<html><head><style type="text/css"></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14pt"><div>Future predictions can be interesting...but I know FOR SURE I would never trust a micro-crap(TM) product with such control over my perception of the world. <br><br>Any such product that would/could aftect your perceptions of reality MUST be open-source so that the code could be audited; I would hate to have a pop-up ad appear in front of me just as I was crossing a busy road. <br><br>Or how about not being able to read a poster or listen to a neighbor's stereo because they hadn't paid up for DRM. Closer than you think; I had a video on youtube that arbitrarily had all sound removed because some ass-wipe at RIAA wasn't getting a cheque for a song playing in the back-ground over a loud-speaker. Imagine this....you go to a friend's place to watch a play-off game that is PPV, and your vision gets blocked because he only paid for 4 people and you are the 5th.<br><br>Closer in time, I can forsee a cell-phone that is like a cochlear implant. We will see hordes of people on the street, all gabbing away with anyone but the person next to them. I can also understand the appeal of glasses that had camera/video/record & display for the ability to recall events later, or view a movie when stuck on a long bus commute, but imagine the legal & health problems of bored drivers catching up on "Survivor" in their glasses on the freeway. How do you prove they were doing so when they flattened some child in a school zone? Cell phones are bad enough right now.<br><br>I used to be a real tech enthusiast, and I really do use most of the features of my cell phone (text, camera, contacts, etc). I confess to believing that there is a limit to to what SHOULD be allowed, though I despair that these will be considered. <br><br>All new technologies can at first be empowering and provide unprecedented new ideas, but eventually the powers-that-be (church, state, culture) co-opt these tools to regain control. An electronic curtain slowly descends in China while everyone is busy finding torrents of the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Even here in Canada, Alberta has implemented a new "supernet" that builds on the standard internet technologies, but is in fact a "gated community" that tightly controls the traffic to & from schools, universities, and government offices. It is sold to underfunded schools as a free-ride to videoconferencing and other new gee-whiz educational tools, and I believe the best of intentions by its drivers (the path to hell is paved etc, etc,)<br><br>Sorry I ramble on, but at least at the present time, I can walk away from my computer, and SEE the world around me as it is, not as some bureaucrat, marketer, tyrant, pirate, hacker, or other would try to force me to see it.<br><br>regards<br>Ken<br></div><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Victor Mendonça <victorbrca@yahoo.ca><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> The Canadian Ubuntu Users Community <ubuntu-ca@lists.ubuntu.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Thursday, April 16, 2009 3:52:35 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Augmented Reality<br></font><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Hi all,<br><br>I was wondering if anyone here has any inputs or views of what might come in the future with augmented reality? <br><br>I just finished reading a book (Rainbows End) that talked about people in the future wearing contact lenses that allowed then to view and interact in very different ways that what we have today. They were always connected to the Internet, were able to transform and view things in a different way, watch a game without a ball on a field that didn't have markings, make searches, view directions tagged buildings, technical papers on "tagged"objects, have virtual meetings across the world, etc... <br><br><span>I did not expect that to be possible within 100s of years due to the size limitation of a contact lens. However today I depared myself with an augmented reality live demo from GE (<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/?c_id=Huff#/augmented_reality">http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/?c_id=Huff#/augmented_reality</a>) and I was impressed with something that I did not expect to be available right now. </span><br><br>After more reading I found that a company is working on developing a camera/screen that would be the same size of today's glasses; there are applications ready for Windows based mobile devices as well as I-phone; a small Museum and a University already have tags that can be used with augmented reality.<br><br>I'm very excited with this... Just wanted to see what other fellow geeks thought about it!! :)<br><div> </div><font style="font-weight: bold;" size="2">Victor Mendonça</font><br><font style="font-style: italic;" size="2"><span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://wazem.org/">http://wazem.org/</a></span></font><br><div><br></div></div><br> <hr size="1">Instant message from any web browser! Try the new <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://ca.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php"><b> Yahoo! Canada Messenger for the Web BETA</b></a></div></div></div></body></html>