Augmented Reality Googles and Ubiquitous Computing

In 1988 Mark Weiser developed a new paradigm in computing which he called Ubiquitous Computing. The short explanation is that Ubiquitous Computing occurs when all objects in an environment have embedded chips and can communicate with other objects in the environment.

Weiser's vision has not yet been fully realized but it has been implemented in part in such things as shipping and storage where RFID cards communicate data about an object (e.g. a product) to a reader. Not quite the same as talking together but its a start.

From Ubiquitous Computing came Ambient Intelligence the idea that not only could objects in an environment communicate, but that they could automatically coordinate to respond to the needs of people.

Another idea that has evolved from Ubiquitous Computing and is the Internet of Things the idea that everyday objects are connected to the Internet and can communicate their state and information about their environment continuously.

All these ideas are essentially the same, but they emphasize different aspects of Ubiquitous Computing. The question that comes to my mind is what information would everyday objects provide and how would we use it? In other words, what's the use case?

I've struggled with this for a while now trying to figure out when it would be really useful for my toaster to talk to my refrigerator. Lots of scenarios have been discussed on the internet like the idea of an intelligent refrigerator that lets you know when you are low on milk or when the cheese is past its expiration date. Personally, I think the scale of implementing something like this is beyond our reach today. If it was easy than just about everything would already have RFID tags.

But what about a controlled environment? By controlled I mean a environment that is specifically designed to support ubiquitous computing rather than the world at large. An example of this is a warehouse where all the goods have RFID tags whose signals can be counted and therefor indicate when a product is low in stock. That's a start but its still pretty limited. How about a factory floor where every machine can report on it current operating state? For example, the drill press can report that its drill bit has gotten too dull and needs to be replaced. Now that sounds a little more interesting.

The second question is how do you report information presented by objects in a controlled environment? The most obvious solution is to write an application that people can access from desktop computer. I'm sure that's been done to some degree. But is that the best solution? Perhaps something more portable would be better like an iPhone. That would be an improvement as you could walk around the manufacturing area and get alerted to problems and interrogate objects at their location.

A really cool idea, which was brought to my attention by a blog post at Augmented Times is the use of Augmented Reality goggles with ubiquitous computing. In the video below a Dutch company demonstrates a concept that combines augmented reality with ubiquitous computing.

As the farmer walks around his large industrial farm, everything from milking machines, to grain bins, to cows report their current state projected on the lens of the goggle. Look at a cow and get a reading of its health. Look at a grain bin and get a reading of the type of grain stored and how much is left. It's a wonderful idea and one I think is actually doable in the short term. Watch the video for your self and see if it sparks some really cool NUI design ideas.