Media Power Inc announced yesterday that it is donating $5 million over the next five years to Georgia Tech's GVU Center for research and educational activities in augmented reality (AR) and mobile computing. In addition to the funding, it's providing hardware and development tools to the GVU Center to aid research and will assist the Center to find realistic settings to deploy and evaluate game ideas.

Augmented Reality (AR) is an environment that combines both virtual reality and real-world elements. As an example, an AR user might wear translucent goggles through which you could see the real world as well as computer-generated images projected on top of that world.

"We partnered with Georgia Tech because of their reputation for excellence in this area. The work they have done thus far is very exciting and their open stance with commercial entities such as Magitech (a division of Media Power) provides for a great opportunity," said Rich Jenkins, CEO Media Power. "We are very excited about the work we will do together."

The gift from Media Power enables research in tools for handheld AR systems, including systems giving end-users to create AR games themselves. The partnership will create opportunities for GVU researchers to evaluate commercial-grade AR applications in realistic settings.

"Augmented Reality is one of the most significant emerging industries in the world right now," said Rich DeMillo, Dean of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. "Its influence will be felt from entertainment to education to health care."

I'm expecting one crazy FPS game to come out in a couple years from Georgia Tech students.