Skip to content

I wish I were a software developer!

I was peripherally aware of Augmented Reality before attending the Mobile 2.0 conference in Barcelona a few weeks back but hadn’t really thought through its consequences/possibilities until I saw the video above by Dutch startup company Layar.

I realised that Layar’s offering was geographically limited but its potential (esp in the Green space) was enormous – how to tap it?

I mentioned Layar during a briefing with Krishna Kumar of SpaceTimeInsight a couple of weeks back in San Francisco and he immediately ‘got it’ and was very excited with the possibilities.

Then yesterday Layar co-founder Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald pinged me via Twitter to let me know that Layar has opened up its Augmented Reality platform and is giving out (a, for now, limited number of) API keys.

This means that any database with location data and a Layar api key now has the ability to create an Augmented Reality Layar! just stop and think about that for a sec.

This opens up enormous possibilities for Augmented Reality applications in the Green space. Imagine walking down the street and seeing emissions data for the companies/businesses simply by pointing your phone at them. Or pointing at machinery and seeing schematics, lifecycle emissions data, or…

A mashup of AMEE, the neutral aggregation platform which measures “the carbon footprint of everything on Earth”, with Layar would be an absolutely awesome. Or a wiki with a Green Layar UI. Or….

The possibilities are limitless!

I really wish I were a software developer right now – the applications of this technology are seriously awe inspiring!

[Disclosure] – AMEE are a GreenMonk client co.

by-sa
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Posted in softwaredevelopment.

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , .

64 comments

By Tom Raftery – July 9, 2009

42 Tweets 14 Other Comments

64 Responses

Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.

  2. Paul M. Watson says

    Who would fund such a project (AMEE mashup on Layar)? As a developer I’d be interested in this (stuff that matters) but have no idea who is funding “green” software projects.

    July 9, 2009, 1:44 pm
  3. mj says

    Absolutely agree. I mentioned half a dozen examples of this sort of thing recently: http://cimota.com/blog/2009/07/07/ar/

    We’re at the tip of the iceberg. AR is making location-based services relevant!

    July 9, 2009, 1:46 pm
  11. David Lockie says

    Great article Tom. Would be good to hear some specific thoughts about applications for AR. One of the challenges with many green messages is surely making them visible. E.g. if we could ‘see’ causes of energy inefficiency, or carbon emissions, it would be far easier to drive engagement.

    I don’t know if you saw this from @pachube: http://blog.pachube.com/2009/06/pachube-augmented-reality-demo-with.html – this is an environmental AR demo looking at visualising real time data feeds from sensors using barcodes.

    I forsee a platform powered by LowCarbonEconomy.com/AMEE/Pachube and Layar/equivalent that allows you to visualise the carbon/energy/resource efficiencies of a whole range of products by looking at the barcode through an AR app, alongside user recommendations for lower-carbon alternatives, reviews, etc. The same could happen for the health value/distance travelled/traceability of food products, etc.

    July 9, 2009, 4:15 pm
  26. tristanf says

    I did some experiments with data from Current Cost meter last year – superimposing the electricity usage graph for a day over a timelapse video of my front room and with a soundtrack of 50Hz hum modulated by the same data. See the video at http://www.cookinrelaxin.com/2008/12/electricity-baseline-using-current-cost.html

    It’s not live augmented reality in any way but it illustrates one thing that could be done to link your everyday activities with energy use.

    July 10, 2009, 10:03 am
  27. Marcus Kirsch says

    A question: Why would AR in particular be so amazing for it? Because it’s finally becoming ‘mainstream’. I am sorry guys to be the only critical nancy here, but 14 years of new media made me carry a pinch of salt.

    There are several other technologies to add data to a location. Cell grid, GPS, etc. If you layer it on top of a camera view, the experience i very similar, plus you will have a much bigger platform of users(which is what you want to reach, if you talk about green awareness. I am still trying to imagine why the ids who always buy the latest ipod are necessarily greener. second hand gadgets anyone?)

    Bringing in energy consumption/pollution awareness to the streets is indeed a good idea, but you might want to think about the infrastructure and the jurisdictional issues here.

    a) pollution sensor based data. The sensor grid needs to be kind of tight to be reasonably detailed enough for a service that can be as granular as the AR in the video and better be live.(Hey this car there definitely needs to be off the streets ;) Are there existing data grids/soruces like that?

    b) get data from surrounding institutions/buildings. Same thing. Is it live enough, is the owner happy to publish non-live that might be out of date?

