We have got plenty of augmented reality links this week, so enjoy the show:
From CES:
Recon’s ski goggles with built in display, gps and other sensors, and as this video shows, you can even add a camera to it. Imagine what a talented hacker can do with this setup.
Here’s yet another amazing AR project utilizing the power of Kinect’s sensor. Tobias Blum and Prof. Nassir Navab of TU Munich used a Kinect to overlay CT data on a person in real time, transforming a big screen into a magic mirror. It’s also a good party trick for Halloween. More info here.
As we saw by the recent poll on Games Alfresco, the Kinect is the biggest thing in augmented reality right now. Even since my last review of Kinect, there have been many new innovations. Using Kinect as a real time green screen is becoming an easy reality and fast. Dustin O’Connor has transformed his room into a smoky psychedelic head space. I can only imagine that this setup will become the norm in tripped out raves.
The Kinect also has possibilities as an indie movie special effects tool. Dustin alludes to this possibility:
I could see a bunch of indie type cg / video movie and effects being made with this camera. the kinect may not be as cheap as a can of green paint but defiantly does produce a similar result without the mess.
Just playing around with Google Ngram viewer. If you didn’t get to try it yet, it’s a tool that shows the number of times a phrase appears in a big corpus of books that Google scanned.
So, “augmented reality” popularity is rising:
but, it still has a lot to go (at least when compared to virtual reality)
Unfortunately, Google’s database stops at the critical point, two years ago, right before the big buzz around AR started. Still, one can appreciate how quickly VR moved from the scientific lecture to popular lecture, while AR is taking its time.
As you may have guessed this passing week was very slow in augmented reality news (or any news for that matter). Nevertheless, I scoured the web and bring you this weekly linkfest.
Last week I reported on the winter crop of augmented reality games coming from Qualcomm AR Game Studio. The videos of three more games were recently uploaded, so be sure to check them up.
DOMO, Tonchidot’s newest project, aspires to enable transparent society, where you could see everyone’s thoughts and interests.
Open question on Quora – What will be the most important developments in augmented reality in 2011? I tried giving my best answer, though you may disagree with me. (via @TishShute)
What a better way to start the new year than playing a round of augmented golf? That’s exactly what the students at Rochester Institute of Technology thought when they came up with this game that doesn’t require an entire fairway.
Games Alfresco 