It was bound to happen. As augmented reality becomes more and more prevalent, it was all a matter of time till someone took credit for something he is probably not entitled for. Enter Chris Hughes best known for jailbreaking the first iPhone. Last February, at TED palmsprings, Hughes briefly showcased his work that “makes creating ‘augmented reality’ a cinch”.
(video was pulled down by TED, but here you can still watch it)
If this demo looks familiar to you, you are not alone. Ralph Hauwert, a Papervision3d developer, took offence at Hughes talk, and subsequent interview. According to Hauwert, Huges is taking credit for porting ARToolKit to flash, while he only took FLARToolKit and “followed a tutorial like this one from the FlashBlog, then gathered all his courage and energy to work with 2 opensource projects and take credit for it” (source).
Apparently, TED folks are working to fix things up. Till then, you can find more details over Hauwert’s blog.
[author comment: I published this post a few days ago at Augmented Times, and deemed as uninteresting enough for Games Alfresco. Per Ori’s request, I repost it here as well. Since a few days have gone by, you might want to check the featured links for more up to date information]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: artoolkit, Visible Markers, web camera |
Games Alfresco 
It is a testament to the sorry state of AR that people have to fight over the credit for a third-tier development like FLARToolKit. AR has been around for decades, at least since Sutherland presented his Ultimate Display in the 60s. Modern AR can be traced back to the late 80s, when related work was done at Boeing and other places. The corresponding Computer Vision techniques are decades old and were at best “re-invented” in the AR community. Now people are arguing over who wrote a secondary wrapper for a standard library implementing long-known techniques. Depressing!
I have said it before, and I will say it again. The really good people have moved on from AR a long time ago. What we see is the recycling of old and long obsolete techniques by the Web 2.0 crowd. There will be new developments concerning problems related to AR, but these will take place in areas such as Computer Vision or Computational Photography (where many of the good people are now). Certainly not in the “AR community”, and the program of the upcoming ISMAR conference will almost certainly – and once again – be the strongest indicator of that.
Josh- Whats important is results. And FLARToolkit, basicaly, made AR applications easy to deploy to the mass’s.
Putting stuff down on paper in the 60s, is a far cry from making practical, world-wide usable things. Diss them all you want, but these are the folks getting stuff done.
“Certainly not in the “AR community”
>> Easily one of the most impressive demos I have seen of anything.
Much more so then, say, Sony’s eye-toy demos or Microsofts Milo stuff at E3 recently.
(not NATAL though, that was impressive). The amtaurs are certainly not behind any commercial applications of AR Ive yet seen.
I’d also classify him as a “really good person”
As for ;
” What we see is the recycling of old and long obsolete techniques ”
A techique is only obsolete when its been superseded by something better.
And seeing as I dont see hardly ANY mass use of AR yet, I’m not exactly sure how thats possible. Practical applications are still few and far between. I dont see any sign of this “better” you talk off.
Incidental, who are these “really good people” that did all this AR stuff decades before, and have left? Care to name some names?
Beautiful design.Thanks, admin.