Augmented Reality: Fad or Future?

Over at FastCompany, Chris Dannen looks at the current “State of the art” in augmented reality, systems like Layar and Yelp, and is unimpressed.  Is augmented reality really going to become ubiquitous for consumers, or just a fad relegated to a few small niche areas?

How many of us agree without even knowing it? Surely lots of people have the Yelp app for iPhone, which has a pseudo-AR mode. But how many of us actually use it that new mode to find a restaurant? Sure, we try it once, or pull it out to show friends, but that’s about it; once the newness wears off, we’re back to using Yelp the same old way.

via Put Your Phone Down: Augmented Reality Is Overblown | TechWatch | Fast Company.

This story written by Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a visualization scientist working for a federal research lab, aiding researchers to discover the insights buried within their terabyte datasets generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. He also runs VizWorld.com .

Hardware, Science augmented reality