    I was consulting on a carbon emission awareness project a few moons ago in London including South Kensingtons major educational institutions. Imperial College, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, V&A, etc.
    It was and still is a major effort to get a detailed energy reader system into the buildings. Readings are dependent on usage, some have to run all the time, some are commercial, some are used by staff and there is sometimes no way to differ between those users, which makes the data not very granular. Same goes for the data itself, which by default setup could not deliver the data in real-time.
    The biggest challenge was to despite the big infrastructural effort, deal with the limitations of the infrastructure. This matters. It’s a make or break for users, if they know that the data they see is late or just approximated.

    So Tom, I hope I am rather coming across taking this opportunity serious, therefore, I hope this gives a bit of a more realistic perspective and I would like to know your thoughts in response to my comment.

    Regards,

    Marcus

    July 10, 2009, 10:15 am
  28. Tom Raftery says

    Wow!

    Lot of interest in this post – thanks a million everyone.

    @Paul M Watson – re who is funding projects such as this, no idea to be honest but you could try EI or SEI to start with.

    @mj – thanks for the link to the further AR apps – tweeted!

    @David Lockie – I saw the Pachube AR vid last week (& tweeted at the time) – great video and as you say, points to even more possibilities for this tech.

    @tristanf – super movie, well done!

    @Marcus Kirsch – to be fair, you raise some valid points, thanks. Re your point a) are there existing data sources? Right now? I suspect not. No reason why it couldn’t be built though. Most businesses will be required to publish their carbon footprint in the UK next year. Similar legislation will be pushed out to other countries soon enough.
    To your b) if there is a date data associated with the carbon footprint info that shouldn’t be an issue.
    You are correct that a building’s energy footprint but this is because of the immaturity of the technology. The same could be said for any early tech. Remember early pc’s? Early word processors? They bear no resemblance to what we use today.

    Having said that, possibly an early use case for this could be more micro than macro. Utility co.’s for example, sending engineers to the field could get BI data on equipment in realtime, or schematics of faulty gear. Or Manufacturing companies could get similar info on the factory floor, or…

    Again, the possibilities are endless.

    July 10, 2009, 3:57 pm
  29. Sam Penrose says

    As a software developer who’s been looking for the right opportunity to contribute to managing climate change, I would love to respond with a “sign me up!” But, to loosely paraphrase Marcus via South Park, you seem to be saying:

    1) Combine A.R. with something green.
    2) ?????
    3) Release awesome green application.

    Step (2) is sadly not optional. We have to know at least loosely what to build before we build it. If you can come up with an idea for a specific application, please post again. A lot of us will be interested, and some of us might even step up.

    July 10, 2009, 6:28 pm
  30. Adam Nieman says

    One way of using AR is to turn it on its head: rather than adding a layer of data to the real world, instead use the world itself to make data easier to comprehend (something I call ‘Reality Augmented Data’ or RAD).

    We’ve been exploring RAD as a way of visualising carbon dioxide emissions data. Because mass isn’t a very intuitive way to quantify gases, rather than talking in terms of ‘tonnes of carbon dioxide’ we visualise the stuff in bulk. That is, we illustrate volumes of the carbon dioxide in contexts that users can relate to, such as their own neighbourhoods or next to buildings they are familiar with. This gives a much more meaningful sense of scale than numbers alone.

    Just yesterday we released a preview of an app. that uses Google Maps to visualise what we call ‘The Carbon Quilt’. It will soon do a range of other visualisations too – see: http://bit.ly/CQ001. A goal for the near future is a phone app. that does this in real-time wherever the user happens to be.

    July 10, 2009, 8:25 pm
  32. mj says

    @Sam Penrose:
    > We have to know at least loosely what to build before we build it.

    I don’t think there’s any shortage of ideas. I jotted down five ideas after writing my comment above. The issue I have is more about funding the initial development.

    July 11, 2009, 12:15 pm
  33. Sam Penrose says

    Adam: very cool! I’ve been playing around with ideas for a visual language for carbon use at the micro level and not coming up with anything I liked. It’s great to see an organized effort to tackle this crucial issue. Your site mentions animations but I didn’t see any in my brief tour — it would be lovely to see time-based views. Also very glad to hear you’re considering open source — do you have a repository yet by any chance?

