Back In The Day™, when men were men, cars were cars and boys were forced to work to support their families before their stupid brains were even half developed, we fixed automobiles by kicking their tires and sucking our teeth.
Fast forward to the Space Year 2013 and cars now repair themselves. All you have to do is take it to a repair shop, where they plug it into a computer which sucks the money from your bank account while you take a spin in a “courtesy” car.
But what if you want to tinker? If you own a Ford and an iPad, and don’t mind getting your hands (literally) dirty, then you’ll be happy to hear that there’s a (concept) app for that.
The app is made by augmented reality company ARMedia. You point the iPad at your engine (if you need help opening up the hood, may I suggest checking here) and superimposes floating labels over the parts that can be serviced by the user. In a modern car this list is vanishingly small, but if you want to top up the windshield-wiper reservoir with (distilled or deionized) water then you’re good.
To be honest, this particular application mightn’t be that useful. Plus, you’ll probably leave the iPad on the asphalt and drop a bolt or wrench onto its screen. But imagine if your new washing machine or whatever came with a QR code on the front next to the indecipherable model number, and scanning this code with your iPhone or iPad downloaded an app containing an AR manual.
It would be great! Every time you were fired to use the washing machine (because your mom is out of town or something), you could point your iPhone at the controls and see what each setting does. That would be pretty neat, right?
