Agora Media Group Innovation Blog

In a huge boost for Augmented Reality, Time Magazine recognizes the technology and has included it in it’s top ten technologies for 2010 – at number four. Many thanks to AR companies in the mobile space such as Netherlands-based Layar and US  Wikitude, along with a number of high profile marketing campaigns using the technology, AR is becoming a serious technology and carving its way out of ‘Geekdom’ and into the Zeitgeist.

Conceptually, augmented reality isn’t anything new — if you’ve watched the Olympics or seen a first-down marker during a televised football game, you’re familiar with digital overlays enhancing real-life events. But one challenge for 2010 will be harnessing the growing ubiquity of webcams and smartphones to make augmented reality useful as a tool in day-to-day life. One of the best examples yet is the virtual box simulator from the U.S. Postal Service, which taps into your webcam to let you figure out what size box is needed to ship an an item through overlaying a semi-transparent 3D model of the box. Other examples for 2010 range from a John Mayer music video to Xbox’s upcoming Project Natal.

Time’s top tech trend for 2010 is location, and it points out the growing popularity of services like Foursquare and Gowalla.