This stunning “Jakomini” demo from Graz University – the masters of handheld Augmented Reality – shows a 3D city model being tracked on a “natural feature” surface (or in plain language – a regular bird’s view image of a city)
Wow.
What handheld was used for this demo?
(My guess is it’s Nvidia’s Tegra)
What’s behind the mysterious Jakomini name?
(Jakomini is the 6th District of Graz and the most populous)
Christine Perey, chair of the ISMAR Mobile Committee, has posted two interesting AR articles on O’Reilly Radar – “See it, Follow it” where she discusses real-world recognition, and Look Through the AR Window where she tries to create a taxonomy for mobile AR application (via @noazark)
What’s people’s perception of augmented reality? Is it positive or negative? By studying blogs (which, of course, is a representative sample), public opinion is positive, very positive. (via @augmentreality)
If you are wondering how come there’s not one link pointing to a new augmented reality browser, they had their day yesterday.
This week’s video is of an odd AR application for the iPhone, named Sun Seeker. Basically, it lets you see, overlaid on top of the real world, where the sun is, and where it’s going to be throughout the day and year. Pointless? Well, the video does present an interesting use-case when buying a new house. Learn more about it, here.
Yes, there are so many of new augmented reality browsers each week, they deserve their own post, instead of clogging the weekly linkfest. Here are the browsers that made news this week, in no particular order (well, ok, those they I liked are on top):
Air Painter
Previously we featured geoPaste, an Android application that lets you draw on real-life. Air Painter is a Japanese Android application with a similar premise, though its user interface seems a bit more refined, as can be seen in the video below (don’t worry about the German, you don’t have to understand it to see how cool this application is). More information on AirPainter’s hompeage, and here’s another video.
LooKATOR
LooKATOR shows you WiFi signals floating on top of Android’s video feed. Follow the spots to get stronger signal/stronger dose of radiation. Some details here, no official homepage that I can find (via DMFO)
WhereMark
An augmented reality browser with a slick interface for the iPhone, that features results from Google’s local search. Like most browsers these days, it also lets users add their own content. Some more information, in WhereMark’s homepage.
uTourX
uTourX is an iPhone browser like application, for the niche market of American students touring colleges before they sign in. Nothing much special, except the over-acting in the following video. Homepage
Vicrea’s Browser
I don’t have any better name for it. Vicrea is a Dutch corporation, and the next video shows a concept augmented reality application they are developing. They should really just ask Layar to give them a branded version. More information, here, in Dutch. (via DMFO)
Two things that I like about the Augmented Reality community are the spirit of creativity and the spirit of sharing.
From the Tellart website
This letter from Mike Clare embodies these 2 traits:
This summer I worked on a number AR projects while interning at Tellart in Providence RI. On my last day I thought I would bring in something to show my appreciation to my co-workers for having me as their intern. What better way than batch of home made AR marker cookies that would display Tellart’s logo?
Vodpod videos no longer available.
In addition, Mike has prepared a tutorial so that others could try making them at home.
That’s creativity and sharing in the power of 2 (cookies and recipe).
I couldn’t decide whether I should dedicate a whole post or just a tweet to the next project. On the one hand, I don’t know much about it, and its homepage is in Finnish. On the other hand, the video is in English, and shows a concept that can become a huge buisness – augmented telepresence:
In a nutshell telepresence is a turbo-charged version of video-conference, that aspire to give you the feeling that you are really in the remote location. There are some companies around the world that invest loads of money in developing better and better telepresence experiences, because they believe it’s going to be a billion-dollar market. Now, is there a better experience than seeing your remote pal in 3d across the table?
Obviously, ACME, the project featured in the above video, doesn’t come close to making this idea a reality. But it does let you see you companion’s avatar, which mimics his gestures, and share with him a virtual desktop.
We have already provided a sneak preview of some of the demos.
Here are 2 research results, to be introduced at ISMAR, from one of the most prolific AR labs in the world: HIT Labs NZ, courtesy of Mark Billinghurst:
Embedded AR
We have been developing AR software for the Beagle Board OMAP3 development kit. This allows you to run a whole AR system on a $150 piece of embedded hardware and use Linux for development. The OMAP 3 chip is the same that is in many new smart phones so it is a great way to do some benchmarking and prototyping for mobile phone AR applications.
If EmbeddedAR will have similar adoption to the open source Artoolkit, then we’ll soon see AR-enabled devices popping up like mushrooms after the rain. Potentially very cool.
Android AR
We have been developing our own mobile outdoor AR platform based on the Android operating system. We are using GPS and compass information to overlay 3D virtual models on the real world outdoors. Unlike some other systems we support full 3D model loading and also model manipulation, plus rendering effects such as shadows etc.
That’s not as new. Rouli would categorize it as a YAARB™ (Yet Another AR Browser…)
Wikitude and Layar (as well as other browsers) have similar capabilities (or will soon have), and are already open and accessible to many developers.
