In a strange Frankenstein stitched together way, this augmented reality product is both a piece of textile covering and a game of rock-paper-scissors. If that doesn’t make any sense to you then watch the video and see the site for more details.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: AR Games, augmented reality, t-shirt | 1 Comment »
I’m a bit late with this – Toby already wrote a post about it last week, and I meant to do the same, but was too sick to write a post this wonderful next concept video deserves. It reminds me of a short story by Asimov where people grew so reliant on computers they forgot how to do basic arithmetic.
Created by Keiichi Matsuda of the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. You might wonder what does an architect have to do with augmented reality (and the art of making tea). Kei tried to explain:
The question of the connection with architecture comes up a lot, but its not necessary to think of it in the context of buildings etc. Architecture as a study is about spatial design, encompassing a lot of social, philosophical, economic and technological theory; more interesting than placing beams! Im currently working in a lot of media, so its kind of unlikely that ill go on to be an architect, but it makes a lot of sense for architects to be interested in VR, AR, game design etc., even without having a technical background as they touch fundamentally on how we operate in space. AR particularly is a really exciting technology, as it interacts directly with the built environment.
The film (domestic robocop) is pessimistic in a way; I believe that AR could become essential to us very quickly, once certain standards and economic models are in place. Becoming incapable of making a cup of tea and navigating your own house is obviously quite far fetched, but is maybe part of a broader comment about our reliance on technology and the all-infiltrating nature of consumer culture. With all the hype around AR at the moment, I think its a good thing to speculate as to what effect it might have on our lives, positive or negative, in the long term.
Kei currently works on a thesis titled ‘Pluralism and Identity in Augmented Reality’, and I bet we will see many other interesting concepts and ideas out of him.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Futuristic Visions | 2 Comments »
Don’t you love going to conferences that take place in your home town?
And how about being invited to talk about your #1 passion?
Double awesome.
Last November, I was lucky enough to participate in a panel about augmented reality at the Web 2.0 Expo. (In all fairness, it was part of Web2Open co-located with Web 2.0)
The fun actually started the night before at a meetup organized by John Havens which was a great warm up for the real deal.
John also moderated the panel which included the following participants:
Robert Rice, CEO of Neogence delivered as usual a great intro to augmented reality and explained the virtues of the AR Consortium;
Jack Mason (Global Business Services, Strategic Programs and Social Media at IBM)
opened our eyes to the possibilities (and concerns) revolving around AR;
Lynne d Johnson, SVP Social Media at the Advertising Research Foundation and host of the NYC Android Developer’s Meetup showed off the latest AR rage embodied in this week’s Esquire Magazine: the augmented reality issue;
Erik Manley: Manager, Digital Media at GE and Michael Eisenreich: Technology Leader for GE’s company-wide Internet presence – proudly presented what I describe as the first high production augmented reality campaign ever. It’s probably one of the key reasons AR went off the charts on Google trends in the first quarter of the year.
Matt Szymczyk, CEO of Zugara, demonstrated Fashionista, a virtual dressing room his company just launched with Rich Relevance. Who says AR is just a novelty? This is a very Cool and practical use of augmented reality on webcams.
Marco Neumann, CEO and Founder of KONA, and the Organizer for New York Semantic web meet up gave the…semantic web back story behind augmented reality.
All great guys and gals, enthusiastic about augmented reality, and…doing something about it.
Yours truly gave a little schpiel about Ogmento and demonstrated the upcoming (currently in beta) learning game for the iPhone: Put A Spell Learn to Spell with Augmented Reality.
Here is a video of my 100 slides under 5 minutes intro (seriously):
The crowed was not huge but very engaged. In the spirit of the web2Open unconference most of the interesting discussions happened afterwards.
