The visual Internet, or why the new generations of mobile phones will change our world

It took me only a week of using a HTC Legend to come to a shocking conclusion: the new generation of mobile phones will utterly change the world.

Let me make two claims on what the near future will bring:

1. The visual internet: no more typing. Point your phone camera at anything to find out all about it.
2. Augmented reality: The places in the internet and real locations will turn into one.

These two trends will revolutionize the way we will use mobile devices, and the way we use the internet.

1. The visual internet, or: why a web browser + a camera is more than a web browser and a camera.

Before I was playing around with my HTC Legend, I was sure that "everything on a device" is a stupid idea. A single device can have a good camera, a working media player, a GPS system that does the job, but the best media player, the best GPS device, the best camera will always stay a single-purpose device, so what's the point of having a mediocre media player, a so-so camera, and a not-that-strong GPS system in the same device?

I completely missed that great things can happen if you combine these gadgets inside a mobile phone. And I was not aware of what google can do today. After witnessing Google Goggles (not available on the German android market for the HTC Legend, but available for manual download here), I guess I've seen the future of computing, or at least of search. This future is purely visual.

Here's what google goggles does: You point your phone camera anywhere, press a button, and google goggles will tell you what this is and where you find more information about it. Currently some things work nicely (paintings, pictures of celebrities, bar codes, product images, business cards, bottles of Scotch whisky), others don't (plants, animals), but it's not hard to imagine a not too distant future where e.g. you point at a plant and your phone tells you what this is, how to take care of it, and if it is poisonous, or you point at a car that you find fascinating and it will give you information about its manufacturer and so on.The possibilities are endless, and Google is currently proving that they are up to this daunting task of covering quite everything.

A similar, very useful application, is ShopSavvy: Imagine you're walking through a shop and see something you'd like to buy. But is it worth the price that is asked for? With ShopSavvy, just point your phone to the barcode of the box of that thing, and your phone will tell you the lowest prices in the web for it!

And now imagine what the next generation of software for mobile phones will be able to do. This is the web of tomorrow. Point your phone somewhere and find out all about it.

1. Augmented reality, or: why a web browser + a GPS receiver + a compass is more than a web browser and a GPS receiver and a compass.

(... and maybe a camera)

Imagine you're in the center of a crowded city. You're hungry, and there are several restaurants close to you. Which one to choose?

Today you have to find out the name of each restaurant, do a search for them, check the results. That's okay, but not fun.

Now imagine that your phone knows your location, knows exactly where you're looking, and if you lift your phone it will show the camera view, but augmented with information from the web, e.g. a number of stars between * and ***** for the average customer opinion on the respective restauraunt, possibly with links to more information.

That's a commonly cited use case for augmented reality. It's easy to imagine dozens of others. Basically, wherever you are, you've got all the internet knows about the places around you ready at your fingertips.


The bad news is that somehow none of these cool augmented reality apps are available for the HTC Legend right now, so all I can do is theoretisize about it.