Special Discount for Games Alfresco Fans for ARE 2011 – an Event Packed with Augmented Reality Goodness!

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Ori Inbar
The second annual Augmented Reality Event (ARE 2011) is unveiling a sneak preview of the schedule for the world’s largest event – focused exclusively on advancing the augmented reality industry.
ARE 2011 will take place in May 17th-18th at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California, and is surely a must-attend event for the Augmented Reality (AR) community, and anyone interested to learn about AR.
****
Join Bruce Sterling (“the prophet” of AR) on the main stage, with Vernor Vinge (author of “Rainbows End” and “The Coming Technological Singularity”), and Will Wright (Legendary game designer of SimCity, The Sims, and Spore). Also returning from last year’s event, Blaise  Aguera Y Arcas (a leader in Microsoft’s mobile strategy), to top his Ted talk demonstrating innovations in Bing Maps and Augmented Reality. And if that’s not enough magic – Marco Tempest, the world’s most notable AR magician will stun the audience with a live augmented magic show.

****

The 2 day event will feature more than 33 hours of talks running the gamut of AR essentials in 3 tracks: Business, Technology and Production:
a) Business – For executives of established and start-up AR companies, as well as mobile hardware companies – in search of business models and promising verticals for AR;  a venue to form partnerships, learn about latest innovations, and most importantly speak with clients.

b) Technology – For Developers, programmers and technologists seeking the latest and greatest engines and tools for AR; learn from case studies and post mortems delivered by experienced developers from the leading companies in the space.

c) Production – For Producers, designers, project managers (in gaming companies, agencies, marketers, brands, and artists) hungry for proven techniques to leverage augmented reality to advance your brand, attract and keep your customers, and build successful campaigns and products that will delight users.

For a complete list of confirmed speakers checkout the website at: ARE 2011 Speakers

If you are an AR Enthusiast – you will feel like a kid in a candy store at are2011.

Not convinced yet? Check out these special activities:
1) “Startup Launch pad” – Five AR startups present their business models and products in front of an expert panel: VCs, Entrepreneurs, and industry luminaries – hosted by a major industry powerhouse. Winner receives: “ARE Best startup prize” (to be announced.) Submit your proposal here under track: “Startup Launch Pad”.

2) “The Auggies” – Teams get 5 minutes each to present on stage and compete for the coolest live AR demo. An extraordinary trio of judges: Bruce Sterling, Vernor Vinge, and Will Wright, will comment on the demos – American Idol-style. Winners will be determined by the audience and receive the prestigious “Auggies Award.” Submit your proposal here under the “Auggies” track.

3) ARt Gala – A display of AR art projects and live performance art by the world’s top AR artists featuring: Helen Papagiannis, Amir Baradaran, Sander Veenhof and more to be announced. And to make sure all your senses are stimulated – drinks and food are on the house – courtesy of our sponsors.

4) ARE Press Conference – If you are planning to announce a new product or service – secure your spot in the press conference that will kick off the event. Submit your proposal here and add: “Press Conference” in the title.

5) Exhibition and Sponsorships – A small number of booths is still available in the exhibition hall ($995 for 10′x10′).Grab them while they last!

Use ORI295 – special discount for Games Alfresco’s fans and shave off $100 of the already sweet price tag of $395.

Register today for the augmented reality event!

Filed under: AR Events | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Konstruct

Posted on March 30, 2011 by thomaskcarpenter

Verbally constructed art.

I’m a complete fumble fingers when it comes to drawing, so letting my whistle do the drawing sounds like a “Winning!” to me.

Konstruct is brought you by James Alliban, the same guy who made AR business cards and AR Ribbons.

It is a sound reactive AR experience for the iPhone that allows the user to create a virtual sculpture by speaking, whistling or blowing into the device’s microphone. A variety of 3D shapes, colour palettes and settings can be combined to build an endless collection of structures. Compositions can be saved to the device’s image gallery.

Konstruct is a free app available on iPhone 3GS and 4 running iOS 4+. A version for the iPad 2 is planned in the coming months.

Konstruct from James Alliban on Vimeo.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | 5 Comments »

Location Based Coupons with Junaio

Posted on March 29, 2011 by thomaskcarpenter

Locoupons?

