Nokia Research Center Mobile Augmented Reality Applications (MARA)

concept is a fascinating look at where motion sensing in the mobile platform can go.

The system combines (externally at the moment) a 3 axis accelerometer, GPS and a compass with a S60 Nokia handset. These sensors work with the phones camera to provide a virtual reality (augmented reality, in Nokia’s words) overlay to whatever the camera is pointing at. The display on the phone provides “annotation” about real world objects — map data, URLs, etc. — and overlays it on the screen as text and (in some cases) clickable URLs that will open in the phone’s browser.

As mentioned, this is still in the labs, and the sensor pack is external, but the sensor part of this equation is rapidly getting integrated into phones (at least the GPS and accelerometers are). Probably the hardest part here will be the software integration and the development of the metadata to tie into existing mapping databases.

We see the combination of motion sensing and GPS becoming a BIG thing in the near future. The end game here, we believe, are the augmented reality applications like the one Nokia is showing — imagine touring a new city and incorporating GPS position and accelerometer-based orientation to help you “see” what’s around you. When you’re near (and looking at) a historic building, you see just why that building is historically significant; when you’re looking at a restaurant you’ll pull up the menu, the Zagat rating and the Yelp! reviews.

In the shorter term, however, we’re confident that motion sensing will be increasingly built into GPS devices and GPS-enabled devices (like mobile phones) with a simpler dead reckoning functionality designed to augment GPS when and where it doesn’t work well (inside buildings, underground, in center city areas where skyscrapers block the satellite “view”). We’ll have an interview up later this week with Sensor Platforms Inc. where they discuss their forthcoming products in this arena.