An impressive product use for Augmented Reality comes from researchers at Miami University that have used an Android handset to analyze books on a library shelf in real-time to find the misfiled books.
ShelvAR consists of an Android app and a set of coded tags, representing call numbers, that are placed on books’ spines. When a librarian holds a smartphone or tablet camera up to a shelf, the app reads all the tags at once, thanks to a new algorithm that can decipher multiple patterns even though they’re small when viewed at a distance. Then the app uses a simple sorting method—at least for computers, which aren’t fazed by complex letter-digit combos like Q164 .G72 2009–to figure out the correct order and the shortest number of moves needed to achieve it. The phone’s screen displays red X’s over any misfiled books, along with arrows that show where they really belong.
