This unusual film depicts a hypothetical team of augmented traders which apparently are in charge of managing asset trading during world crises in real time.

They have really important jobs to do. When these high-performing traders are stressed, their headsets automatically prioritize the information they receive and minimize or maximize windows on their computer screens. We see the character “Claudia” stress out and the system helps her to focus in order to identify a suspect in the world unrest. Later, to calm her down the headset plays “a personal musical phrase” which “alerts her and supports the cognitive rebalancing process”. In other words, the headset knows when you are stressing out and provides you with direct-to-brain stimulation to keep your concentration stable.

The technology shown would likely require a user which had been trained (perhaps from a young age) to use and rely on such augmentation. There are a couple of clues in the film that make the predicted reality believable:
1.) the lives these characters lead are not that different from traders today and
2.) the idea that this device could make those decisions about personal sensory input accurately is outrageous - but outrageous new technology is accpeted rapidly, and can become mainstream within a couple of years. That is the speed at which augmentation is adopted.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

From http://www.augmentedcognition.org/video2.html

“This short film takes place in 2030 in a command center that is tasked with monitoring cyberspace activities for anomalies that could threaten the global economy. The economy, which functions largely in cyberspace, is the link between countries and is extremely susceptible to instability. As might be expected, given the ever-increasing amount of data to be analyzed even in today’s world, the workers in 2030 are inundated with information from all sources. They have so much information to contend with that they are literally unable to process it all unaided.”

It looks as though the olde D&D or Magic gaming is about to be augmented. This Sony Computer Science Laboratories video shows a game called “The Eye of Judgement” in which players lay out an augmented card game on a table top. The game also appears to have a screen version.

“To praise the heroes who once saved the world, these cards were created”. When you hold up your cards to the computer, it revives the heroes and the battle resumes! Fantastic. But if your opponent is right in front of you - you may have to let the wookie win. Video from Jan. 2007.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-NNWGP1KlaI

If anyone sees this available or has information let me know!

Total Immersion started in France and is now active in the US, Japan, Korea, and Saudi Arabia. This demo is from early 2007. Revenues of $4M in 2006, forecasting $7M in 2007. They work with Alcatel and Lucent apparently. Hard to tell if the audience is wearing goggles or not. Explains that a core focus will be on games. See it for yourself, in the future, your avatar will dance all over print media!

This very interesting 3 minute video focuses on augmented books and displays springing from other flat surfaces. It also and explains the use of “markers”. Looks like it comes from Australia. And, guess what, looks like some of the first colonizers of the augmented world will be furries.

This video is by a French company that here demos AR for auto manufacturing. Video dates to 2005. If you can determine the name of the firm please let me know. Now, this video itself is created “virtually” meaning the audience was viewing the demo on a screen, not seeing the live cars as you see it.

This video shows some really practical applications and the animations are top notch.

If I can find out more about this I’ll update the post.

Multiverse, the DIY MMOG developer toolkit, shows off it’s scalability in this new (silent) video.

It shows how the world can handle 150 active avatars in one world simultaneously. For world developers this could help solve one of the main problems of virtual worlds, which is getting large groups together in the same world in the same place. You can login to their beta social world now so pop in and check out this emerging platform.