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Wikitude gives you Augmented Reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or an indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality.
It has been broken down into 'worlds', if it helps you can think of these worlds as portals to social networking sites without all the words n stuff
The numbers on the world, indicate the number of events that are near you. From the above example, I would have 50 BBM contacts that I could interact with. Second icon from the left, top row is the different worlds, or feeds you can have appear in your main page, or add another if the first page is full.
The Wikitude Browser is broken into three views.
Reality Browser
and
This view combined with the digital compass, gives you a real time view of where the event is in relation to you. If you see the top circle in the left corner, you can also see a real-time distance and directional feedback that actually moves as your position does. Using this view on a busy street in your area will give you different results depending on what world you are interacting with. The first photo is a partial view of all the YouTube events that were geotagged (4 I think), and for some worlds, that is all that is needed. The second picture is a partial view of ARTags (I am not too sure if this is street tagging or an Augmented Tag on that spot) I'll check it out this week-end.
The second view is map view that can be pinch/zoomed and you can move around, it will show you all the contacts within that world in the range that you specify (Settings) The below view will give you your location (blue dot).
Clicking on any one of these events will bring you a small pop-up window on the bottom with additional information. If you were to click on that box, another window with a more detailed description opens and offers a web link, which, if clicked will bring you to the source of the event.
The third view is a list of all the events and by touching the link does the same thing as above. The last option on top is a notification to let you know you are connected within Wikitude Chat (Which is how you interact with other BBM users, while also being able to invite to your list)
If you look back at the first photo, you will notice that there is an icon (second from the left beside BBM), called Browse Worlds, with the number 48 beside it. Those are the number of worlds/feeds I can select from and have them update when I open the app, or recalibrate. For example: One of my worlds is 'Webcams', and I have 30 events. Seems these are traffic cams that I can access from the browser.
I am not sure if Wikitude changes the worlds that are accessible based on location, but you can always select that and scroll through the list (Some of them, about 9 were shaded and could not be opened), and you can either click on the world to add it to your homepage(as shown by a lit star to the right)
I am not going to reinvent the wheel by going through all my worlds, as they may not be the same. Obviously, the more people who contribute to this, the better it is going to be, especially when travelling! Android already runs this, as I believe there is an app for the iPhone. On their website, they do say they are creating a Blackberry app for OS 5 & 6.
In a nutshell, it allows the user to interact with their physical environment, while being able to access additional information from various feeds in real time as you are in motion. (heavy on the social content, but I also get a complete list of all RBC ATMs in my area, so it depends). Is it useful? I am not sure. It's fun, and I do find myself wandering off after work to check out some dive restaurant someone checked into on Yelp, or adding random people around me on BBM.
Calibration - AKA "Looking like an id10t on a crowded street waving your BB in a figure eight over your head while trying not to be noticed"
Usually pretty easy but if your phone comes into contact with a strong magnetic field or a magnet, you will have to recalibrate. This is not always the case. If you are looking up location based feeds, then the position of the restaurant will not have changed. The app works almost as well (in terms of your location relative to the event) that you shouldn't bother calibrating unless your phone has been in a holster, or hasn't been used in a bit (I know, that's crazy!!!!)
You can get more information at Wikitude
Hope it explains something things.
Cheers,Last edited by Oniberry; 08-18-11 at 10:35 PM.
08-18-11 10:23 PM -
