Communicating with "My Computer"

An Augmented Reality Interface requires a holistic, high level design approach.

It has more in common with how people communicate than with how computers do.

People communicate in the real world, computers communicate in binary signals.

For a real world object to exist in an augmented reality it needs an additional "virtual" context to be "augmented" with. The implicit context of a real world object is that it simply existed at some point, in the real world.

It is hard to maintain a conversation in the abstract realm so I choose a concrete object to talk about, I choose a small, useful, everyday object you normally call a "pen".

On my desk there is an instance of a pen, since it's a "pen" I know I should be able to do certain things with it as you probably already know as well. If a "pen" or this specific pen had additional "augmented" contexts to it then I would have had more options.

Seeing a pen makes me think of it and all of its pressing related contexts, but I can also pop those up by simply thinking "pen".

If I want to communicate "pen" to my computer I would probably type it as a search command in an internet browser, I would then expect my search to be categorized, localized and corrections offered in case I entered a partial pattern. My browser might monitor my history with "pen". I may encounter everyone's (all users) history when I inspect categories, localizations and possible corrections for my search command.

Maybe, I already handled "pen" before. If that is the case then I should probably have it stored on my local hard drive in some fashion, or at least on a nearby proxy server. One problem is; it is hard to find, e.g. if I take a picture of me sitting at my desk (I use pens sometimes when I am at my desk) unless I "tag" my pens; there is no way the computer will be able to find them (an "intelligent" computer would be able to tag objects with no human intervention, if allowed to do so).

If my computer was "intelligent" it could alert me when I leave my pen's cap open… it is known that pens that are left without their caps on for X amount of time in certain environment conditions dry off and become useless. I would not desire to be alerted about other people's pens; "My Computer" should take care of me in a personal fashion.

I think that on a very basic level, if we are to build advanced augmented reality interfaces our computers will have to perceive and understand the real world close to the way we do. Then we could intuitively communicate in the real world with our computers too.

Life Goals

I remember laying on my bed at the 15th year of my life thinking... 

it pretty much dumbs down to two options: 

I can attempt being a realist and study science, really try to figure out; how things really work and fail. Or I can succumb to my imagination and leave the realm of real world worries.

I happily chose the easy way. Computer Games (and books) fascinated me as the ultimate pastime (for a 15 years old), and I simply couldn't
fathom spending my time on a "lesser" task, a task that is bothered by
the real world.

Ever since: while going through high school, the military service and
some traveling I constantly resonated in two persistent realities: the
real world and Game Design World.

In Game Design World I objectified my experiences into a high level
model of my other persistent reality. But it wasn't limited to that;
some objects had merely faint memories in that other reality.

In this Game Design reality I can do as I wish, I can explore as I
wish and I make the rules. My control over the very fabric of being
there is limited only by my conscience.

At FullSail (university) I finally realized my dreams of making games
and towards the end of my bachelor's I started thinking about a job.

Then I realized something; while actively pursuing option number two,
I found myself knee deep in option number one as a software engineer
with some practical experience.

Realizing that I can write any application that I want made me
reevaluate my goals, a relatively new field of science captured my
attention: Augmented Reality.

From that point on: my ideas always find their way back to the reality
we share with the real world.