I've always loved movies like Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell and the Matrix, because they challenge our notion of reality.
They also all have explosions, gunfire and futuristic babes in leather and latex in common, which are all good things too, but the column is about tech and reality, so we'll stick with that line of thought for now, shall we?
Until now, we could kind of put things into two categories, namely reality or what we see and perceive as real and virtual reality, where technology simulates an approximation of what we see and perceive, except inside a computer. Then there are reality TV shows, which are the furthest thing from reality, and really lame, too, but I digress.
You see, thanks to advancements in mobile phone technology, we have cleared the way for a coming wave of "augmented reality" applications that look to merge the physical and virtual realities.
Imagine holding your cell phone in front of you, and while the video camera captures people walking past, the phone's screen will show their Twitter posts above their heads or perhaps a virtual business card or personal ad. Point at a local tavern and pull down a menu that gives their specials. Point at a building and get its history or check if there are apartments for rent inside.
Instead of surfing the Internet, you'll be surfing the physical world.
This may seem pretty futuristic to many of you, akin to Shwartzenegger's cyborg vision in the Terminator movies, or the cool interface in Iron Man's visor. And you'd be right, because that's pretty much what we'd be getting.
Already some European companies are working on cellphone applications that merge digital information with the real world, and game companies have developed games that work with a web camera putting you on screen and right in the action.
I've even read about work being done that may one day appear that virtual zombies are chasing players down real-world streets. Of course that may lead to some confusion if only players can see the zombies and other people around just think "Oh look, more crazy people," and call the cops.
But all this tech is still in testing, development or limited function stages. Phones would have to be able to communicate with satellites and computer services constantly, instead of only when someone posts a message, and networks would need to be speedier. There would also have to be a market for this kind of reality merging.
But it is easy to see how advertising could be implemented into this kind of technology, with ads popping up for sales as you pass by stores, or businesses.
As well, walking around with your cell phone in front of you probably isn't the safest thing, so the next step is putting all this tech video camera, processor and see through screen on a pair of lightweight glasses.
We're not quite at that point yet, but when we do get there, instead of challenging our notions of reality, we could be programming how we want it to be perceived.
