Augmented Reality Total Immersion is not just for gaming any more. Last fall, USC Annenberg Professor Robert Hernandez led a group of students through an immersive storytelling experiment that revealed nuances of the Los Angeles Public Library, while simultaneously providing a glimpse into the future of journalism and communication. Students created an app featuring digital content layered over real-world visual markers that can be viewed via mobile device. Students designed content that accessed the library’s special collections of rare books, translated Greek epigraphs, revealed how the library structure has evolved over the years, and even presented a full-on puppet show.

Further experiments in this immerse technology span a diverse spectrum: Artists such as BC “Heavy” Biermann from RE+Public, scientists from NASA/JPL, even a Tokyo aquarium which wanted to boost attendance to its penguin exhibit, are already effectively fusing AR to their work. What’s around the next curve? Hernandez says that it will likely be the merger of AR with wearable, immersive technologies. Sony, Epson, and of course, Google with their Glass platform, have all entered the wearable arena.

This fall, Hernandez will lead an entire course focused on creating apps for Google Glass, which he says will be a “strong baby step, creating content that I see as essentially augmented reality.”

- By Anne Bergman (MA, Print Journalism, ’94)