The Augmented Reality Future can be more fun that this. (and make more money)

Recently Frog Design posted some views of an Augmented Reality future.  Very beautiful, but strangely unmoving.  Surely we can do more with Augmented Reality that post up some diet metrics, shopping tips and basic dating information?

Where are my fifty foot tall virtual pets that follow me everywhere (except when foraging for virtual food)?  Where are my mood avatars?   My experience pictures (hey!   sure I only have 35 friends in this geolocated area, but here's me kite-surfing in Alaska last week!)?    How come the couple in the single bar aren't playing virtual ping-pong with gremlins?

This vision of the future seems very stuck with the notion that Augmented Reality is read-only, and not much fun.   The fact that Facebook right now is teeming with virtual farms, pets, cities, societies, gifts and rewards should give us a very strong clue as to where Augmented Reality (or at least a piece of it) is going to go, and fast.

And should give us a very strong clue as to where the money is going to come from: if Zynga can make hundreds of millions of dollars with a 2.5D farm, how much do we think a global, 3D virtual farm is gonna make?   (right now, yes, less.   five years from now?   we'll see).

Fun and profit!   Sounds good.

Here's a slightly doctored version of Frog's vision - with a little more action happening in that single's bar.