A search on google indicates that “augmented reality” is shooting up the polls for mainstream usage. A good indicator is marketing hype such as the December's Esquire Magazine, now glossily augmented in reality. The best definition currently around is:
Augmented
reality is basically combining meatspace with cyberspace, flesh with
flash and skin with SIM. By combining the technology in
your phone with the connectivity of your network, augmented reality
takes real life and imposes data over the top. You never need
to be disappointed with real life ever again.
It is now considered to be the major trend transforming the mobile phone industry and providing a new profit stream. This is the latest in a long series of potential breakthroughs for the communications industry. As an add-on, augmented reality was driven by civilian spin-offs of the defence industry and has now acquired momentum.
Is this not just the long-awaited innovative wave of wearables, anticipated decades ago, though a mobile phone platform is not as intrusive as the radical potential of this disruption portends.