{"64416":{"#nid":"64416","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Argon, the Augmented Reality Web Browser, Available Now on iPhone","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EYou\u2019re in a bookstore checking out the bestsellers. You scan the\nbook with your iPhone camera and immediately see information floating in the\nair, provided by the store\u2019s information channel. You add your own book club\nchannel to the view, overlaying additional reviews from friends and other\nrelevant information from shopping sites on the Web.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile skimming the book reviews, you notice a note that looks as if it\u2019s\nfloating in the air on your personal channel, reminding you about a nearby\nrestaurant you\u2019ve been meaning to visit. You buy the book and head to lunch,\nlooking forward to reading a bit over lunch before heading back to work.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENo, this isn\u0027t you in 20 years ---\u0026nbsp;it\u0027s a scenario possible in the very\nnear future thanks to a new technology designed to bring the Web off your\nhand-held device and into the real world. Developers hope to port Argon to other platforms, such as Android, in the near\nfuture.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur goal is to provide a foundation for millions of Web developers to begin\nwriting applications so they can provide users with new experiences that are\nunique to the world of AR,\u201d said Blair MacIntyre, KHARMA project director and\nassociate professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech.\n\u201cBasically, we want to move the Web into the world.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Argon mobile augmented reality browser was developed with\nfunding support from Alcatel-Lucent through its University Innovations Program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Alcatel-Lucent is actively involved in supporting open standards across\nmobile and fixed devices to enable consumers and business users to enjoy rich\ncommunication anywhere, anytime and over any device. Our participation as a\nproject sponsor in Georgia Tech\u0027s development of the world\u2019s first open\nstandards-based mobile augmented reality browser is an example of that,\u0022\nsaid Marc Goodman, director of Alcatel-Lucent\u0027s University Innovations Program.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAugmented reality allows people to view the physical world with computer media\noverlaid on top of it.\u0026nbsp; The approach is often suggested as a way of adding\ninformation to the world and improving the way that people can interact with\nthat information, but can also be used for games, art or any imaginable\napplication where the media content relates to nearby people, places or\nthings.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EArgon marks the first significant step in marrying the power of the Internet to\nthe world of augmented reality.\u0026nbsp; Until now, most AR applications had to be\ndeveloped and deployed on the user\u2019s mobile device, limiting the reach of the\ntechnology.\u0026nbsp; Commercial attempts at creating more general AR browser\nplatforms have offered limited content and interaction options. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat makes Argon different from standard mobile Internet browsers is its\nability to put content out into the world. Argon takes video from the phone\u2019s\ncamera and renders graphical content on top of it.\u0026nbsp; With this initial\nrelease, any content that can be displayed in the iPhone\u2019s Mobile Safari Web\nbrowser can be pushed out into the world on virtual billboards. Other content\ncan be created using forms and Javascript.\u0026nbsp; Future releases will also\ninclude support for a range of 3D content.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBasically, there are lots of little programs that provide the ability to use\nAR to put some information out in the world around you.\u0026nbsp; Some, like these\nearly browsers, also allow users to contribute content, but none allow the full\nrange of dynamic content, control and interactivity of the Web, with everything\nhosted on your own servers,\u201d said MacIntyre.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy building on top of open Web technologies and standards, the KHARMA\ndevelopment platform opens the door to AR applications with a full range of\npossible interactivity, collaboration, Web mashups and connections to cloud\nservices that users and developers have come to rely on.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor example, rather than just displaying the locations of businesses or other\nnearby places, you can customize the content delivery as you desire.\u0026nbsp; When\nyou use the browser to view the channel for a theater, the channel might\ndisplay the movie times, allow you to view previews of the films, or create\nin-browser games and interactive experiences tied to the movies you\nchoose.\u0026nbsp; Those games might be collaborative with other nearby viewers, or\nwith people at another theater across town or across the country. The\npossibilities are endless.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf you look at the history of any media, such as film or the Web, initially\nthe content creators are the same people who created the technology,\u201d said\nMacIntyre. \u201cBut at some point that begins to change, and tools come along that\nallow many people to begin to work with the technology. When that happens, we\nbegin to discover what the medium is truly about.\u0026nbsp; With the KHARMA\nspecifications, and the Argon browser, we want to put AR into the hands of the\nmillions of people who know how to create websites, and hopefully take a step\ntoward understanding the potential of AR.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E The Georgia Institute of Technology announces the release of Argon, the\nfirst mobile augmented reality (AR) browser based on open Web\nstandards.\u0026nbsp; Argon is available now for free download to the iPhone at\nApple\u2019s App Store.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Blair MacIntyre puts AR in the palm of your hand."}],"uid":"27310","created_gmt":"2011-02-22 09:45:07","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:08:10","author":"David Terraso","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-02-22T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2011-02-22T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"64418":{"id":"64418","type":"image","title":"Argon, the Augmented Reality Web Browser (Photo)","body":null,"created":"1449176735","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:05:35","changed":"1475894567","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:47","alt":"Argon, the Augmented Reality Web Browser (Photo)","file":{"fid":"192001","name":"11P1000-P37-015.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/11P1000-P37-015_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/11P1000-P37-015_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1570488,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/11P1000-P37-015_0.jpg?itok=O6HIefE8"}}},"media_ids":["64418"],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"143","name":"Digital Media and Entertainment"}],"keywords":[{"id":"10553","name":"app"},{"id":"4980","name":"ar"},{"id":"12001","name":"Argon"},{"id":"12000","name":"Augmented Environments Lab"},{"id":"12002","name":"Blair MacIntyre. Augmented Reality"},{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"4887","name":"GVU Center"},{"id":"9290","name":"iPhone"},{"id":"166848","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}