What is Augmented Reality and how might it be used?

Augmented reality is one of the newest emerging emerging technologies in the electronics industry. It portrays graphics, audio and other sense enhancements from computer screens onto real environments. Augmented reality  is much more advanced than the static graphics technologies that are used within in televisions. Augmented reality systems superimpose graphics for every perspective and adjust to every movement of the user's head and eyes.Last but not the least; augmented reality systems will need highly mobile computers. As of now, available mobile computers that can be used for this new technology are still not sufficiently powerful to create the needed stereo 3-D graphics.

There are three basic components of an augmented reality system, first the head-mounted display, this will enable the user to view  graphics and text created by the system. A tracking and orientation system, this finds out the users location in reference to his surroundings and also tracks the users's head and eye movements. Mobile computers for the hardware, this is needed to power and run the system but as of now we do not have the technology needed to create the required stereo 3-D graphics.


There are many different applications that augmented reality can be used for, such as:


- Gaming and Entertainment
For gaming this technology will allow the users of the game to experience life like environments making them think they are actually one of the characters.


- Education
Augmented reality systems will allow students to view historic time lines in a panoramic recreation of events. Students could also use this system to gain a deeper understanding on things like the formation of clouds or he structure of the universe.


- Security & Defense
The main use of augmented reality in the army is providing foot soldiers with crucial information about his or hers surroundings as well as helping them tell the difference between friendly troops and enemy Troops :/.