    “Make it concrete”: Yes!
    “Make it true”: Yes! Yes!

    July 11, 2009, 3:16 pm
  36. R "Ray" Wang says

    Tremendous convergence between mobile apps, digital imaging, location data, clean tech, analytics, and good old fashioned creativity bring augmented reality to life! Awesome post and hopefully the new generation of software can make you a power business user!

    Warmest regards,

    R “Ray” Wang

    July 13, 2009, 8:49 am
  38. Pace says

    Wow, this is amazing! With all the improvement in mobile devices, as soon as AR catches on, we’re in for a lot of change happening very quickly. The first AR-type exposure I had was being able to find geocaches near me on my iPhone. Not world-changing, no, but it was a start. I can’t want to see what’s next!

    July 15, 2009, 11:55 pm
  40. Thomas K Carpenter says

    Looking forward to the other people you’ve got lined up for the interview, because I enjoyed this one and the other previous ones. I’ve been watching the Google trends as well, and I’m really expecting it to take off around Christmas as a few products hit the market (EyePet and the iPhone apps). I’m thinking 2010 will be the year of AR. Just hope we don’t overhype it, because its going to take a while to really see the benefits.

    And thanks for the link.

    Thomas K Carpenter
    The Future Digital Life

    This comment was originally posted on UgoTrade

    July 28, 2009, 6:30 pm
  41. Thomas K Carpenter says

    Looking forward to the other people you’ve got lined up for the interview, because I enjoyed this one and the other previous ones. I’ve been watching the Google trends as well, and I’m really expecting it to take off around Christmas as a few products hit the market (EyePet and the iPhone apps). I’m thinking 2010 will be the year of AR. Just hope we don’t overhype it, because its going to take a while to really see the benefits.

    And thanks for the link.

    Thomas K Carpenter
    The Future Digital Life

    This comment was originally posted on http://www.ugotrade.com/)“>UgoTrade

    July 28, 2009, 6:30 pm
  42. Darkflame says

    Wonderfull interview and lots there to look forward too.

    This comment was originally posted on UgoTrade

    July 28, 2009, 6:53 pm
  43. Darkflame says

    Wonderfull interview and lots there to look forward too.

    This comment was originally posted on http://www.ugotrade.com/)“>UgoTrade

    July 28, 2009, 6:53 pm
  44. Tish Shute says

    Hi Thomas thank you for the props. And thank you too for your awesome Augmented Reality coverage on The Future Digital Life.

    I think the AR Consortium is an effort to have a way to think about the bigger picture and collaborate on enabling the development of all the pieces needed for us to really enjoy the benefits of Augmented Reality.

    There will be more about what these pieces may be from Robert Rice who as Ori notes is working on “the hard problems” e.g. “filtering data, privilege systems, standards, third party tools, interoperability, and so on.”

    There is also a conversation about where hardware is going. Again as Robert notes:

    “Right now everyone is developing software based on what hardware is available. This needs to change where hardware is being developed to take advantage of new software coming out (this happened in the PC industry a while back and growth accelerated dramatically).”

    I am working hard to get the interviews done ‘cos yes I agree 2010 will be a big year for AR and there is a lot of work to be done to ensure augmented reality lives up to the expectations being raised by the hype.

    But I think one thing is clear augmented reality and the mission to “free young and old from getting lost in front of the screen,” has taken off and captured people’s imaginations. Now the task, as you say, is to make sure we really deliver its benefits.

    This comment was originally posted on UgoTrade

    July 28, 2009, 7:02 pm
  45. Tish Shute says

    Hi Thomas thank you for the props. And thank you too for your awesome Augmented Reality coverage on The Future Digital Life.

    I think the AR Consortium is an effort to have a way to think about the bigger picture and collaborate on enabling the development of all the pieces needed for us to really enjoy the benefits of Augmented Reality.

    There will be more about what these pieces may be from Robert Rice who as Ori notes is working on “the hard problems” e.g. “filtering data, privilege systems, standards, third party tools, interoperability, and so on.”

    There is also a conversation about where hardware is going. Again as Robert notes:

    “Right now everyone is developing software based on what hardware is available. This needs to change where hardware is being developed to take advantage of new software coming out (this happened in the PC industry a while back and growth accelerated dramatically).”

