Augmented Reality at CES 2015 – What to expect?

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Ori Inbar

AR.org and Ori Inbar will be hanging out at the AR Pavilion – booth #SV6 at the entrance to the Sands Expo Level 2 at CES 2015. Come see us!

What else to expect at CES 2015?

Here are new announcements:

Optinvent unveils the ORA-X

The ORA-X is a revolutionary mobile device in a disruptive form factor – Forget “Smart Glasses” that look geeky. Enter a new category: Smart Headphones – running Android – with high quality audio – and an adjustable see-through display.

Vuzix announced a 30% stake investment by Intel

A great vote of confidence in the Smart Glasses pioneer
Vuzix is also expected to show a working pre-production demo of slim see through stereo AR glasses

ODG to unveil sub $1000 consumer Smart Glasses  at CES 2015 booth #SV6

Epson to showcase Application Developers

Epson to Showcase New Consumer and Enterprise Apps on Moverio BT-200 Smart Glasses

at booth 74728

Augmented Reality Apps for Live Action Gaming, Education, Manufacturing and More Demonstrate Power of Platform for Merging Digital Content with Real-World Environment

LyteShot, PlayAR, EON Experience VR, NGRAIN, Aero Glass, Augumenta, Scope AR, Metaio, APX Labs, Rochester Optical,

Softkinetic Reveals 3D Vision Technology for Augmented Reality Mobile Platforms

Sony SmartEyeGlass

Sony Electronics Suite 30-111, Sony Electronics Inc. N108, 14200

Seebright Wave new product announcement at booth 75480

Atheer Showcases Gesture-Controlled AiR™Smart Glasses

ARM Meeting Space MP25256; South Hall 2 (Ground Level)

Augumenta announces Roshambo Reloaded

Will demo new game at the Epson Sands Expo booth #74728

 

InfinityAR showcases its engine with Lumus Glasses at booth #SV6

http://www.infinityar.com/

 

XOEye Technologies and Vuzix Announce Partnership

XOEye Technologies and Vuzix Partner to Deliver End-to-End Enterprise Wearable Technology Solutions in North America and Europe

XOEye is exhibiting its solutions this week at the 2015 International CES in Las Vegas at the Eureka Park NEXT pavilion located in the Sands Convention Center, Level 2, Booth #75616.

Qualcomm to demonstrate Tablets with DepthSense Cameras and Vuforia

Qualcomm will demonstrate on their main booth a Sony Experia tablet with our embedded DepthSense camera running an new  Vuforia build
 Booth #8252

Hyundai to show an Augmented Reality Head Up Display at CES

Also, don’t miss:

CastAR’s Jeri in CNET’s SuperSession panel – The Next Big Thing: New Realities. Tuesday, January 6th, in LVCC, North Hall, Room N257, from 3:30-4:30 PM.  

Additional notable AR and VR presence at CES 2015

  • Kopin at the Venetian Palazzo Hospitality Suites
  • APX will also be present at the following booths: Vuzix, Epson, and Sony
  • Occipital unveils new gaming experience at CES South Hall (gaming area), also at Sands as part of Autodesk (Spark)

  • Lumus Suite 335

  • MicroVision, Inc. Suite 469, Suite 569, Suite 571

  • Sulon Technologies Inc. 26214

  • Tobii 71837

  • XOEye Technologies 75616

  • Oculus VR 26002, MP25965

  • Avegant Corporation 74547

  • eyeSight Mobile Technologies at the Venetian Palazzo Hospitality Suites 72037

  • Dassault Systemés | 3DEXCITE 72722

  • Canon N109, 13106

  • Daqri’s new Smart Helmet at Suite

 

Predictions for 2015

Finally, the best collection of predictions for Wearable Tech in 2015 by Tom Emrich:

 

14 WEARABLE TECH PREDICTIONS FOR 2015

 

And to get the lowdown of the Smart Glasses market, key players, adoption – get your copy of AugmentedReality.Org’s Smart Glasses Report at http://www.augmentedreality.org/smartglassesreport

 

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The 3 Laws of Augmented Reality Design – Talk at ISTAS 2013

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Ori Inbar

Folks, here is my talk from ISTAS 2013 in Toronto on 29 July 2013. Following an intro to augmented reality I review a collection of AR experiences and test them against Lex Ardez’ “3 laws of augmented reality design”.

3 laws of AR Design-Cover

1. Augmentation must emerge from the real world and/or relate to it

2. Augmentation must not distract from reality, but make you more aware of it

3. Augmented interaction must deliver a superior experience to alternatives, or better yet – there’s no alternative.

These rules are very logical and simple and yet most AR implementations fail to meet these laws. When it comes to defining an AR experience, the #3 is the most important: do not implement AR only for a cool factor; if a traditional interaction technique (on computers, mobile devices etc.) does a good job – do not try to do recreate it with AR. Look for the specific experiences that can only be achieved with AR, even if it’s very niche.

The talk is based on my experience in the last 6 years building AR applications and reviewing practically every AR app that was published in that time frame. I have seen many applications that have a wow factor that lasts for 2 minutes – but most applications are not used more than once. Designers and producers need to look at it in a very different way than traditional user experiences. It’s important to understand that AR is about digitizing our interacting with the physical world. It should not be viewed as a traditional form of Human Machine Interaction (HMI). But rather be thought of as Human-World-Interaction, which requires a new thinking, new rules, and new experiences.

I believe that in the next few years we’ll see AR becoming an integral part of any aspect of our work and life. And it will completely change the way we interact with people, places and things. Of course traditional approaches (PCs, mobile touch) will still be best for certain things – and AR shouldn’t be forced for things that it’s not intended for – but it’ll create new categories of things that we can’t even imagine. AR has the power to enable us to do things and feel things we couldn’t otherwise. It can help us learn, and master skills instantly. AR Technology has reached a “good enough” level; it is up to designers to bring it to the masses in a meaningful way.

Enjoy!

(and let me know what you think!)

Filed under: AR Events, AR User Experience | Tagged: , , | 6 Comments »

AWE 2013 is Now Accepting Nominations for the Auggie Awards™

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Ori Inbar

The Auggie Awards™ have been promoting excellence in Augmented Reality since 2010. It is now extending the 4th Auggie Award™ Competition with new exciting categories. Here’s the full download on Why, What, Which, When, Where, Who and How…

Looking forward to your AWEsome submissions by the deadline on May 15th! 

Auggie 3 sides mid

Why Auggie Awards?

The Auggie Award™ Competition is an initiative by AugmentedReality.org, the producer of Augmented World Expo – the world’s largest gathering of Augmented Reality Professionals.  The goal of the competition is to promote excellence in Augmented Reality in various platforms and categories.  The competition is intended to bring the best in Augmented Reality from around the world to the public at large, and to recognize the best in AR: teams who develop technology and solutions that demonstrate how AR can empowers humans to interact with the world in a more advanced, engaging, and productive way.

Consistent with AugmentedReality.org’s mission to educate, connect, and hatch new initiatives in the augmented world, and AR.ORG’s global goal to inspire adoption of AR towards the goal of 1 billion active AR users by 2020, AR.ORG is co-sponsoring this competition, offering award trophies and cash prizes.

What Are the Prizes?

AWE and its award sponsors are proud to offer combined cash prizes of over $20,000, and 6 coveted Auggie Trophies – each one-of-a-kind hand made art sculpture by a renowned artist.

Which Award Categories Are Available?

When is it Happening?

  • Submission Period for nominations: May 1st to May 15th, 2013
  • