“Augmented Reality is not a new paradigm. Due to the huge technology innovation in recent years including both software and hardware it’s getting its renaissance though. It’s clear we are finally able to take practical advantage of Augmented Reality in many segments of the our lives.
"Creating Augmented and Virtual Realities" is a comprehensive introduction into the world of extending our senses with technology. It has very clear structure. Divided into 3 parts covers various topics around both art/design and practical applications with solid technical foundation. History of Human-Computer-Interface helps to understand routs many solutions and patters the we have access to nowadays. It’s also showing the direction of making augmented reality our next generation interface, that will be mych more accessible and natural for human.
As an engineer I really enjoyed chapters III and IV that are much more technical. Authors explain concepts like SLAM or AR Cloud and provide clear guidance for developer where to start the journey and what platforms (ARKit, ARCore, Vuforia etc.) and technologies we should get familiar with. Chapter V is covering Data Visualization and importance of elements like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in building AR experiences. Tons of examples make a great job - it would be hard to understand some concepts without them. Code samples in technical parts are very helpful too.
Overall books is very comprehensive and complete source of knowledge abut Augmented Reality and Spatial Computing. It is not regular technical book but goes far beyond helping us understand social and psychological challenges standing ahed of us. Number of sample applications presented in the book in various areas like medical, administration or training are giving us a chance to understand how concepts/techs we are reading about help solve real life problems. I really appreciate authors underline importance of diversity in the field even showing some practical advantages.”
-Marcin Klimek