    I am working hard to get the interviews done ‘cos yes I agree 2010 will be a big year for AR and there is a lot of work to be done to ensure augmented reality lives up to the expectations being raised by the hype.

    But I think one thing is clear augmented reality and the mission to “free young and old from getting lost in front of the screen,” has taken off and captured people’s imaginations. Now the task, as you say, is to make sure we really deliver its benefits.

    This comment was originally posted on http://www.ugotrade.com/)“>UgoTrade

    July 28, 2009, 7:02 pm
  46. Darkflame says

    Absolutely
    Really looking forward to reading more interviews and seeing where the next few months of developments lead.
    -
    I must admit that last point about Google Wave has got me thinking. I was excited about Waves possibility’s but never connected it with AR potential. But now that I think about it, it could be just the protocal needed. Ive often put forward the idea of IRC as a base for a potential AR standard, as its something that is here now, lets people login to multiple channels of data, create a channel or a few if they wish, and have varying levels read/write permisions setable per channel.
    Now though, I’m thinking Google Wave protocal might provide the same, or similar ability’s, while having the bonus of the data being persistent when needed. Not to mention its a much newer system, without the same limitations of retrofitting an older protocal like IRC is.
    Still wouldnt want to use it for the swapping of mesh-data itself, but as a sharable, updatable, and user-creatable, set of links to mesh data it could work well.

    This comment was originally posted on UgoTrade

    July 28, 2009, 7:09 pm
  47. Darkflame says

    Absolutely
    Really looking forward to reading more interviews and seeing where the next few months of developments lead.
    -
    I must admit that last point about Google Wave has got me thinking. I was excited about Waves possibility’s but never connected it with AR potential. But now that I think about it, it could be just the protocal needed. Ive often put forward the idea of IRC as a base for a potential AR standard, as its something that is here now, lets people login to multiple channels of data, create a channel or a few if they wish, and have varying levels read/write permisions setable per channel.
    Now though, I’m thinking Google Wave protocal might provide the same, or similar ability’s, while having the bonus of the data being persistent when needed. Not to mention its a much newer system, without the same limitations of retrofitting an older protocal like IRC is.
    Still wouldnt want to use it for the swapping of mesh-data itself, but as a sharable, updatable, and user-creatable, set of links to mesh data it could work well.

    This comment was originally posted on http://www.ugotrade.com/)“>UgoTrade

    July 28, 2009, 7:09 pm
  48. Tish Shute says

    Hi Darkflame, I am happy someone picked up on an idea I have been thinking about quite a lot lately – of Google Wave having some interesting possibilities for Augmented Reality. There is a Wave Sandbox discussion on “How to use Google Wave to play role playing games” already but I don’t see a public Wave on the potential of Wave and augmented reality yet.

    But as you say IRC has been thought of as a base for potential AR standards. Thomas Wrobel wrote the following in his comment to my post “Is it “OMG Finally” for Augmented Reality?: Interview with Robert Rice” http://tinyurl.com/76nbqv

    “My own little vision for AR is it to work a bit like IRC channels.
    Anyone can make/host them, and anyone can tune into the public ones….but there not automatically all on.
    You could login/out and toggle the “layers” to reality a bit like photoshop layers.
    Purhapes having your private “friends and family” layer a stronger opacity then the #genericpublicchannel or something.” (Thomas Wrobel)

    And as you point out Google Wave protocol “might provide the same, or similar abilities, while having the bonus of the data being persistent when needed.”

    This comment was originally posted on http://www.ugotrade.com/)“>UgoTrade

    July 28, 2009, 8:00 pm
  49. Tish Shute says

    Hi Darkflame, I am happy someone picked up on an idea I have been thinking about quite a lot lately – of Google Wave having some interesting possibilities for Augmented Reality. There is a Wave Sandbox discussion on “How to use Google Wave to play role playing games” already but I don’t see a public Wave on the potential of Wave and augmented reality yet.

    But as you say IRC has been thought of as a base for potential AR standards. Thomas Wrobel wrote the following in his comment to my post “Is it “OMG Finally” for Augmented Reality?: Interview with Robert Rice” http://tinyurl.com/76nbqv

    “My own little vision for AR is it to work a bit like IRC channels.
    Anyone can make/host them, and anyone can tune into the public ones….but there not automatically all on.
    You could login/out and toggle the “layers” to reality a bit like photoshop layers.
    Purhapes having your private “friends and family” layer a stronger opacity then the #genericpublicchannel or something.” (Thomas Wrobel)

    And as you point out Google Wave protocol “might provide the same, or similar abilities, while having the bonus of the data being persistent when needed.”