We will be back at Porter Novelli’s office (Thanks John for hosting once again!) for the upcoming Augmented Reality NY (ARNY) meetup this Tuesday, featuring an amazing line up of speakers and demos:
1) John Swords – Circ.us – his latest AR game developed for Cisco Systems
2) Ryan Charles – Zagat– New Augmented Reality view integrated into Zagat’s flagship restaurant rating and review app, Zagat To Go
3) Noora Guldemond – Metaio – LEGO application and mobile markerless tracking
4) Dana Farbo – President of Acrossair – will present the fresh new Acrossair AR Browser
5) Craig Kapp – NYU – Whisper Deck – will introduce an experimental interface to access information using AR
These days, AR Meetups are all the rage – sprouting like mushrooms around the globe: From Los Angeles, to Palo Alto, Chicago, Raleigh, Toronto, London, Manchester, Switzerland, and all the way to New Zealand). Here’s a big shout out to all our friends around the world – and thanks to Chris Grayson – we now have a live stream channel for all AR meetups – so you can participate in real time from the comfort of your home!
(though it’s much more fun being there in person)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: ARNY, augmented reality, Erik Manley, Jack Mason, John Havens, Kona, Lynne Johnson, Marco Neumann, Matt Szymczyk, Meetup, Neogence, Ori Inbar, Robert Rice, web 2.0, Zugara | 3 Comments »
Quite a busy week, and unfortunately I was knocked out by the cold to write about all that was happening in real time. Luckily, the weekly linkfest is here as a compensation of sorts.
Remember the fake iPhone app Nude It (yes, there’s a real app by this name, but it doesn’t have the same “capabilities”)? Well, forget about it. This fake app, named iNaked, is far better:
As a matter of fact, I have no clue how it was done. It seems to me that making this fake demo took more time than it took making some of the real AR applications out there. (via Gizmodo)
Anyway, have a great week!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: linkfest, Wikitude | Leave a comment »
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Homo sapiens are visual creatures. We receive 75% of our information through our eyes. Explaining how to do something can be tedious and inefficient. Augmented reality offers a visual medium for explanation. This quick demo on how to assemble a LEGO tower using ARToolKit illustrates how effective this technique can be. If you don’t believe me, give a friend a pile of LEGOs and then try to explain how to create the tower in the video. Time your result and compare it. I’ll guarantee the AR method will win.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: artoolkit, augmented reality, LEGO | 7 Comments »
Augmented reality can help create illusions for the mind. These phantoms are usually considered as avatars or game devices, but using virtual avatars in a real enviroment can also help solve medical issues related to pain.
CRPS, or Complex Region Pain Syndrome, is a chronic pain condition.
The key symptom of CRPS is continuous, intense pain out of proportion to the severity of the injury, which gets worse rather than better over time. CRPS most often affects one of the arms, legs, hands, or feet. Often the pain spreads to include the entire arm or leg. Typical features include dramatic changes in the color and temperature of the skin over the affected limb or body part, accompanied by intense burning pain, skin sensitivity, sweating, and swelling. Doctors aren’t sure what causes CRPS. In some cases the sympathetic nervous system plays an important role in sustaining the pain. Another theory is that CRPS is caused by a triggering of the immune response, which leads to the characteristic inflammatory symptoms of redness, warmth, and swelling in the affected area.
Because pain has roots within the mind, non-typical treatments like mirror work can help reduce discomfort. The group 09am734 group at AAU have developed an augmented reality solution to the mirror treatment. Using AR, they can simulate work in the opposite hand forcing the participant to use their pain hand (or appropriate limb.)
This kind of treatment can also work for missing limb patients who are experiencing phantom pain. It’s good to see applications of AR stepping outside of the normal marketing or reality browsers and solve real medical problems.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: augmented reality, CRPS, medical, phantom pain | 2 Comments »
Not a big surprise that Hallmark would get into the augmented reality game with a line of AR greeting cards. It makes a lot of sense to add content to a static piece of cardboard. I would suggest they consider adding free smartphone apps to view the cards so people can check them at the birthday table, but it’s a start.
Hallmark Launches Webcam Greetings with Augmented Reality
New cards combine the physical and virtual world
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Jan. 12, 2010) /PRNewswire/ — Hallmark Cards, Inc., today announced the release of webcam greetings, new cards that use augmented reality technology to bring the card to life on a computer screen.The person receiving the card can visit www.hallmark.com/extra and follow the directions to be able to view a 3D animated feature by holding the greeting card up to the web camera. The technology breathes a digital life into the card. The animation tracks with the movement of the card, so no matter which way the card is moved, the animation will rotate along in full 3D. In many cards, various scenes appear as the card is turned in different angles in front of the webcam for a range of digital experiences.
