转载说明：本文是介绍“扩增实景”（扩增实境）技术的，扩增实境浅显来说是一种虚拟和现实结合的技术。虽然这个概念已经国外已经提了很久，但在国内还是很少提到的。近日Google发布了基于移动平台的Goggle搜索，利用到了增境实境技术，我们有必要补补课了。由于平时很忙，我就无法为大家翻译了，英文不好的小朋友可以点击这里“享受”Google翻译版。

关于Augmented Reality的中文翻译：由于在本概念在国内不为人熟知，因此也没有一个通用的中文翻译，网上的翻译有扩增实景、扩增实境、扩增现实等版本，我们相信，不久通行的版本将会出现。我个人也给出一个翻译版本——增境现实，和Augmented Reality字面意思有些差别。

本文系转载自Sirus的博客iTorero 这里是英文原文 PS：关于这项技术的更多介绍可以参加这篇天涯海阁的文章，非常详细。

Video games have been entertaining us for nearly 30 years, ever since Pong was introduced to arcades in the early 1970s. Computer graphics have become much more sophisticated since then, and game graphics are pushing the barriers of photorealism. Now, researchers and engineers are pulling graphics out of your television screen or computer display and integrating them into real-world environments. This new technology, called augmented reality, blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell.

On the spectrum between virtual reality, which creates immersive, computer-generated environments, and the real world, augmented reality is closer to the real world. Augmented reality adds graphics, sounds, haptic feedback and smell to the natural world as it exists. Both video games and cell phones are driving the development of augmented reality. Everyone from tourists, to soldiers, to someone looking for the closest subway stop can now benefit from the ability to place computer-generated graphics in their field of vision.

Augmented reality is changing the way we view the world — or at least the way its users see the world. Picture yourself walking or driving down the street. With augmented-reality displays, which will eventually look much like a normal pair of glasses, informative graphics will appear in your field of view, and audio will coincide with whatever you see. These enhancements will be refreshed continually to reflect the movements of your head. Similar devices and applications already exist, particularly on smartphones like the iPhone.

In this article, we’ll take a look at where augmented reality is now and where it may be headed soon.

Augmenting Our World

The basic idea of augmented reality is to superimpose graphics, audio and other sensory enhancements over a real-world environment in real time. Sounds pretty simple. Besides, haven’t television networks been doing that with graphics for decades? However, augmented reality is more advanced than any technology you’ve seen in television broadcasts, although some new TV effects come close, such as RACEf/x and the super-imposed first down line on televised U.S. football games, both created by Sportvision. But these systems display graphics for only one point of view. Next-generation augmented-reality systems will display graphics for each viewer’s perspective.

Some of the most exciting augmented-reality work is taking place in research labs at universities around the world. In February 2009, at the TED conference, Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry presented their augmented-reality system, which they developed as part of MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group. They call it SixthSense, and it relies on some basic components that are found in many augmented reality systems:

·Camera
·Small projector
·Smartphone
·Mirror
These components are strung together in a lanyardlike apparatus that the user wears around his neck. The user also wears four colored caps on the fingers, and these caps are used to manipulate the images that the projector emits.

SixthSense is remarkable because it uses these simple, off-the-shelf components that cost around $350. It is also notable because the projector essentially turns any surface into an interactive screen. Essentially, the device works by using the camera and mirror to examine the surrounding world, feeding that image to the phone (which processes the image, gathers GPS coordinates and pulls data from the Internet), and then projecting information from the projector onto the surface in front of the user, whether it’s a wrist, a wall, or even a person. Because the user is wearing the camera on his chest, SixthSense will augment whatever he looks at; for example, if he picks up a can of soup in a grocery store, SixthSense can find and project onto the soup information about its ingredients, price, nutritional value — even customer reviews.

By using his capped fingers — Pattie Maes says even fingers with different colors of nail polish would work — a user can perform actions on the projected information, which are then picked up by the camera and processed by the phone. If he wants to know more about that can of soup than is projected on it, he can use his fingers to interact with the projected image and learn about, say, competing brands. SixthSense can also recognize complex gestures — draw a circle on your wrist and SixthSense projects a watch with the current time.

Augmented Reality on Cell Phones

While it may be some time before you buy a device like SixthSense, more primitive versions of augmented reality are already here o n some cell phones, particularly in applications for the iPhone and phones with the Android operating system. In the Netherlands, cell phone owners can download an application called Layar that uses the phone’s camera and GPS capabilities to gather information about the surrounding area. Layar then shows information about restaurants or other sites in the area, overlaying this information on the phone’s screen. You can even point the phone at a building, and Layar will tell you if any companies in that building are hiring, or it might be able to find photos of the building on Flickr or to locate its history on Wikipedia.

Layar isn’t the only application of its type. In August 2009, some iPhone users were surprised to find an augmented-reality “easter egg” hidden within the Yelp application. Yelp is known for its user reviews of restaurants and other businesses, but its hidden augmented-reality component, called Monocle, takes things one step further. Just start up the Yelp app, shake your iPhone 3GS three times and Monocle activates. Using your phone’s GPS and compass, Monocle will display information about local restaurants, including ratings and reviews, on your cell phone screen. You can touch one of the listings to find out more about a particular restaurant.