Straight outta the box this one seems pretty boring until you think about how well Groupon is doing.  Plus, the people *behind* the person with the Junaio based coupons will be happy.  No more waiting for the lady in front of you to dig through her purse for twenty minutes to find all the right coupons.  Presto.  Magic.  Coupons on your smartphone.

Valpak Launches Location Based Coupons with junaio Augmented Reality Partner

Consumers have a fun, easy way to save money, find coupons on the go through the augmented reality application

LARGO, FL and SAN FRANCISCO – March 29, 2011 – Valpak Direct Marketing Systems / Cox Target Media and junaio today announced the Valpak coupons will now be available on the junaio app, allowing consumers to save money at nearby businesses with geo-targeted coupons that pop up on their smartphones.

With the Valpak coupons on the junaio app, consumers don’t wait to receive coupons, the geo-location coupons are available whenever they want them. The app launches the smartphone’s camera and GPS to overlay a set of 3D icons in real-time, showing the available Valpak coupons in the vicinity as the user scans the surroundings, with a radius varying from 5 feet to 20 miles away. The coupons and offers literally “pop up” on the screen.

Users can view local coupons, savings and deal offers from the convenience of smartphones anywhere and anytime, and find deals from thousands of local and national brands using the app. Consumers can view and redeem Valpak mobile coupon offers for their favorite businesses in the area by showing the local merchant the Valpak coupon(s) displayed on their smartphone.

The Valpak coupon channel puts the consumer at the center focus, delivering content based on the consumer’s location, or geo-location. The app uses the innovative technology of augmented reality, which combines real and virtual, making the experience interactive and 3D.

The Valpak coupon channel on the junaio app is the world’s largest augmented reality mobile coupon application. To experience this feature, users can download the free junaio application, created by metaio, the leader in AR technology, from either the iTunes Store or Android Market and select the “Local Coupons by Valpak” channel.

“Providing Valpak content on the junaio platform extends the reach our advertisers achieve when they purchase Valpak advertising,” according to Nancy Cook, Vice President of New Media Business Development for Valpak/Cox Target Media. “Our content distribution strategy is to be everywhere consumers look for savings. Valpak content appears on many different apps and platforms. That’s good for consumers and good for our advertisers.”

“Partnering with junaio gives us access to a new audience and gives them a fun, interactive way to see which local businesses are offering savings, and then connect to the offer,” said Cook. “Now consumers can find discounts on their favorite nearby businesses as they are walking by them or discover new favorites in the neighborhood.

”In addition to this augmented reality, app, the familiar Blue Envelope and Valpak.com, Valpak offers available via apps for the five major mobile platforms, recently launched Valpak Deals daily deals site, and offers SMS texting for advertisers.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Weekly Spring-Time Linkfest

Posted on March 27, 2011 by rouli

The spring is here (unless you live below the equator, and somehow don’t fall off the face of the earth), and it brings some great links (and allergens) :

  • Librarian’s dream app – researchers from Miami University created an augmented reality meets mobile application to help keep books ordered on libraries’ shelves.
  • Beats me why the need the money, I always assumed they make millions, but Total Immersion gets USD $5,5M in funding led by Intel Capital (which, interestingly, also funded Layar).
  • Quimo from the University of South Australia, is like play-doh for augmented reality. This “deformable material” supports “freeform modeling in spatial AR environments” by embedding almost invisible AR markers.
  • “The Witness” is a German half-movie-half alternative reality game that uses AR (or pseudo-AR) to move the plot forward (via @).
  • Comedian Ricky Gervais dismisses augmented reality as “a load of bollocks” (via @Layar).

This week’s featured video is coming to us from Microsoft, a company that develops stunning technologies just to see them later made into products and sold by the likes of Apple. Here they develop a “Photosynth Lite”, enabling users to create 3d models by taking a few pictures with their cellphones. I wonder where this technology can be applied:

You can read more about this on Technology Review.

Have a sunny week!

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Utopian AR Concept Video

Posted on March 24, 2011 by thomaskcarpenter

I’m not sure when I’ll tire of concept videos.  As long as they keep upping the ante, I’m in.