“As Hallmark embarks upon our next 100 years in business, it’s important to continually identify new ways to help amplify the emotions our consumers feel when experiencing and sharing our products,” said Monic Muldrew, associate product manager. “With the experience available through these cards that come to life with a webcam, we hope consumers will fully explore and interact with this fun new way to connect.”
The augmented reality enhancements in webcam greetings are unique to the greeting card industry. Ten cards currently are available for Valentine’s Day and, as the year progresses, the company will roll out additional webcam greetings. Most webcam greetings retail for $2.99. Some webcam greetings include a sound clip that plays when the recipient opens the card (clip is audible without going online). These cards retail for $5.99. All webcam greetings are available wherever Hallmark cards are sold.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: augmented reality, Hallmark | 7 Comments »
Very short post following my prediction that 2010 will be the inaugural year for augmented reality porn. A couple of days ago, AppScout reported about the latest venture in this area, Pink Visual’s AR Porn (NSFW link).
Well, it’s porn all-right, but the AR is gimmicky at best. Here’s Pink Visual’s Amanda Cory explaining the potential of such application –
And here’s a close-up video of the application itself, showing how much the potential is left unfulfilled at the moment (sorry, you’ll have to follow the link due to some mild nudity). Not to mention the intrinsic problem of flash-based AR porn – porn websites can record everything that is visible by your webcam while using the application. Isn’t that exciting?
via AppScout.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: artoolkit, Visible Markers, web camera | Leave a comment »
This week was dominated by the Parrot’s ARDrone, which is just about the coolest toy I’ve seen in a while, made even cooler by augmented reality from our friends at int13. Other AR news articles making the rounds this week:
Our weekly video comes from Techcrunch (3), and I’m quite sure most of you will find it non-AR. Yet, since it really makes you see things differently, exposing hidden information not available to most of us in any other way, I tend to call it AR. It’s called SnapTax, and it helps you fill up your taxes by taking a picture of your tax forms (if you are a US citizen).
Have a great week!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: ARDrone, int13, linkfest, Nomao | Leave a comment »
The Vuzix Wrap 920AR aren’t the sexiest of specs, but they do perform the function of AR glasses. I got a chance to see this setup at ISMAR09 which they’re now showing at CES 2010.
The specs for the glasses look like:
The stereo camera pair delivers a single 1504 x 480 side-by-side image that can be viewed in 3D stereoscopic video, while the video eyewear provides an unprecedented 67-inch display as seen from 10 feet. The Wrap 920AR also includes a 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker, which allows for absolute accuracy of roll pitch and yaw and also X, Y and Z positioning in 3D space
Vuzix Wrap 920AR Specifications:
• 1/3-inch wide VGA Digital Image Sensor
• Resolution: 752H x 480W
• Includes 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker
• Frame rate: 60 fps
• Dynamic range: >55dB linear; >80-100dB in HiDy mode
• Shutter efficiency: >99%
• ADC Resolution: 10-bit column parallel
• High-speed USB 2.0
• PC and Mac compatible
• System requirements: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows7, Mac OS X 10.4.9 or higher
• MSRP: $799.99
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/lpcyMn6UVKY&]
They probably won’t be worn in public anytime soon, but some creative programmers could create interesting house-only interactive avatars or AR spaces. While some might scoff at this idea, see this video from Georgia Tech last year to see how even semi-cheesy graphics can make augmented reality immersive. Having played the old VR game Dactyl Nightmare in the 1990s, the head-tracking really creates the illusion of reality.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8c6U7dpI7g]
We haven’t seen any developers put together a product that takes advantage of these $800 glasses, but hopes are that exposure at CES 2010 will bring more interest. The only thing I’ve seen using the setup is the Whisper Deck from Craig Kapp.
Maybe later this year we might see some products that would entice the hard core AR enthusiast to fork out the cash for these un-sexy specs.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: AR Games, augmented reality, CES2010, Craig Kapp, Georgia Tech, ISMAR 2009, Vuzix, Vuzix Wrap 920 AR | 8 Comments »
Games Alfresco 