It was the shake heard 'round the world. On Aug. 27, 2009, uberblogger Robert Scoble uncovered a hidden software feature buried within an iPhone application that provides access to Yelp.com reviews.
The secret, it turns out, was that users needed to shake the phone to activate the capability, known as Monocle. In the wake of Scoble's discovery, shared publicly via FriendFeed, iPhone users far and wide could be seen shaking their iPhones to get access to the new feature. Yet the frenzy was about more than the novelty of how to open it, or even the trove of Yelp.com reviews.
The bigger prize was in how that information shows up on the phone. Once Monocle is activated, users looking through the iPhone camera can see reviews and other information about restaurants, stores, and other businesses in the direction the camera is pointing. Monocle was one of the first smartphone applications in the U.S. to use a technology known as augmented reality, which meshes digital information with actual images of the subject of that data  . For many, augmented reality evokes images of what the Terminator sees as he homes in on a potential target, or the real time data seen by Luke Skywalker as he scans the barren Tatooine desertscape through a pair of field goggles.
A High-End Start
Augmented reality, also known by the acronym AR, has been around for at least two decades, but it has been largely relegated to applications in key areas such as training and inspection in automotive and aerospace manufacturing. In 1992, Tom Caudell coined the term augmented reality when he was working at Boeing on a project to make it easier to assemble large bundles of electric wire for aircraft on the factory floor. But recently, the technology has started to jump from high-end expensive equipment to Web cams and mobile devices.
The market for AR applications on smartphones is so new that it has gone from virtually no users in 2008 to an expected 600,000 by the end of 2009, says Christine Perey, a principal at Perey Research & Consulting, who advises companies on mobile augmented reality. Mobile AR is especially popular in places such as Europe, Japan, and Korea. Much of the activity in the U.S. has happened since August, following the June release of the iPhone 3GS, which includes technology that helps determine the user's location -- a key ingredient in AR apps. In the future, some augmented reality applications will come pre-loaded on smartphones, further boosting the number of people who have access to it, Perey says. (continued...)
© 2009 Business Week Online under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved.
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