Monster Attack

JK Rowling saw all this coming, mentioned the human who had only shown me a journal where the photos changed and talked, true out of Harry Potter.

And yes, the focus that Autonomy's Mike Lynch had demonstrated to make that come about was magical. But what I'm still not truly coherent about is either Aurasma is, as he claims, the thought that creates protracted reality go mainstream.

The app uses Autonomy's high-powered looking technology - hitherto only directed at blurb customers - to couple all sorts of things it sees by a smartphones camera to other objects.

So indicate your phones camera at a print is to film Thor - and it will unexpectedly beginning personification a trailer.

Hover over the masthead of The Times or The Sun or the Daily Telegraph - and the difference beginning to burst around, before merging in to a few video.

And uncover your camera the London Underground pitch and a comic strip starts to fool around with an entertainment commentary, compelling the Tube as the way to obtain to the London Olympics.

This is not working via barcodes or NFC technology but by visible recognition. Aurasma is office building up a bank of images that it recognises, and sees as a evidence to fool around the video or spur the graphic. It functions not only with images on a page but with buildings, landscapes, and soon, we're promised, with people.

Mike Lynch says two advances in the final few years have done this possible. On the device side, the power of the gadgets is staggeringly unbelievable, and then similarly extraordinary on the algorithm side there've been a few really intelligent arithmetic shortcuts detected that abate the computational load.

And what's really intelligent is that Aurasma allows any person who downloads the app to emanate their own protracted reality content.

So you select the picture you wish to augment, couple it to other picture or video, and upload what Autonomy calls an Aura to its servers. we attempted this, putting a photo of my dog on the front page of the Financial Times, and video of myself on the front of Television Centre. Enormously pleasing, nonetheless you may strive to see the point.

And there's the subject - what's this for? Autonomy has never had a consumer product before, and it shows in the way the app is presented.

Once you've got the cling to of it, slicing by the slang of Auras, Happenings and Anywheres - the not similar classes of objects you emanate - then it is impressive. But whilst it does a entire lot more than other protracted reality apps, it still looks similar to something you may try out a couple of times, then forget.

But the first assembly is not consumers but companies. Aurasma is a free, open stage on which, according to Mike Lynch, all sorts of businesses will erect all kinds of applications.

You're station at a bus-stop, the adverts come to life, you're looking at menu, you can see the food, direction manuals can uncover you how to put the Ikea list together.

Already, newspapers are discussing about branch manifestation adverts in to video ads - that can consequence them more. And film studios are formulation sightseeing tours where you see tools of a film played out in the actual world.

Its a prophesy of a future where images, not words, turn the office building blocks by that we looking the world and comprehend our surroundings.

But however interested businesses might be to take advantage of this technology, they will still need consumers to take an interest. Just since something is possible, it doesn't meant that we will wish it.

For all its wonderful technology, has Autonomy really looked inside the minds of mobile consumers? And if it did, might it find that we do not wish to travel down the streets indicating our smartphone cameras at all around us?

Still, you may wish to have a fool around with this new technology and give me your verdict.

If so, here's a small experiment, for any person with an iPhone 4 who wants to try out Aurasma (The app will be forthcoming to Android phones soon, but isn't there yet) cut and gum this couple and send it to your phone.

Then ensure you are on the front page of my blog and indicate your camera at my picture. Let me know if it works...