"The coolest technology you've never seen"

[Renew Deal]

Here's one you have to see to believe. Autonomy, the largest British software company -- best known for its enterprise search and compliance technology -- has applied its intellectual horsepower in meaning-based computing to visual recognition for smartphones. Soon you'll be able to download its Aurasma iPhone/iPad app, which enables you to point your camera at static real-world objects that, once recognized, magically come to life on the smartphone screen, similar to the way pictures in the Daily Prophet newspaper animated themselves in Harry Potter.

Check the video demo. The amazing thing is that the video mapped into the real-world scene stays within the bounds of the recognized object, even as you pan the camera around. One example shows a movie poster coming to life; another demonstrates a video inserted into a static newspaper photo; the last is a cereal box with a TV commercial mapped in. The advertising and publishing opportunities are pretty obvious, but the company says anyone will be able to tag reality with messages or images or even interactive games of their own that pop up. Just capture the real-world image, load it into the database, and attach what you want to overlay.
<snip>

Watch the video. It's well worth it. http://bcove.me/7mdurs1n

http://www.infoworld.com/t/mobile-apps/the-coolest-technology-youve-never-seen-383

[apnu]

1. Wrong, the coolest technology I've never seen is my personal rocket pack.

I'm still waiting for that...

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Flying Car.

Want my flying car, dammit.

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. In ten years the answer to that question will be..

...'a bound book'.

Still the coolest technology I've ever seen.

Operating-system independent. Portable. Temperature-extreme tolerant. Zero power consumption. Contents randomly accessible.

[Donnachaidh]

4. +1000000 n/t

[SidDithers]

5. But bulky...

I have to admit becoming more impressed with concept of ebooks. I can carry, hundreds or thousands of books at a time. And reading a book on an iPhone, while taking a bit of getting used to, tells me a story just as effectively as holding paper in my hand.

That said, books in any format are still the best entertainment around. (Except for DU sometimes :))

Sid

[Solomon]

10. I have 1200 books on my Kindle. Never go anywhere without it.

[Scuba]

12. Binary Objects Of Knowlege (BOOKs) will win in the end. n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

15. "Yeah, well, I still jerk off manually"

[onehandle]

3. Very cool.

But as always, I demand to retain the power to opt out of ads.

[-..__...]

6. Not that impressive...

unless one likes it for the entertainment value.

OTOH... Word Lens is impressive, and useful

http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/16/world-lens-translates-words-inside-of-images-yes-really/

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. I thought it was liquid helium.

I've never seen it.

[MilesColtrane]

8. It's the CueCat™ of the 21st century!

Neat trick, but nobody is going to read the newspaper or magazine with their phone.

They are either going to read a newspaper or magazine OR read articles on their phone.

[FormerDittoHead]

17. I have a box of those! Used them to read barcodes for a book database.

http://www.collectorz.com/book/

I gave up when it turned out I have a LOT of books without barcodes.

[WinkyDink]

9. BFD.

[Javaman]

11. I agree. more gewgaw distracting hypnotic bullshit. nt

[Scuba]

13. Bingo. A shiny roll of tin foil works just as well.

[hunter]

14. It's all fun until they forcibly plant these things in your eyeballs...

... and everything you see is controlled by the corporate state.

[coalition_unwilling]

19. LMAO -- Funny b/c so darkly true and possible - n/t

[coalition_unwilling]

20. LMAO -- Funny b/c so darkly true and possible - n/t

[Skidmore]

18. Just what we need...more ads.

To be pursued 24-7 by people who want us to buy stupid stuff. There is no haven from the gods of capitalism. I don't find that cool at all.