AR you ready ?

Augmented Reality (AR) is a concept that mixes the real world and a virtual world into a single image. Two other concepts that may seem similar but offer different characteristics are Virtual Reality and Telepresence. Let’s take a look at them so that nobody gets confused.

Virtual Reality, as its name indicates, consists of the creation of a new world that may look real, but is completely virtual. It is the will of its creator to make this world as close as possible to the real world, or to build another world with completely different rules and characteristics. A perfect example of this concept is the online software “Second Life”.

Telepresence is another different concept. It allows the user to be “virtually” present in a different place that the one he currently stands in. A very frequent use of telepresence is applied during video conferences for instance.

 AR is something different. Sometimes also called Mixed Reality, it allows the user to see both the real world and some virtual elements at the same time. When speaking about AR, the word that appears the most is “enhancement”. That is exactly the principle of AR: see the real world enhanced by some virtual adjustments. Those enhancements can be found in different shapes. The most common are physical (pictures, objects, videos, and so on), and written (text, information) enhancement.

These enhancements could be added thanks to a see-through device, or a device that supports both a camera and a screen, but that also carries programmable hardware. A Smartphone is a perfect incarnation of such a device. Indeed, a very common use of augmented reality is within those smartphone applications that allow the user to add objects to a picture, or to modify the picture as he wishes.

Not only smartphones can support AR in action, another popular option is the head mounted display (HMD). First created in 1968 by Ivan Sutherland, the HMD allows a deeper immersion in the enhanced reality because the user doesn’t have to hold anything; the enhancements are brought directly to his eyes. In a very near future, some device will be offered to the mass market: Google will make the Google Glasses; Laster technologies issued some glasses for industrial or medical uses while Optinvent is already selling some AR glasses for leisure uses. Finally, Oakley has produced some AR sunglasses aimed to the sport market.  Those new HMD displays are light and convenient to carry with us all day long if necessary.

Tourism has been one of the latest industries to be approached by AR because, in order to be useful for tourism purpose, the devices hosting the AR technology needed to support active geo-localization software as well. Indeed the tourist needs to receive information that is relevant to its position: where am I? Where is the closest bus station? What is this building in front of me? What is the story about this monument? In this field, the most used aspects of AR will be the providing of information of course. The user should turn his device in a direction and see on the screen all he needs to know about what is displayed on the screen. And this can only be done with a device that can detect where the user his, and which direction he is looking at. So the mix of a GPS (Global positioning System) and a compass is needed. Both can be found in a Smartphone already. Thus, AR can be an interactive tourism guide that responds to the user’s position and needs.

Knowing the huge impact it could have on the tourism industry, it is rather surprising to find that, to this date, only a few locations (mainly cities) decided to create a mobile application (App) that can allow users to discover the said location in an interactive way thanks to AR. The first App was Tuscany +, developed by the Tuscan region, in Italy in 2010. The App can be downloaded in Apple’s App store. Then the experience begins. The user can chose to apply filters to the App. For example if he is looking for a restaurant, he can choose the “restaurant” option in the menu, and the location of the nearest restaurants will be shown on the screen. The user can choose to see the results on a map showing his location and the walking time to the destination, or indicated on the image he sees while looking through the camera of his IPhone.

Following this App, only two more examples appeared in Europe: one in Germany and one in France, in Bordeaux. Bordeaux’s AR App, called Imayana, is a little different though. While Tuscany + focuses on providing the users with useful information regarding the facilities of the region, Imayana wants to give the full experience to the user. Here, the AR will not only be used for information, but also to show the tourist how the city looked like in the ancient times. The tourist will see the progressive regression of some historical buildings through the device, until they reach their original state. Some statues will suddenly come to life and interact with the tourists, explaining them some historical facts. The aim of Imayana is really to immerse completely the tourist so that his experience would be as true and fulfilling as possible. This is based on the theory that the learning process is much more efficient if entertainment is involved, and on the prerequisite that tourists want to experience and see the city and its history deeply. Also, Imayana is not an App. The tourist has to rent the device (touch pad) at any tourism office, but cannot download the software on his own device.

As of now, a few applications for tourism purposes are in development around the world, but it seems that the trend is growing and soon, every destination will need to provide its visitor with such a product.

By Qian GE and Alexis Brenet