http://ilab.cs.ucsb.edu/projects/anywhereAugmentation/
"Overview
"We are conducting many different projects with the goal of Anywhere Augmentation. We have introduced this term for the concept of building an AR system that will work in arbitrary environments with no prior preparation. The main goal of this work is to lower the barrier of broad acceptance for augmented reality by expanding beyond research prototypes that only work in prepared, controlled environments. To this end we are building a framework to unite the resources that are commonly available to any Anywhere Augmentation user – rough global position tracking, local sensors, globally available GIS data, and user input – to address the two main problem areas hindering widespread applicability of this technology: generality and robustness. We are working in several areas towards are goal of Anywhere Augmentation, including tracking in unprepared environments, interface and interaction design, and application development." (...)
(((I'm not sure I'm buying the general scheme of this UC Santa Barbara research project, because carrying a completely independent AR rig is rather old-school. It means forfeiting everything the web and the mobile cloud can do for you, which is, basically, everything.)))
(((On the other hand, user-philosophy aside, check out their gorgeous video demo! That markerless gestural interaction is insane! It's like: "Watch me pull a rabbit out of thin air!" To heck with pesky screen buttons – they don't even have a screen.)))
*Imagine what you could do with the scheme here if you color-coded your fingernails. Imagine this: it's 2015, and you've got European boutique multicolored nail polish, a Korean Android, Japanese “Uearaburukonpyuta" headmounts, a sleeveless salmon-pink hoodie and you're in Detroit trying to find a functional hot-dog stand. Man, you'd be Ms Augmented!
