belief the phone was for relaying the news and theatre audio.1 year. 12 months of thinking the “old way”.

Well well…in our “smart” generation, with all our “intelligence”, will it take us a year to work out the practical and amusing benefits of supplying highly contextualised real time data for practical situations and detailed animation for visualisation of 3D objects and detailed or simple animation for objects aimed for amusement?

I hope we have progressed and become smarter, quicker and more intelligent in the last century.

Another modern invention IVR is perhaps a great metaphor of good ideas or communication opportunities getting stuck in the system. Like many things in life though, call progress can struggle to get past the IVR to a real human to take action. So why not lets say the equivalent to IVR in the corporate world is the stuck in the mud mid 50s executive whose thumbs are too big to text and technology is great if you already have 2-3 years of financials to prove the business model. You have to admit it is a talent to come up with these catch 22 proposals that stifle innovation, improvement and a better life…but understandably the motivation whether right or wrong is people wanting to safeguard their jobs by not trying to much new.

Ironically it is the technology of augmented reality combined with various methods of detection and recognition that will help our mid 50s executive friend send texts, emails and other communications even more “intuitively” than pen to paper. So now it is up to a talented group of technology pioneers to truly reveal the full potential. 2010 is going to be an extremely interesting year to look back on for Augmented Reality adoption. 2009 was the tip of the iceberg with figures being suggested of 500M people being exposed to the technology.

So we have reached the tipping point where solutions overcome the range of platforms and where data speeds burn rubber on our outdated cyber highways. For whatever reasons web-cameras became a compulsory item in our very tidy mobile laptops, they perhaps have served inadvertently as the front-line for the advertising and marketing sector to claim bragging rights as the instigator of mainstream acceptance/force fed(?) augmented reality. Either way its a start and frankly there will always be people cringing at the “gimmick” use of a new technology.

As long as the focus is on the practical and the amusing in healthy doses of each and the aim is to improve our perceived value of day to day life, then both applications of AR is all for the best. Respect the professionals, scientists and academics. Respect the marketeers and entertainers. Either way, with everything we have seen so far, the technology is only going to play a greater role in our everyday lives and many positive useful and entertaining applications will be our reward for the investment and open mind to see things we have not seen before.