Augmented Reality - Virtual Information of Real World

Augmented reality is a new concept which allows you to see the real world in virtual way. Augmented reality generates a composite view to the user of real world a viewer is seeing and virtual view generated with the computer by adding graphics,sounds and haptic feedback.The ultimate goal is to create a system such that the user can not tell the difference between the real world and the virtual augmentation of it. To the user of this ultimate system it would appear that he is looking at a single real scene.Imagine yourself going to a unknown city with just pair of glasses as your tour guides and a phone application which converts speech of any language into a the one which you understands and the glasses show you all the basic information about the city like street number,lane number, how far is the nearest police station or a restaurant from where you are  standing.It will look all science fiction type  but this concept is really taking its shape in form of smartphone applications and video games. The applications based on this concept are still at infancy stage, the functionality they provide has not reached an advanced level but then they are impressive to watch..

Augmented reality can change the way we browse the internet today.One of the most amazing things which I found about this technology was just by pointing out the camera in front of project we can see the information related to that particular place. Lets say if you are walking across the road in Rome and you come across a museum. all you have is just your phone just point out your augmented browser towards the building and you will get all the information needed about it. It will display everything about the building that is available on net.this is just one application but augmented reality can be used in medical as well as many military applications.
 There are many applications based on this concept which are gaining momentum in the technology arena.Few popular applications like LAYAR, WIKITUDE,JUNAIO,etc.All are called augmented browsers. These applications help you in finding the real time information of anything you  point your camera towards the place. By real time information I mean the users current position, near by restaurants, important buildings , it depends on the type of application and what feature they are providing but some applications also provide the names of all the nearby buildings where job interviews are going on. Isn't it amazing you will get the information about any place  wherever you go. However the concept of augmented reality is very new and is implemented in few applications of smartphones and some of video games. There are immense areas and domains where if this concept is followed can create a revolution in technology world.

Think of the opputunities that will arise if we are able to work this augumented reality in military applications.for example it would be great for a pilot to view information about his surroundings without looking at the instruments when every information (altitude, speed weather information) can be shown on a transparent screen.Beside this augumented reality has applications have  many applications in the field of Medical sciences.There have been really interesting advances in medical application of augmented reality. Medical students use the technology to practice surgery in a controlled environment. Visualizations aid in 

explaining complex medical conditions to patients. Augmented reality can reduce the risk of an operation by giving the surgeon improved sensory perception. This technology can be combined with MRI or X-ray systems and bring everything into a single view for the surgeon. There are many more areas like navigation, sight seing ,palentology,gaming where this concept can be very useful .

Now when  we have discussed how good is this concept  lets look at some of the limitations of this technology too. An over reliance on any technology make people more ignorant towards real time things .The issue of privacy may arise when the information on web is so widely explored and used.People may not like their Facebook profiles to appear on the phone of stranger and letting know of your life and background..However every new thing has some pros and cons with it .It depends on us how we take it,but if you look at the concept of the technology don't you feel fascinated that how much technology has advanced how by only pointing your phone camera towards a place or building will let  you know all the information yo\u want to know about the place. I am still exploring about the technology and would try to post as much as I can about the technology.

Evernote- Your Digital Assistant

Evernote is your personal Digital assistant which allows you to save your notes ,videos,snapshots, photos ...almost everything.With Evernote on your phone and PC you can create your own gallery of photos videos interesting web articles. To  have evenrnote on your phone all you need to do is go to Evenote.com and download the app on your phone or if you carry an android phone then it is more simpler all you have to do is to log into anddroid market select and install the application. once it is installed you will be asked to create an account with evenote and after that there is no looking back the app is installed on your phone and once you open it shows you all the options. You can

a) create a note

b) Take a snapshot

c) you can also make a collection of .your notes and separate them in different stacks .

d) It also allows you to add videos and audio recordings  and you can sync you data with your computer.

With Evernote you can create your notes and put tags on them and find it on your phone whenever you need. all you have to do is toselect the option of tag on your device and add the relevant tag and save it. Now next time when you want to find the note you don't have to remember the date on which you created the note all you have to do is to enter the tag and evernote will find the note for you. The  evernote will sync your notes between your laptop, your iPad and your phone(or iphone). It comes with two accounts premium and a free account. when you  first install your evernote application you are asked to create an account (both for premium and  free users). With free account you can use up to 60 MB/month of the evernote server space and if you are a heavy user who has large amount of data to store you can create a premium account where in you get a space of 1000 MB/month. The fee for premium account is $5 for a month  or $45 per year.

Evernote allows you to store data  on its server and you device and syncs the data at regular intervals so if you are offline you and cannot access Internet, still you can store notes on your device and once you get your connectivity back you can sync your data with the Evernote 's server.

One of the interesting thing which I found about evernote is webclipper.This is an additional functionality which you have to download on your device but it is quiet interesting . It is Webclipper it allows you to clip anywebpage you find interesting and save it . with webclipper you can also save the web links which you find interesing and hence can create your own Webpage gallery. One thing which I desire from evernote is ability to take screenshots on my HTC wildfire . I searched the android market but I could not get a single application which could provide me the screenshot capability along with the advantages of taking notes. I would be like an icing on the cake if we could have an application which would allow us to take notes and ability to take the screenshots. I mean i would be an added functionality of the webclipper if we could take the screenshots of the web page and we don't have to fo through the lengthy procedure of installing SDK for taking a screenshot on our android device.

 Evernote is one application you must check out at least once. Evernote is available for desktops,mobiles and tablets. If you go to android market you can easily find it on free applications tab and download instantly on your android device.