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Event
ing research papers that will be presented during the event. He also
eluded to some stunning artistic exhibitions.
Unfortunately, he left us hanging in suspense with his next
comment. "We have also recently received a request to participate
by a company which shall remain nameless at this point.
They contacted us and said that they wanted to do a presentation
of their work, but they did not want to release details of the product
prior to the demonstration, due to concerns that the exposure
might compromise their proprietary interest. They provided
enough information to peak our interest and we decided to include
them in the event. We're very excited to learn more about
the research and development that they have been doing and see
what they've come up with."
AR improves our daily lives
The ISMAR 2010 website says "Mixed Reality (MR) and
Augmented Reality (AR) allow the creation of fascinating new
types of user interfaces, and are beginning to show significant impact
on industry and society." We asked Professor Kim to tell us
about how this technology effects our daily lives. We told him
that we were familiar with the use of AR for generating images on
TV screens during sporting events and asked if he could provide
some other examples. He responded by saying "When I think
about the AR that you are talking about, I think of a lot of preproduction
work that goes into making that happen. Cameras
have to be set in specific locations, graphics need to be created
and staged in advance; the stage has to be set for it to happen."
"What I was thinking about was AR capable Smart Phones.
The GPS enabled phone can triangulate your location and the internal
compass can tell which way you are facing. As you point
the phone at a building directly in front of you the camera collects
an image. The AR technology can access a database of images
and is able to identify the building characteristics from the image.
Then the application serves up the address and information about
the businesses in the building. I actually used that technology on
my way here to meet with you in this building. This is an example
of how this technology make our lives easier." he continued.
Kim shared another thought on the subject when he said "One
idea that I have envisioned for many years is that of using this
technology in an educational setting. Imagine a High School
chemistry class. Keeping most students attention is difficult unless
the experiment involves blowing something up. Lets say they
have real-world lab apparatus, test tubes, microscopes and the
like. What if they could virtually combine those elements which
normally result in an explosion in their real world setting and they
get information about the reaction without anything blowing up.
I think they would be more engaged and have a better learning
experience." "Students can have that experience in a purely virtual
world. Computer graphics in games get better with every new
edition, but virtual reality is still virtual. There is a phenomenon
which has been documented, that shows that when a person is
engaged in a pleasurable virtual activity their interest will start at a
normal level and rise during the initial period. After a time
though, the interest level peaks and is followed by a rapid decline.
In other words it's fun for a while, but it doesn't take long before
the thrill is gone. I think by augmenting reality, as opposed to creating
virtual reality, the user will remain engaged for a longer period
of time and have a better experience."
Arts, Media and Humanities program
One element of the ISMAR 2010 event is the Arts, Media and
Humanities program (AMH). Professor Kim said that this is a
feature of the event was resurrected by the organizers of ISMAR
2009 in Orlando, Florida in the US. "We agreed with the IEEE
that it should continue this year. It was one of the more difficult
parts of organizing the event, because we had to reach out to
Artists and Social Scientist and try to engage them for the event.
Fortunately, my Co-Chair, Heedong Ko of the Korea Institute of
Science and Technology had some contacts in those communities
and he was able to arrange for their participation."
Why Korea for the ISMAR 2010?
We were curious why the event was being held in Korea this
year. Professor Kim cleared up that question by saying "As I said
before, in the past when the event came to Asia, it was held in
Japan. Today, the AR research community in Korea has reached
a critical mass. Samsung and LG have been working hard to integrate
AR functionality in to their phones. Now, we are big
enough contributors to the community to have our bid taken seriously.
Had we tried to make it happen seven or eight years ago, I
don't think it would have succeeded."
Can the general public attend?
We thought there might be some interest in the information being
presented at the event for the general public. We wondered if
there was room for general public participation at the event.
Professor Kim said that he had hope that the general public
would be able to attend when he assumed a leadership role in the
symposium, because there would certainly be some interesting
things to see, including art exhibits and demonstrations of the
technology for the lay person. They planned the event for 400 attendees
based on limitations of the venue. As it turned out, the
projected number has been reached. Professor Kim said "If your
readers are unable to attend the event, then I suggest that they visit
the ISMAR 2010 web site for a post-event recap of the event activities.
We are always looking for ways to interact with the general
public to spread the word about what we are doing and get
feedback regarding their AR experiences."
Robert E. Weimer / bob@koreaittimes.com
www.koreaittimes.com 81