In the future, you can view multiple photos in one photo frame. Just you wait.

If you ever needed an example of what the future will be like, just look around you.  You’re living in it.  The TV can be watched live on the internet, you can talk to a loved one face to face while not being in the same continent, and you can call anyone, anywhere in the world, at anytime. (Unless you have AT&T).

Ever since I was kid, I’ve been amazed at what technology and science brings us.  I loved watching Starship Troopers: Rico’s Roughnecks, Beast Wars, and even VR Troopers because each show used advanced computer graphics for their time.  Everyday, I look through news sites and blogs to find the newest in video games and gadgetry. And now, while I was searching the intertubes, I find this video:

Using Flash Papervision and Actionscript 3 for the web, we can now do what is called “Augmented Reality”

Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time. The term is believed to have been coined in 1990 by Thomas Caudell, a employee of Boeing at the time^[1].

GE’s SmartGrid website was the first augmented reality I’ve experienced. After playing around with the web app myself, I noticed that you could also draw the logo or shape on a paper and almost get the same results.  It made me realize that any store could have a kiosk with a webcam that can show you a product out side of a box, on a screen.  As long as the box had the right shape or logo on it. But why stop at boxes? Why not shirts or bags?  Basically, if it can be printed on, it can give us Flash’s version of augmented reality.

And now, with videos popping up of mobile augmented reality apps, we are not getting closer to the future.  We are living in it.

OH, and last but not least, a touchscreen soda/pop vending machine. Now, how cool is that?!