Metaio, an augmented reality software company, has come up with an interactive automobile manual that promises to make tune ups hands-free and easy. The company demonstrated the app in a video, using Google Glass.
Augmented reality (AR) means superimposing computer-generated images and data on a user's view of the real world, and, while still in its nascent form, promises to make a lot of every-day tasks easier. Metaio has developed a prototype of a step-by-step car manual for Google Glass, which the company is using to show off its AR system. Here's the demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPlaa1xhX4s
So okay, filling up a car's windshield wiper fluid is perhaps not the most complicated task that would necessitate an AR interface, but it's the technology behind Metaio's AR car manual that is secretly the star of the video.
Metaio's AR platform for wearable devices - which include Google Glass, but also upcoming products from Epson and Vuzix (Moverio and the M-100 smartglasses, respectively) - uses a new type of 3D tracking and recognition to perform its interactions with the real world.
Instead of using GPS coordinates, relying on markers, or point clouds, Metaio's AR system overlays its 3D content based on CAD models. According to Metaio, that makes their AR system more flexible and immune to varying real-world conditions, like lighting, glare, the user's position, and other environmental factors.
The app may not hit the streets in its current form, according to Engadget, as Metaio is using it as an example of what it's working on for the next generation of wearable AR apps, but one wouldn't be too surprised if something like it made its way to smartglasses in the future.
Metaio will demonstrate the app live at its InsideAR conference in Munich this October 10-11.
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