What’s Cooking in the Augmented Reality Space?

I stumbled upon Vuforia, Qualcomm’s Augmented Reality (AR) platform and was pleased to note that big guns like Qualcomm are behind the adoption of this technology. Qualcomm is a R&D powerhouse in the mobile industry and their involvement in Augmented Reality augurs well for the technology. The platform was realesed in 2011 and earlier this year, Qualcomm announced an Augmented Reality application for Sesame Street. Check out this video.

Also check out Sify’s work in this space. I think this is a precourser for the increased adoption of Augmented Reality for educational purposes.

Srinivas Krishnaswamy

eLearning Industry: Looking back at 2011 and Welcoming 2012

These are interesting times indeed for the eLearning industry. Here is a look at some of the major trends that caught on in 2011. X2FDCDVZJFM5.

1. We saw a big churn among the vendors. Old battle lines disappeared and larger players consolidated their positions. SuccessFactors and Plateau rolled-up into SAP, SumTotal acquired GeoLearning, Salesforce took the plunge into talent management. The lines between talent management and learning management is blurring and will soon disappear.

2. Social learning graduated from being discussed in conferences to actual implementations. Companies like Cisco, ARM have shown the way forward when it comes to rolling out enterprise 2.0 apps connecting the extended enterprise.

3. Mobile learning has found significant traction with the explosive growth of Smartphones and tablets. The biggest credit for this trend goes to Steve Jobs. We will miss him for sure.

4. Virtual Worlds are making a comeback with the availability of browser-based virtual world platforms. Some industries, such as oil and gas, have already invested a lot in implementing virtual world based solutions for training.

5. Video has established itself as a powerful training medium. The growth in broadband connectivity and high-speed mobile networks has aided this trend.

6. The emerging trend of using XBox and Playstation for training has flattered to deceive.

So what can we expect to see in 2012? I am betting on the following:

1. Mobile learning and mobile job performance management will become pervasive.

2. Virtual Worlds will continue to make a comeback.

3.  Gamification as a strategy for delivering training will grow.

4. I am hoping Augmented Reality (AR) for job performance management and K12 learning will see light of the day, thanks to the growing familiarity of AR through bundled smartphone apps.

Happy New Year!

Srinivas Krishnaswamy

Mobile Augmented Reality for K12 Education

This is in continuation to my earlier post on Augmented Reality. Sify has now come up with a new and improved augmented reality application for the K12 segment. The first version required a pattern to be printed and placed in front of the webcam on a PC or Mac. While the augmented reality was cool, the method adopted for generating the animations needed simplification. The new version has completely done away with the need to print patterns. Instead, you can load the app to your mobile device and just point the device at the relevant image in the text book or even on the computer screen that has the image to trigger augmented reality to kick in.

Old version:

New version on mobile devices:

The new mobile version definitely expands the possibilities of using augmented reality for applications outside the classroom such as during a field trip. The possibilities are endless. I only wish I can once again enroll in middle school!

Srinivas Krishnaswamy

Augmented Reality in Learning – Hollywood Shows The Way!

This is a follow up on my previous post where I highlighted the potential for Augmented Reality in learning. Deploying learning applications based on augmented reality in enterprises is a new frontier. However, its not the case with Hollywood. In a way, Hollywood is showing the way ahead for futuristic technologies and how they could potentially be deployed.

Steven Spielberg in his 2002 bockbuster (thats 9 years ago!), Minority Report, had shown Tom Cruise using an interactive UI that combines images and animation. Check this out.

And there are more recent examples. Iron Man 2 has some amazing special effects that shows Robert Downey Jr. working on his suite using hand gestures and interacting with animations that seem to just float on thin air.

The above scene seems to depict an advanced form of Haptic Augmented Reality. Haptics refers to tactile feedback given to humans when they interact with virtual objects or remote controls for machines. While all this sounds intimidating, the good news is that there are technologies and tools available that can help enterprises leverage such technologies for training and productivity improvement. In my next blog, I will share some insights on how Augmented Reality can be harnessed in an enterprise.

Srinivas Krishnaswamy

Augmented Reality in Learning – Really?

Augmented Reality is no science fiction. For people hearing about it for the first time, it may a sound a bit fancy, but believe me, it’s very much in the realms of earthly technologies.

Wikipedia defines Augmented Reality as “Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or an indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.” It is different from Virtual Reality where everything you see is generated by the computer.

The growth of Smartphones has opened up the market for Augmented Reality apps. Wikitude, Layar, and whole bunch of apps like these, are already being used for fun, facts, and also as useful utilities such as help with directions, finding the nearest metro station, and restaurant reviews.

One of the key challenges faced by instructional designers is how do you sustain interest in the learner after the class or online session. In such cases, Augmented Reality is a perfect medium to make follow-up study interesting and one that requires very little external motivation or coercion. At Sify (the company I work for), we are working on an interesting project to bring Augmented Reality for the K12 segment in China. Students receive Augmented Reality patterns (just like QR codes) along with a CD-ROM that has the software for running Augmented Reality in their machines.

Students then runs the CD-ROM and places the pattern in front of the web cam to view the Augmented Reality animation. For example, if the student has an assignment to learn more about the solar system, he can actually see the planets in 3 dimensional animation through the webcam and interact with them in real-time. The Augmented Reality application builds up excitement and delivers an indelible impact on the mind of the student.

There are plenty of other Augmented Reality applications that we can think of that will forever revolutionize job-specific training. I will discuss some of my ideas in a subsequent blog post.

Srinivas Krishnaswamy