Virtual Annotation … Aura at Microsoft
This is one of the Microsoft projects that I have been reading about and studying for the last week or so. I believe that this *is* going to be a big deal.

A number of year ago, some friends and I were reading an article in Wired magazine about “Virtual Graffiti”. The idea was that as more people in the future are wearing “augmented reality” glasses (glasses that allow a computer to overlay additional information into your view) then “Virtual Graffiti” becomes possible. I can simple “draw” a picture on a building, or add my comments to a sign using specialized software. The graffiti will not actually exist on the building or sign, instead being stored on my server on the Internet. Other people, when tapped into my server, would then “see” my graffiti when they looked around the world.

Aura research is moving in this same direction … and beyond. They are using a wider range of input devices to allow for the identification of an item or place, and then allowing for others to add annotations or information to that item or place.

This is another good article about Aura … and this is another good article.

This is extending our ability to “see” more about something we are near or can “scan” … adding to the saying about “… more than meets the eye!”

ETCon 2004: Eat Me and I’ll Kill You. Every product has a story to tell and some of them say “If you
eat me, I’ll kill you.” So says
Marc Smith,
Microsoft’s resident sociologists. Marc is describing a research
project called

AURA. Combine a PocketPC, a barcode reader, and Wi-Fi or mobile
wireless and you’ve got the ability to find out lots of information
about any product with a barcode. The project maps barcodes to
names. Once that’s done, all kinds of things are possible: [Windley’s Enterprise Computing Weblog]