The HIT Lab NZ has just released a professional version of it’s popular BuildAR AR scene building tool. This allows non-programmers to easily build AR scenes. The professional version includes a number of new features such as support for audio and video, multiple objects on AR markers, 2D image and text loading, VR viewing mode, and much more.
The software is available as a free beta now, and then will be commercially available for a low cost from July onwards. It can be downloaded from: http://www.buildar.co.nz/
Using BuildAR Pro, compelling AR scenes can be build in just a few minutes.
The last year we’ve had quite the love/hate relationship with Steve Jobs and his beloved iPhone. Like a pimple-faced love struck boy with a handful of daisies in our hand, we felt the fools when the OS3.1 stood us up at the local Burger Barn. I mean, we weren’t asking to go steady, just a date and maybe a kiss on the cheek in the form of video access API. Afterwards, we crossed out Steve Job’s picture in our yearbook and shot spit wads at him in hallway when we got the chance.
Now it looks like the new iPhone 4 and iOS4, will make us love sick again. Though this time we’re a little older and not as pimple laded as last year. Augmented reality is growing up and we have more to offer, and in return, so does the new iPhone and OS as Steve Jobs announced the details on it yesterday.
1) Video Access API
Clearly this is the number one based on the long and fruitless flirtation during 2009. With this change, the iPhone can finally become a real AR smartphone using video feed instead of lame picture frame workarounds.
2) Dual facing cameras
We thought the iPad might have it but we picked the wrong Apple product. Dual facing cameras can turn the iPhone into the same weird tool that the webcam is, replacing our faces with cows, Iron Man, or Transformers. I hope developers can learn to be more creative than that.
3) Apple A4 Processor
Playing with video requires more power. This new chip will raise the ceiling on potential applications. ‘Nuff said.
4) Gyroscope
This one caught me by surprise, and a pleasant one at that. With the gyroscope, the iPhone can now understand the world without having to actual see anything. With the accelerometer it can essentially sense gravity, giving the iPhone an easy way to tell where the floor is. This should greatly improve those shooter games that left zombies and fires floating in free space. If I were a developer, I would be quite excited about this addition.
5) 5 Megapixel HD Camera
While this isn’t better than the Droid eight-megapixel and only matches the Nexus One five-megapixel, it improves from the previous number of three. While this isn’t a huge upgrade, it does help our vision system see what’s going on.
A few months ago, I had pretty much decided not to get an iPhone when my wife’s contract was up, but with these changes I think the iPhone is back in the hunt. As new demos of AR apps start hitting YouTube, I think we’ll all get a better sense of how good the new iPhone is going to be for augmented reality. I for one, hope we grow to have a wonderful relationship with full benefits, if you know what I mean.
The iRiS (Intuitive/iPhone Remote Interaction System) allows you to paint a multi-media facade on your favorite building. Assuming it’s hooked up with a psychedelic projector. But hey, we’re talking art here, not convenience.
The gamer in me wants it to be a game of Tetris on that building, but I’m sure that’s the most obvious way to utilize it.
The beauty of this is that its projected luminance can be seen by anyone, regardless if they have a smartphone or not. But those with one get a remote controlled Lite-Bright building to play upon, making the others envious. It’s easy to imagine this kind of art in an AR space and modifiable by anyone, though not everyone has an artist’s eye. To each his own.
Here’s a fun video showing of the results of a paper by some students from Imperial College, London back in 2008.
The abstract says:
Accurate estimation and tracking of dynamic tissue deformation is important to motion compensation, intra-operative surgical guidance and navigation in minimally invasive surgery. Current approaches to tissue deformation tracking are generally based on machine vision techniques for natural scenes which are not well suited to MIS because tissue deformation cannot be easily modeled by using ad hoc representations. Such techniques do not deal well with inter-reflection changes and may be susceptible to instrument occlusion. The purpose of this paper is to present an online learning based feature tracking method suitable for in vivo applications.
In other words, they are augmenting a live beating heart, muhahaha!
And finally, if ARE2010 left you hungry for more and speak Italian, maybe you’ll find IAR2010 interesting.
This week’s video is not from ARE2010, but cool nonetheless. EXMAR is a conceptual periscope-like device that attaches to your mobile phone and lets you see an augmented view of your surrounding without pointing directly at anything. It’s great for minimizing hand strain, looking behind you and admittedly for perverts. Created by students at Korea’s KAIST institute, the related paper was submitted to ISMAR10 but is not available online as far as I can tell
Have a great week, see you back on the 20th (unless my flight will be canceled again).
Jesse Schell gave what can only be described as a “kick-ass” keynote in ARE2010. In less than 30 minutes he gave me so many points to think about when considering augmented reality in 2020, that I couldn’t help but watch his presentation again, even though the video quality is less than perfect.
I will do great injustice to Schell by trying to summarize his talk, and you should really see it yourself, especially if you think that AR is about labeling things and will undoubtedly have a positive influence on our lives.
On a side note let me again apologize for not attending ARE2010. My transatlantic flight to Atlanta was canceled due to some technical problem and Delta wouldn’t put me on another flight heading to the US for another 24 hours. Considering the connection involved, this would have meant getting to attend only that last couple of hours of the event, so I’ve decided to forgo the all idea.
Assuming my rescheduled flight will leave has planned, I’ll be in San Francisco next week and the week after that in Washington DC, if anyone feels like meeting up.
So, it seems that fate (also called Delta Airlines) decided that I should not attend the augmented reality event. Here are some alternatives you may want to check out for online cover of the event:
Games Alfresco 