Stumbled across one of the most stunning augmented reality environments on a bustling market street in Seoul this evening. It&#039s called Royal Grand Prix Derby Racing (On Air). Inside it&#039s darkened, quiet and smoky room, are row and row of illuminated consoles quietly and occupied by contemplative men huddled over large displays chock-a-block with data, concentrating on the task at hand — handicapping. It&#039s a fully immersive handicappers sports book! These guys are betting on an entirely virtual horse race. Up on the large, bright wall-to-wall display is a remarkably compelling computer generated experience of being at the track. The point-of-view is that of a TV camera capturing all the action, from paddock views and running commentary, to the horses being trotted up to the starting gate and, of course, the racing action.

I was slack-jawed. What a brilliant execution. When you&#039re in the room, it&#039s like being in a Vegas sports book or perhaps a more well-groomed O.T.B. parlor.

Here’s a scan of a Korean magazine “The Bling” (club culture) that had an article about these parlors.

Evidently, according to my middling guide book betting on horse racing is gaining in popularity. There&#039s a Seoul Equestrian Park and a Jeju Race Track. There are betting limits of between 100 – 1,000,000 Won — about 10 cents to 1,000 US dollars. Until the late 1990s strictly controlled gambling in the country was limited only to non-Koreans, except for those who worked in the casinos. Even still, tehre is only one casino that permits entrance to Koreans. Presently there are about 13 hotel-casinos in the country for the recreation of foreigners.

In the Milgrim and Kishino&#039s canonical taxonomy of mixed reality displays, there is explicated a “&#039virtuality continuum&#039 which connects completely real environments to completely virtual ones.� Where would Royal Derby Racing (On Air) fit in such a continuum? It&#039s more than a display; it&#039s almost an “experience� coupled with a reasonably well constructed “environment� before it&#039s any particular sort of display technique. And if I decided it was more of an augmented reality, I wouldn&#039t say such because it uses a display that overlays computer-generated material on the real world. It is a kind of overlay, but not the simple instrumental variety. More of an augmentation of what is possible to experience, rather than tossing some numbers and glyphs up on a pair of VR glasses.

Why do I blog this? Because it&#039s a really compelling instance of immersive VR that actually “works�, meaning that it technical operates but also is, evidently, commercially viable. It sustains itself without NSF grants or arts grants. And it&#039s occupied by people who aren&#039t themselves occupied with technical minutiae, but with a desire to actually engage the experience as it was designed to be experienced. It&#039s beyond the tendency of research-lab-VR-wonks to make stuff that&#039s pure concept and is only cool so long as it&#039s a little bit better than the previous thing but still beyond the legibility of an audience much wider than the seventeen researchers interested in spending many $100,000 on whacky tech.