One of the topics we’ve been paying more and more attention to as a group here at SiliconANGLE is the topic of Augmented Reality.

For more stories on Augmented Reality…

• Augmented Reality: Metaphysical Far Future Repercussions
• Keio University Demonstrates Stunning Live Augmented Reality Compositing
• Augmented Reality is Cool! But What’s the ROI?

News came to me today via Hrafn Thorisson at Think Artificial that eleven days subsequent to their prediction that AR support was on it’s way, Apple is set to release a number of previously unpublished AR APIs for developers to begin more easily developing augmented reality applications.

The L.A. Times reports that Apple will begin allowing developers access to the tools they need to produce augmented reality applications starting with upcoming iPhone OS 3.1. [So far, AR applications] have used unpublished APIs which prevent them from being allowed on the App Store. Apple, however, told one developer that the tools necessary would become available with iPhone 3.1.

This is an indicator that the Gartner Hype Cycle predictions may be a bit too conservative on augmented reality – they put the height of the hype as far as ten years out – looks like we’re going to see the first hype hump much sooner.