This one treats AR as a private little wonderland without intrusion from a world trying to get you to buy stuff.  I’m all for the Utopian vision, but I expect the corporate spam-mongers to find ways into our idyllic little islands.

Quote from the makers, Mattias Wozniak and Bjorn Svensson:

Our objective was to focus on how to interact with an AR system in the near future. Main focus was to keep it socially acceptable, non-obtrusive and intuitive.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: , | 43 Comments »

Nintendo 3DS Hacked, Shows Augmented Reality 3D Anime Boobies

Posted on March 22, 2011 by rouli

Well, the title says it all, and this video shows it all, but if you are clamoring for more detail, check out Japanator.com

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Weekly Augmented Reality Linkfest

Posted on March 20, 2011 by rouli

Wow, this is my 400th post. Can’t believe I kept on blogging for so long.

This week’s video is a fantastic demo of Seac02’s Eligo SDK power to track 3d objects and overlay virtual layers on them. This gives the programmer the ability to “X-Ray” a model car:

Augmented reality Xray ARAY from Seac02 srl on Vimeo.

Have a good week!

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

More AR HMD News – Laster Technologies

Posted on March 18, 2011 by thomaskcarpenter

I’ve been trying to get information from Laster Technologies on their AR glasses for about half a year.  Then today, a little video popped up on YouTube showcasing their glasses.  I don’t know much more about them other than what’s shown in the video, and I suspect the visuals we’re seeing on screen aren’t what you’d see through the glasses.

But it is the first sighting of them beyond product pages on the website, so I’m thrilled to pass it along.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

Popping Zits in Augmented Reality

Posted on March 18, 2011 by rouli

Hands down, this is the weirdest augmented reality game I encountered. Clic&Spot by French company Clic&Gain, is a game that adorns your face with virtual zits and challenge you to burst them as quickly as you can. Who wouldn’t this premise enticing?

The game is based on Total Immersion’s technology, and there’s even an iPad to win. Of course, an iPad is a small prize considering the trauma this game can cause you, but at least it gives you something to touch, other than your face.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Mirage HMD Augmented Reality System

Posted on March 15, 2011 by thomaskcarpenter

The HMDs are here!

The HMDs are here!

Okay, maybe it’s not that exciting, especially when you realize that the Mirage from Arcane Technologies is not a stylish pair of glasses or even some retro steampunk goggles outfitted with AR HMD gear.  The unit looks so bulky and bland that not even Lady Gaga could make it trendy.

But it IS an AR HMD.

But really it’s made for industrial usage and not everyday street wear.  Though I suppose, a truly hardcore AR enthusiast could augment their home and wear them safety inside without worrying about losing a chance to ever have another date.  Again.  Ever.

The Mirage TM Augmented Reality System is a complete solution allowing you to create your own AR experience by inserting virtual content into the real environment. It includes a high-end stereoscopic OLED video see-through HMD and the MirageBuilder TM AR authoring software that work together to track different targets and display overlay near or onto them. The stereoscopic display allows the user to perceive depths for the most realistic experience and OLED technology offers the best color image quality available in head mounted displays today.

The Mirage TM HMD includes two cameras that are placed in front of the OLED ocular displays. The cameras send the images of the surroundings to the attached computer and the software uses image processing algorithms to detect marker patterns in the image. If one or more marker patterns are detected, those patterns are used to compute the 3D pose of the associated contents and then the overlay is drawn over the camera images for both eyes. The images are then sent back to the OLED ocular displays in front of both eyes. The result is a highly realistic and accurate stereoscopic realtime AR experience !

The system comes with authoring software so you can customize your markers.  I’d be curious if you could also use third party software like the Kinect to make it even groovier.  The Mirage + Kinect could become quite an indie hardcore hit.  However, since they don’t list the price on their website, I assume the cost is greater than even the most hardcore could afford.

Still, it IS another AR HMD on the market and to me we’re another step closer to stylish low-cost AR HMDs.  I’m still predicting 2015 as my arrival date for said glasses, but hopefully someone will surprise me and deliver a product sooner.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Next Page »