Real-time augmented-reality
This augmented-reality system, created by scientists at Oxford University in the UK, promises to make it easier to virtually decorate interiors, plan engineering work, or help robots navigate more efficiently by generating digital scenery which can be inserted into live video footage. The digital scenery, kinda like video wall paper, works in real-time by calibrating itself to the dimensions of one object in the room. From this, the computer can build an accurate 3D representation of the immediate environment and then insert virtual 3D objects. In the example pictured at right they're using the system to scope out different potential furniture layouts.
[Via Near Near Future]