    This comment was originally posted on UgoTrade

    July 28, 2009, 8:00 pm
  50. Thomas K Carpenter says

    @ Tish – One of the keys to the growth of the PC industry was the gamer market. I know I’ve been upgrading my computer year-in and year-out, to keep up with the constantly increasing specifications of newer games. This “expected expendature” from the gaming community provides incentive and a stable profit model for businesses to be built upon. They could safely turn-up the requirements knowing the video card and processer chip makers could meet their expectations.

    I expect games to drive AR innovation just as games drove the PC market. Creating the right games to unlock everyone’s imagination (and desire) will be a pivotal step for AR.

    @ Darkflame – I seem to recall you talking about IRC for AR channels back in March.

    Thomas K Carpenter
    The Future Digital Life

    This comment was originally posted on http://www.ugotrade.com/)“>UgoTrade

    July 28, 2009, 9:35 pm

1 2

Continuing the Discussion

  1. MuseumMobile Wiki » Fresh From Twitter today linked to this post on July 10, 2009

    [...] oops (via @jessicao) Anyone want to help @TomRaftery build augmented reality apps for greentech? http://bit.ly/13OZIF (via @timoreilly) #mtogo (via @boxednoise) RT @boxednoise iPhone app developer opens storefront to [...]

  2. Working on Layar: Augmented Reality Browser | Squio.blog linked to this post on July 17, 2009

    [...] I wish I were a software developer! (greenmonk.net) AKPC_IDS += "389,";Popularity: unranked Tweet This  Delicious This  Reddit This  Stumble This  [...]

  3. Mobile phones - distributed air quality sensor network? linked to this post on July 21, 2009

    [...] the mobile phone sector at Mobile 2.0 in Barcelona a few weeks back and writing my post about how Augmented Reality on mobiles could be transformative for Green tech I have been thinking a lot about how mobiles could make a significant positive contribution to the [...]

  4. Augmented reality: overlay your world — NevilleHobson.com linked to this post on July 27, 2009

    [...] Tom Raftery adds another great example of AR in action with what Dutch firm Layar is doing. Read Tom’s post for [...]

  6. Pay attention to augmented reality — NevilleHobson.com linked to this post on August 31, 2009

    [...] I think you can immediately grasp how useful AR would be for this kind of activity, especially on a mobile device. I first heard about Layar from Tom Raftery. [...]

  7. James Governor's Monkchips » What’s in store for 2010? 9 Trends, Quick Take linked to this post on November 3, 2009

    [...] underpins a new wave of mobile services as smart phones become pervasive. Augmented Reality will begin to make a mark in the mobile space. Initial experiences in Europe are likely to be in [...]

  8. What’s in store for 2010? 9 Trends, Quick Take linked to this post on November 3, 2009

    [...] underpins a new wave of mobile services as smart phones become pervasive. Augmented Reality will begin to make a mark in the mobile space. Initial experiences in Europe are likely to be in [...]

  9. (Lack of) Sustainability in the Mobile industry — GreenMonk: the blog linked to this post on November 8, 2009

    [...] talk I gave in Barcelona on Mobile Sustainability (for the Mobile 2.0 conference) in a couple of posts I never talked about the talk directly here, so now it is time to redress [...]

  10. (Lack of) Sustainability in the Mobile industry linked to this post on November 8, 2009

    [...] talk I gave in Barcelona on Mobile Sustainability (for the Mobile 2.0 conference) in a couple of posts I never talked about the talk directly here, so now it is time to redress [...]

  11. 20 RedMonk Predictions for 2010 linked to this post on December 17, 2009

    [...] Augmented Reality will begin to make a mark in the mobile space. [...]

  12. Technology predictions 2010 « The Naked Pheasant linked to this post on December 18, 2009

    [...] Augmented Reality will begin to make a mark in the mobile space. [...]



Some HTML is OK

or, reply to this post via trackback.

Additional comments powered by BackType

« »

GreenMonk: the blog is Digg proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache