Microsoft to Demo Augmented Reality at TechFest

Posted on February 24, 2009 by Ori Inbar

Technology Review reports the news:

Today, Microsoft researchers will demonstrate software that can, in real time, superimpose computer-generated information on top of a digitized view of the real world.

Michael Cohen,  principal researcher at Microsoft, and his colleagues will demo the augmented-reality technology at TechFest, an annual showcase of Microsoft’s research projects, in Redmond.

Well, we have seen augmented reality running on a Vaio before – but never from Microsoft. This could be interesting. Especially the tools.

Michael spits all the right examples of real life applications using AR, however at TechFest, the software will be used to lead people on a treasure hunt to a hidden prize of a (virtual) pot of gold.

The bubble flow navigation is way cool. Coming up right after the poster demonstration.

Games will lead the way.

***Update***

via KZero: a collection of additional Microsoft-produced videos of the future – featuring largely augmented reality applications.

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Filed under: AR Authoring, AR Demos, AR Vision | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

A New Platform for The Next Generation of Augmented Reality Games

Posted on January 29, 2009 by Ori Inbar

Today we are celebrating!

Ohan Oda from Columbia University in New York just released his new version of Goblin XNA. Kudos!

Goblin XNA is a development framework for Augmented Reality apps with a focus on games. It is based on Microsoft’s popular XNA Game Studio 2.0 that enables game developers to be successful on Microsoft gaming platforms (i.e. PC, Xbox, Win Mobile)

Ohan built it as a one man show (under the supervision of Steven Feiner and with help from his lab colleagues) as part of his PhD research project.

Has anyone tried it so far?

Ohan says he just released it to the public, so as of now, only he and his lab members have. However, the framework was used in 3DUI and Augmented Reality course, so approximately 60 students have used it so far.

What can you do with it?

Check out these demos created with the framework:

AR Racing Game

AR Electronic Field Guide

Want more? Check out the AR Domino on MSDN.

Here is the announcement in Ohan’s own words

We would like to inform you that Goblin XNA is finally released, and
it’s downloadable from http://www.codeplex.com/goblinxna .

We apologize for those of you who waited very long (some of you
probably waited for almost a year).

Source code, API documentation, user manual, installation guide,
tutorials, and a relatively large-sized project (AR domino game) is
included with the release.

For questions and bug reports, Please do NOT email me directly, but
instead, please post your questions and bug reports through Codeplex.
I won’t be able to guarantee quick response since I’m the only
developer of Goblin XNA, but I will try my best to answer your
questions and fix bugs.

Thanks
Ohan

Ohan will be working on the framework for his research at Columbia for another couple of years – so until then you can count on him to continuously update the framework for both bug fixes and new feature additions.

Try it and show us what kind of reality experiences you can build.

Filed under: AR Authoring, AR Engines | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »