I have found two interesting new projects out of MIT that i think may actually eventually be combined to perform some very interesting things. The first is called inForm, it is a 3D mapping system that can be manipulated through a digital connection using a kinect camera. The Dynamic Shape Display can be utilized to create quick mock ups of engineering products and architectural designs and then physically manipulated in real time. I’m not one hundred percent sure if this can be considered AR, although I do believe that it is a technology that will go hand and hand with AR to great benefit. Imagine the uses this could be put in urban planning. Although the resolution of the shape display still seems rough eventually the physical display could come in very handy for teaching and other uses.

The second project is called Sublimate. This is very similar to inFORM’s dynamic shape display but takes it to the next level by combining it with VR and AR. It has the same aspects of physically moving around sensors to manipulate, in this case, a virtual display in real time. This technology would be very useful in doing archaeology. The ability to manipulate artifacts without doing them harm would be tremendous. Imagine being able, using ground penetrating radar, to create a digital map of a site without destroying it, then being able to physically interact with the digital map. Taking artifacts out, getting as much information from them as you can and being able to share it instantly with others only benefits the field. Or, again with urban planning, the amount of things you can study from traffic flow to building stability is amazing.

It has become very common recently to use virtual reality to help to train surgeons to do their jobs more efficiently and accurately. Combine these two technologies together and an interactive teaching tool that does no harm to people, or animals in a vets case, would be created.

Even gaming I think would benefit from something like this.

These technologies, I think, show the dynamic ways that AR can be used aside from just connecting a view of the world with digital displays. Actually being able to physically manipulate digital information is only a plus in my mind.