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This month’s Emerging Tech Talk was on Location Aware Devices and Augmented Reality. Since it still sounds a lot like science fiction, and is hard to explain without seeing it in action, we started by watching a few videos:

First, a video about overlaying additional information based on symbols a device understands:

Then, a video about a browser that overlays data with the environment behind it:

Then, a video about Yelp‘s “Monocle” Easter Egg for the iPhone:

And finally, we watched Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry‘s Sixth Sense TED Talk.

Afterward, we discussed how location aware devices are becoming more mainstream as GPS technology and compasses show up in mobile devices, and how we’re about to see growth in augmented reality as well (especially after the next version of the iPhone OS). The Sixth Sense demo showed a possible next steps we could see after that. Exciting stuff! And once it’s much more mainstream these technologies will impact how people can access information and what their expectations will be.

If you’re interested in seeing the Monocle app in action, several of us have installed it on our phones. I’d be happy to show you!