#wearable-computing gear

Steve Mann, a professor at the University of Toronto was recently assaulted at a  McDonalds by a McDonalds employee + others. This particular McDonalds was located on Avenue Champs Elysees in Paris. It was suggested that Mann was assaulted because he was wearing a wearable computing device with the ability to take photos. Turns out the McDonalds employee was not a fan of the function as it meant he could take photos of the menu. Why they were concerned enough to assault him is beyond me... 

Nevertheless, on a more positive note, the publicity he has received since the event has been fantastic. Its great to see Mann getting propelled into the public eye. I only wish it was for better reasons, like perhaps his wearable-computing gear. Want to read up on it?  Check out his wikipedia page. Although the wiki does not explicitly mention that Mann has worked on Augmented Reality, it does mention that Mann "works in the fields of computer-mediated reality". Which reminds me of some critical points gathered by Wired from a first post report. One in particular being... 

*In fact a lot of the contemporary apps that produce AR revenue really ARE “consumer computer-vision,” in the formal sense that they never register in a three-dimensional space in real-time. They’re commercial spinoffs from AR research that do useful things — services that are rather more modest than “augmenting” anybody’s “reality.” 

Considering the above point and that Manns' wiki does not explicitly acknowledge Augmented Reality, it really begs the question... have marketers chosen to exploit the term Augmented Reality to gain public attention? Well, it does make sense. More attention = more sales, at least most of the time. And which firms primary goal is not to be profitable? I should hope none, otherwise i'd imagine their lives would be pretty rough. 

That said, marketers would have to consider the meaning that the term Augmented Reality has garnered for itself in the science fiction communities and beyond before attaching it to their consumer products. Why? Because despite whatever value it may possess as a marketing tool, marketing their products as something that they are not could prove futile for their business. Anyways, their choice speaks for itself, especially when one considers the exciting public attention that Augmented Reality has been receiving. Bottom line is, the Augmented reality industry is growing, i'm happy.              

Source(s): 

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/16/augmented-reality-explorer-steve-mann-assaulted-at-parisian-mcdonalds/ 

http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2012/06/augmented-reality-past-the-trough-and-into-the-boring-plateau/ 

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Augmented+reality+goes+mainstream/6957012/story.html