DAT203: Augmented Reality: more about it

Although it has been said that the Wizard of Oz can be considered to be the very first example of augmented reality (or a model of which a typical AR setup is based upon), the first documented example of a form of augmented reality dates back to the 1950s, with the advent of Sensorama, which was a machine that produced visuals, sound, movement, and even smell. However, it was not considered a success, as there was no financial backing to support the project and to apply patents to it.

In 1966, the first form of visual augmented reality, the head-mounted display (HMD) was invented by Ivan Sutherland, which provided the user with a view of a virtual world, which applied the principles of the Wizard of Oz model. Whilst the phrase 'augmented reality' was coined in 1992, the first, modern functioning form of augmented reality was created in 1992 by the US Air Force Research Laboratory, known as Virtual Fixtures, and in 1999, a standard platform of augmented reality, ARToolKit, was created by Hirokazu Kato of the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, and has since been ported to many platforms, including mobile devices, of which their potential was not realised until the boom of smartphones in the late 2000s.

A more recent implementation of augmented reality was created in 2008 as Wikitude, a travel guide that utilises the smartphone's built-in camera to overlay information onto the screen, and then provides the user with information about places to visit, shops, restaurants etc.

DAT203: Augmented Reality: Is the Wizard of Oz considered to be the first example of AR?

Today, we've been taught more about Augmented Reality and the Wizard of Oz, but why the Wizard of Oz? Is it because, because, because of the wonderful things he does, or is it because it hints about the earliest possible example to date? Surprisingly, the Wizard of Oz is used as a model for Augmented Reality, because it is based on the idea of seeing the world from a different perspective via a wearable medium, which in most cases like the Emerald City, would be through special glasses.