Realtime use-case's

Seeing as the topic of real-time use case's came up recently, I
thought Id suggest a few rough ones for discussion or refinement;

1. Tracking your friends locations when going to an outdoor event, or
exploring a city while on Holiday. I picture a simple "arrows from the
sky" depiction in the view, with each arrow being updated
independently above your friends every few seconds. The arrows should
only be visible to the friends/family members that have permission to
see the stream.
Additionally, fully public, possibly not-realtime elements should be
scene at the same time, such as a city map overlaid in the sky.

2. Public transport tracking system. Holding your viewing client to
bus/train stops gives you eta's of things arriving and notices of
delays etc. Updated as new information comes in.

3. Astronomy overlay, which shows the paths and position of heavenly
bodies as they pass though the sky. This angular position of these
objects in the sky would naturally have to change based on the time of
day. Nasa or Esa might also supply a update stream of their satellite
positions or other less predictable craft.

4. A Pokemon-esq game played in a local park. Players see their
creatures battling around them, the creatures responding to commands
given.
 While the game rules are dealt with by a dedicated server, the data
is published out in a standard format, so bystanders can watch easily
with generic AR browser software.


My own view;

I personally feel the realtime, as well as social, is a massive area
for AR and should be carefully considered to ensure as flexible
a system as possible. However, I think for most circumstances,
realtime use affects more the protocol of data transmission then the
content itself. That is, the same format of key/value pairs
positioning stuff statically on a http based webserver, could also be
used to reposition stuff dynamically every few seconds over, say, a
xmpp based stream.(which also allows for  selective viewing, such as
in usecase1 above)

As long as the format stays neutral to the transmission method (ie,
not one strictly relaying on a webpage structure), and the required
POI format is lightweight enough, I -think- realtime use should be a
"free" possibility without extra effort.

-Thomas wrobel

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Received on Friday, 10 December 2010 01:58:02 UTC