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SALT LAKE CITY — In the Viridian Event Center a few weeks ago, nearly 2,000 teens gathered for Salt Lake County Library's annual Harry Potter Teen Yule Ball.
Of course there was dancing and activities, but a new element was added this year — augmented reality. During the event dozens of excited teens chased down the next clue in an augmented-reality horcrux hunt put on through the library and SpyHop Productions. This wasn't your typical scavenger hunt: each group or "house" of teens had an iPad pre-loaded with the app, Zappar. And these clues weren't on paper, but came to life through the power of technology.
What is augmented reality? Jennifer McKague, one of the creators of the horcrux hunt, describes it simply as "technology to augment the user's view of the real world." This technology made the clues come to life and "allows us to superimpose digital enhancements over the physical world — and to recall these enhancements when a simple code is scanned," she said.
Augmented reality is similar to virtual reality, but they are not the same. Virtual reality isolates the user from the real world in an immersive experience while augmented reality blends the digital and real world. For example, Utah-based company The VOID works with virtual reality and is creating a theme park. They describe their theme park as bringing "the five senses into a virtual world." Augemented reality would not bring the user and their senses so far into that virtual space.
Augmented reality uses devices or equipment to bring the digital into the physical world. The horcrux hunt was used with the Zappar app and there are other augmented reality apps available. You can also try out augmented reality using your iPhone with Monocle to make businesses pop up as you pan your phone around where you're standing. Microsoft has recently developed the HoloLens, which is a holographic computer that allows the user to interact and create with holographic images. While similar to augmented reality, the objects seen through the HoloLens can be more stationary and move regardless of how the user interacts with them.
But augmented reality is not just for horcrux hunts and entertainment, it has practical applications as well. Medical science has found uses of augmented reality in endoscopes and microscopes. Endoscopic cameras are widely used in minimally invasive surgeries, and augmented reality can improve on the images seen. Recently the company ARRI released the arriscope, which it describes as bring "the world's first high-definition, fully digital surgical microscope for stereoscopic viewing."
Outside the operating room, augmented reality can also be used in classrooms. Lessons can be animated, 3-D models come to life, and students can interact and be immersed in lessons from anatomy to zoology. There are educational apps like Popar Toys which make books come to life as well as Aug That!, which was developed by a former teacher to enhance education.
Augmented reality continues to grow and expand with practical uses across sectors. Envision a day in the near future where you use augmented reality from morning to night: while driving to work an augmented reality map pops up on your windshield to help you navigate through traffic; at work you login to your holographic computer instead of desktop; during your lunch break you can find the best restaurants through augmented reviews that pop up on your phone; after work you may help your child with their homework, but instead of pencil and paper their textbook may come to life and illustrate the lesson; and finally at night instead of a remote control, you may pick up some lenses and watch some augmented reality TV shows. All this technology exists now — that future day might be here sooner than you think.
Editor's Note: KSL.com contributor Carrie Rogers-Whitehead works for the Salt Lake County Library and helped organize the Harry Potter Teen Yule Ball.
Carrie Rogers-Whitehead is a senior librarian with Salt Lake County Library. She can be reached at rogers-whitehead@hotmail.com