Want to learn more about it? Check out Android AR.
***
Just 2 more reasons to go to ISMAR 2009. It is going to be HUGE!
They gave you wings, extreme sports races, and Flugtag – and now they want to save print magazines with the bold concept: Print 2.0.
Guess which one of these is a true fact?
1) In 2006, more than 3 billion cans of Red Bull were sold in over 130 countries
2) Red Bull publishes a printed magazine (2 million copies per issue)
3) Red Bull is an Austrian company
Answer: all of the above!
Can’t say which fact is more shocking, but they certainly explain why Red Bull decided to partner with Imagination (an Austrian company) to create a webcam augmented reality experience where:
This magazine sings, dances, flies and even scores a touchdown…
The cover and multiple pages (any page with the Bull’s eye) can be activated by pointing to a webcam thanks to Imagination’s natural feature tracking software.
If you don’t have the printed magazine – don’t worry – you can download and print at home.
Or just watch it here…
The magazine editor dives into more autophilia:
PRINT GOES LIVE
It’s not often that a magazine can call itself revolutionary, but we’re delighted to say this one can.
This very issue of The Red Bulletin takes us from print to Print 2.0, thanks to the incorporation of some nifty software known as ‘augmented reality’…the fun stuff is this: simply by holding the mag up to a computer you can take it ‘beyond the page’ and into the world-wide web. So, for example…[the cover] will link through to a video package explaining exactly how augmented reality can enhance your reading experience in a way you almost certainly never imagined, with music, film, animations and more.
Then turn to page 5 and Red Bull Air Race ace Paul Bonhomme will give you an ‘as live’ introduction to the magazine and the world of augmented reality. Head to our Now and Next pages, find the story about Black Gold on page 20 and do the same again with the mag. Lo, you’ll
find the band’s latest video on the website. Clever, eh?
Further in, you can read about Burcu Cetinkaya and Cicek Güney – the girls putting the glam into rallying – then link to exclusive interviews with them and videos of them driving flat-out… and crashing!
And we’re not done yet, no way. Our Reggie Bush cover story, on page 48, combines with an exclusive mini-movie of Reggie at home, as he talks to correspondent Jan Cremer, while page 62 will take you right into the pocket-rocket world of the Red Bull Rookie motorbike racers.
No other magazine has ever tried anything like this, and we have plenty more ideas for the future. But for now, just get your magazine and computer primed and prepare to be amazed…
…And Daniel Wagner certainly shows his skills in the video above…
So, Mobilizy just released a new update for Wikitude, one that allows you to point your phone at ground zero and see a 3d virtual version of the Twin Towers on the phone’s screen.
First we should congratulate Mobilizy for intergrating 3d objects into Wikitude. That’s only two weeks after Layar made a similar move. If I understand correctly, Wikitude doesn’t let folks upload their own 3d models yet, but that’s surely not that difficult.
We should also congratulate Mobilizy for a smart marketing move. Yes, it’s very respectful, and I actually think that there should be such a virtual memorial. However, one cannot deny that such videos as the above create buzz, something that Wikitude’s competitors usually excel at. I can only imagine the impact of such application if they had released it last month, for 9/11.
I’m fascianted by how the AR illusion is completly destroyed at around 00:18, when the buildings look very small just because there’s a tree in the background. That’s not Wikitude’s fault, but it just shows us how much there’s still to be done to make AR look good.
As usual, here’s a bunch of links to augmented reality related news bits that have accumulated in my inbox during the week:
There’s no end to the augmented reality browsers phenomenon. Cyclopedia is yet another browser that is based on Wikipedia, Bradesco is helping you find your way around Brazil, and AugmentThis! lets you upload kml files and share them with others.
Peak.ar on the other hand is a specialized browser from Salzburg Research that only lets you see the names of mountain tops around the world.
While Wikitude is finally available for the iPhone (but you wouldn’t know that if you had visited www.wikitude.org as to the writing of this post).
So, with so many AR browser available, how are they all doing, buisness wise? Gene Becker collected some appstore statistics, that shows that AcrossAir’s applications are leading in terms of downloads among the non-free applications available on the American appstore.
What’s that augmented reality that I mention so much? I guess most of this blog’s patrons already know, but here’s Scientific American explantion, though I think YDreams’ post is far better.
This week’s video is a lovely tour de force from Oxford’s Active Vision Labratory’s Robert Castle. Although Ori posted a sneak peak to ISMAR 09, he somehow missed this video. It shows an extension to the PTAMM system that allows “multiple objects to be recognized and localized within multiple maps.”
(Before you comment, “Et tu” has the same meaning in French as it has in Latin).
The Citroën DS3 joins the ranks of cars that get an augmented reality campaign, thanks to Total Immersion.
Yes, it’s not as lame as other cars AR campaigns, with its little racing game. However, it won’t be spared from becoming the latest addition to my growing petition to stop using AR to promote cars.
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