There are other augmented reality apps out there for the iPhone and other similar phones — and many more in development. Urbanspoon has much of the same functionality as Yelp’s Monocle. Then there’s Wikitude, which finds information from Wikipedia about sites in the area. Underlying most of these applications are a phone’s GPS and compass; by knowing where you are, these applications can make sure to offer information relevant to you. We’re still not quite at the stage of full-on image recognition, but trust us, people are working on it.

We’ve looked at some of the existing forms of augmented reality. On the next page, we’ll examine some of the other applications of the technology, such as in video games and military hardware.

Augmented Reality in Video Games and the Military

Video game companies are quickly hopping aboard the augmented-reality locomotive. A company called Total Immersion makes software that applies augmented reality to baseball cards. Simply go online, download the Total Immersion software and then hold up your baseball card to a webcam. The software recognizes the card  (and the player on it) and then displays related video on your computer screen. Move the card in your hands — make sure to keep it in view of the camera — and the 3-D figure on your screen will perform actions, such as throwing a ball at a target.

Total Immersion’s efforts are just the beginning. In the next couple of years, we’ll see games that take augmented reality out into the streets. Consider a scavenger-hunt game that uses virtual objects. You could use your phone to “place” tokens around town, and participants would then use their phones (or augmented-reality enabled goggles) to find these invisible objects.

Demos of many games of this order already exist. There’s a “human Pac-Man” game that allows users to chase after each other in real life while wearing goggles that make them look like characters in Pac-Man.

Arcane Technologies, a Canadian company, has sold augmented-reality devices to the U.S. military. The company produces a head-mounted display — the sort of device that was supposed to bring us virtual reality — that superimposes information on your world. Consider a squad of soldiers in Afghanistan, performing reconnaissance on an opposition hideout. An AR-enabled head-mounted display could overlay blueprints or a view from a satellite or overheard drone directly onto the soldiers’ field of vision.

Now that we’ve established some of the many current and burgeoning uses of augmented reality, let’s take a look at the technology’s limitations and what the future holds.

Limitations and the Future of Augmented Reality

Augmented reality still has some challenges to overcome. For example, GPS is only accurate to within 30 feet (9 meters) and doesn’t work as well indoors, although improved image recognition technology may be able to help [source: Metz].

People may not want to rely on their cell phones, which have small screens on which to superimpose information. For that reason, wearable devices like SixthSense or augmented-reality capable contact lenses and glasses will provide users with more convenient, expansive views of the world around them. Screen real estate will no longer be an issue. In the near future, you may be able to play a real-time strategy game on your computer, or you can invite a friend over, put on your AR glasses, and play on the tabletop in front of you.

There is such a thing as too much information. Just as the “CrackBerry” phenomenon and Internet addiction are concerns, an overreliance on augmented reality could mean that people are missing out on what’s right in front of them. Some people may prefer to use their AR iPhone applications rather than an experienced tour guide, even though a tour guide may be able to offer a level of interaction, an experience and a personal touch unavailable in a computer program. And there are times when a real plaque on a building is preferable to a virtual one, which would be accessible only by people with certain technologies.

There are also privacy concerns. Image-recognition software coupled with AR will, quite soon, allow us to point our phones at people, even strangers, and instantly see information from their Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, LinkedIn or other online profiles. With most of these services people willingly put information about themselves online, but it may be an unwelcome shock to meet someone, only to have him instantly know so much about your life and background.

Despite these concerns, imagine the possibilities: you may learn things about the city you’ve lived in for years just by pointing your AR-enabled phone at a nearby park or building. If you work in construction, you can save on materials by using virtual markers to designate where a beam should go or which structural support to inspect. Paleontologists working in shifts to assemble a dinosaur skeleton could leave virtual “notes” to team members on the bones themselves, artists could produce virtual graffiti and doctors could overlay a digital image of a patient’s X-rays onto a mannequin for added realism.

The future of augmented reality is clearly bright, even as it already has found its way into our cell phones and video game systems. For more information about the subject and where it’s headed, take a look at the links on the next page.

美国MIT Media Lab（麻省理工学院媒体实验室）的天才学生普拉纳夫- (Prarnav Mistry)，发明了一项结合实体世界和虚拟世界的科技，令人又惊又喜；喜的是，对于未來生活，悠游於实体和虚拟之间，将更自由无限，惊的是，对于现今的人们和企业而言，这场演讲是一提醒 ：「讯息上身，才有未来」。

以下是一段视频，长达13分52秒。但是，我相信你一定不会错过任何一秒。哪怕是它有关于科技，演讲人有浓重的印度口音，但是它如此贴近我们的生活，如此关怀人性，努力把人从“机器前的机器”里解放出来，以至于你会目不转睛地看完这段实况，而且遐想翩翩，愿意努力活到22世纪。
如果说，Windows系统的图形化界面把人们从Dos系统下解放出来，用更符合直觉和人性的方法让人们对电脑进行操作是一次新技术的跨越的话，那么视频里这套Prarnav Mistry提供的第六感（Sixth Sense)装置，则是另外一次意义更为深远的腾跃。和它相比，目前甚嚣尘上的所谓“物流网”，只是这个新技术的小小注脚，无论在深度还是广度上，都无法与之比拟。 网络和电脑技术，终于使得数字世界和现实世界全面融合，人类升级为真正意义上的数位人！新时代就要开始了！

请看视频：

大陆访客请看youku版本（有中文字幕）：

文章来源：cnbeta
英文原文地址：TED