New Media Consotrium / Horizon Report Ideas

The NMC Horizon Project is an online initiative that charts emering trends in technologies for teaching, learning, and research, as well as creative inquiry. This is a joint effort between the New Media Consortium and Educause and attempts to forecast and present advancements in technologies that will occur within the next 1 to 5 years. This forecast is influenced and impacted by a collaborative effort with conversations among hundreds of technology professionals, educators, industry leaders, and corporate representatives. In this sense the NMC Horizon Project represents a new ideal in education where information is exchanged, communicated and re-presented in an open discourse as a joint consensus among the consortium.





Further examination of the Horizon Report (HR) this week takes me to thoughts of addtional technologies that I could add to my previous discussion on the Autonomous Vehicle and Personal Transportation of the future. The idea and concepts of new visual displays for interactions intrigues me.   The HR in the longer term of  estimates present various technologies as they relate to "the Internet of Things".  In the sandbox of emerging technologies the HR lists several possiblities; Apple Exploring Interactive, Glasses-Free 3D Holographic Displays, Augmented Reality on Your Phone, Future of Display is Here- Latest Tech Visions For Touch Screens, Monitors of Next-Gen Gadgets, and Haptics Brings A Personal Touch To Technology.

As visual displays continue to advance in both modes and methods and as this includes more and more features such as touch screens and haptic interfaces, the idea here is that this could bring great potential to add augmented reality to each "window to the world".  See below:

Augmented Reality on Your Phone

By NICK BILTON

Kazuhiro Nogi/Getty ImagesThis augmented reality application adds an animated Japanese character to a scene.

Over the weekend I used a new iPhone application,  Word Lens, to perform magic tricks for anyone who would watch. Word Lens isn’t really a magic app, but using it was kind of magical for me, almost like  seeing Houdini perform in real life. The app is an augmented reality program that can translate text from English to Spanish, and the other way around, instantly through the iPhone’s camera.

Similarly, windshields of vehicles already can provide heads up displays (HUDs) for drivers, but a great extension to this would be to augment what appears to be seen through the glass as well. Say for example your traveling cross country and have miles to cross of unpleasant scenery, this could be replaced instead with scenery desired by the driver. A desert for example could be replaced by lakes and mountains, or a hot dry day could be replaced by the appearance of light snow, or vice versa. An addition to the augmented reality could also be when you touched the glass, additional information could pop-up, so say for example when passing a building or landmark, information about that building or landmark could be provided. The potential could be endless of various combinations of augmented reality, however  it's acceptance could be dependant on economical (costs), legal (safety concerns), and social (acceptance of simulated worlds) among others.