We’re a long way from fooling the man on the street, but augmented reality may soon play trickery on your TV screens. This video montage combining scenes from movies like The Running Man and Wag the Dog; and bits of real-time AR from the last few years makes for a convincing argument about the future of this new medium.
I’m partial to such obscuring of reality as it speaks to my science fiction interests. Whenever I see a video like this is makes me think of one of my favorite authors, Philip K. Dick. And while this argument is probably twenty years too soon, the ubiquitous use of AR may eventually enchant the populous with its devious wares. Though you may scoff at such influences, think long and hard about how current technologies and techniques subject the masses to keep the absence of reason as their masters.
But like I said, that argument is twenty-years too soon, or twenty-years too late, if you consider the wealth of propaganda techniques which by and large are more insidious in their use. Of course, the real danger is not that sophisticated techniques will be developed to hide or alter the truth, its that they will know everything about you so that they can tailor their obfuscation to maximum effect. But I digress.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: augmented reality, Philip K. Dick, The Digital Sea |
Games Alfresco 
We need special sealed cameras for news agency’s which put a highly volatile watermark encoded into the image.
Enough to allow, say, contrast and cropping, but any distortion or additions to the image breaks the watermark. (yet the watermark can still be detected in its broken state). Acting much like a seal.
This way the footage/photos coming into a news agency could be guarantee as authentic.
This still wouldn’t stop fakery past that point, but it would at least close one side of the process. (which has been abused in the past, particular with war photos).
Securing authenticity past that point is trickier. I can only assume you’d be ok as long as there was always at least a few news agency’s reporting on an event keen to point out any mistakes made by the others.
You could also have a public raw-footage-achieve online. The seals/watermark keys should never be published in advanced though, and preferably be tied to something utterly unpredictable