In case you haven’t been following the trend story, augmented reality is a set of technologies that enable consumers to digitally display relevant data over the live image of an object. Most AR projects and experiments today, however, are being conducted on the screens of smartphones. For a great demo, see the video below, by the very hot Netherlands-based AR company, Layar.

The excitement — and hype — that the Parviz article is generating is understandable. While the bundling of various technologies on smartphones — computation, video display, GPS, compass technology, messaging — appear to be driving the adoption of augmented reality, in theory there’s nothing stopping savvy technology vendors from unbundling these technologies and adapting them to the way the body naturally performs in the physical world. The Parviz lens is not the only attempt to unbundle technology. Earlier this year, a team from the MIT Media Lab unveiled a prototype for an AR-like product that enables the consumer to project data on any surface.

On a more theoretical level, just this week Nokia released a demo for a group of products that work together to create a “mixed reality” for the consumer. The most interesting of the products was a pair of spectacles that projects data — e.g., the weather, news headlines, text messages from your honey — above the main field of vision.

Critics of these various unbundlings claim that consumers will never allow themselves to be encumbered by new tech appendanges. But that’s what makes the contact lens so intriguing. There are many of us who would never wear glasses (too dorky). And there are many of us who would never wear contacts (too fussy). And I’d bet that there are even more of us who would never walk down the street pointing phones at people, places, and things (way too dorky). But with the options for “better vision” ever increasing, AR is beginning to look like it’s really going to happen. We’ve been dealing with the issues of vanity, usaability and technology-prosthetics for many generations. And we have learned a great deal. I trust that AR technologists and designers will get things right.

For the uninitiated, augmented reality is a set of technologies that enable businesses to overlay data on top of a consumer’s view (say, over a mobile phone). The technologies have been embraced by an army of marketers and developers, mostly outside of the U.S. But with recent news that some U.S. mobile phones can now run augmented-reality applications, U.S. consumers can expect to hear a lot more about the category over the next few months.

And what is Nokia’s vision? It’s a world turned on by augmented reality that doesn’t necessarily depend on the phone. That’s a rather evolved view for a phone manufacturer. But perhaps Nokia’s world, too, has become augmented.

I am bullish on the AR market. But I believe that companies carrying the AR label are doing themselves — and the market — a disservice. While the phrase is catchy and marketable — sounds like virtual reality, but with added value — I believe it confuses, disturbs, and distracts people who are trying to make sense of this important market:

–Augmented reality is a category shared with offerings that are almost completely unrelated to what companies like SPRXmobile, Metaio and others are doing.
One of the most ardent supporters of AR recently warned, “don’t be misguided by the gimmicky marketing applications now.” While not all of these marketing applications are gimmicky, a great number of smart brands — A&E, Nickelodeon, P&G — are experimenting with techniques that do not follow the scenario above: i.e., going out into the world, and pointing a device at objects. Many of these marketing experiments ask consumers to hold an object — say a coupon to their webcams and see the object transformed into something else. Whether gimmicky or not, it doesn’t help to be grouped with these experiments.

–As a catchphrase, “augmented reality” doesn’t speak directly to the customer. It forces the question: what, in fact, are AR companies “augmenting”? You cannot augment reality — you can only augment our understanding of it. While “augmented intelligence” has its own marketing challenges — not as catchy, kind of creepy (but AR has that problem, too) — it is a lot closer to the truth.

–And speaking about the customer, “augmented reality” doesn’t help us to see future applications of this technology. I would argue that “augmented reality” speaks to the device — which today is the mobile handset. But the technology — again, better described as “augmented intelligence” — speaks to the human being, and points to an inevitable market for applications where the device is more and more about the human body. In fact, the component parts for AR — GPS, compass technology, facial recognition, object recognition — can be abstracted from the physical device and integrated into the way the body moves and functions (more on that in a moment). In other words, AR technology may accelerate us to a time when the body — augmented by a complex of amazing technologies — is the device. If that sounds too weird, too creepy, too Minority Report, check out the presentation below by Pattie Maes (of the MIT Media Lab) at the February 2009 TED Conference. Maes makes the case that those days are already here. At a time when machines are becoming more like humans, and humans are becoming more like machines — the twin phenonmena that have inspired me to write this blog — this is important stuff.

Wired (Bruce Sterling): “The key take-aways for investors interested in the augmented reality field.” Says Robert Rice of Neogence Enterprises: “Don’t be misguided by the gimmicky marketing applications now. Look ahead, and pay attention to what the visionaries are talking about right now. Find the right idea, help build the team, fund them, and then sit back and watch the world change. Also, AR has long term implications for smart cities, green tech, education, entertainment, and global industry. This is serious business, but it has to be done right. I’m more than happy to talk to any venture capitalist, angel investor, or company executive that wants to get a handle on what is out there, what is coming, and what the potential is. Understanding these is the first step to leveraging them for a competitive edge and building a new industry. Lastly, AR is not the same as last decade’s VR.”

Science Daily: “Healthcare, The Road to Robotic Helpers.” “Robots are whirring away in factories all over the world, building cars, phones and cookers. Yet they can do so much more. Robotics for healthcare has been tipped as the next big wave, and Europe should be poised to ride it, according to a European road-mapping study.”

PopSci: “Tokyo Scientists Create Touchable Hologram.” “Using ultrasonic waves to provide the resistance and tactile presence, the hologram simulates the sensation of rain drops or a small ball, all without interfering with the projected 3-D image. A couple of Wiimotes provide the tracking, and the programing provides the fun.”

ReadWriteWeb: “Prepare Yourselves: Augmented Reality Hype on the Rise.” “Augmented reality — or the addition of a layer to the world before your eyes (aka the “real world”) using technology — is the next big tech trend. Already making its debut in everything from mobile apps to kids toys, ‘AR’ will clearly soon be talked about by everyone the way they used to talk about “social media” and “Web 2.0″ before that. While augmented reality has its uses — although many of them just involve oohing and aahing at nifty apps — this trend is already in danger of being over-hyped, even though it has barely gotten off the ground.”

Switched: “Can Artificial-Intelligence ‘Ninjas’ Find the Best Price on the Web?” “Aroxo, a shopping site, will debut a program called ‘Negotiating Ninjas’ this Fall, BBC News reports. Designed by researchers at Southampton University, the ‘Ninjas,’ which will be fully operational by Christmas, function as artificial-intelligence ‘agents’ for shoppers and sellers, negotiating the best prices possible for both. In order to reach a middle ground, a shopper and seller answer a number of questions — from how much they’re willing to pay to how eager they are to sell a product. Then, an ‘agent’ uses heuristics — a set of rules used to find the best answer in situations where there’s no single ‘correct’ one — to make offers until the item is sold or someone leaves the negotiations.”

Wired: “New Use for Your iPhone: Controlling Drones.” “The iPhone bot controller is basically just an app, like any other. It relies on only the iPhone’s existing gear, and the phone can still be used for regular calls, web-browsing, texting, etc. HAL’s bot-wrangling app sends GPS coordinates to the robot, which navigates around using its own, built-in ’sense-and-avoid’ capabilities. Along the way, the bot can stream video or snapshots back to the iPhone.”