Augmented Reality Goodness
Listening to: Superstition - Stevie Wonder
I came across a couple of very cool augmented reality links yesterday:
An application I have always wanted to create is a “virtual racer”.
On some racing computer games you can race a ghost competitor. The ghost competitor
is often the ideal race line and it is represented on screen as a “ghost”.
If you’re slower than the “ghost” it appears ahead of you on the track,
if you’re faster it is in your review mirror.
Imagine you’re running or cycling around a course you do regularly (say you cycle
to work). Each time you walk to work the time and path is captured as a series of
GPS coordinates. When you decide you want to race you don a pair of goggles and choose
a recent recording of your run/cycle/walk to work. As you start to walk you
see the recorded version of yourself projected onto the reality around you. The projection
is related to your progress, if you’re slower this time it is ahead of you, if you’re
faster it is some where behind you.
One of the most compelling characteristics of the idea are the community aspects.
A club, say mountain biking, sail boarding or yachting could build up a database of
racers and their races. A club member could then choose from that extended database.
They would then be able to race against other members in a sort of “time-shifting”
manner (obviously time-shifting a sail board race or a yacht race doesn’t make too
much sense when it comes to having an accurate competition (given the environmental
dependancy), but there are many racing sports where it might… motor racing for instance.).
UPDATE: Not the only one thinking these thoughts
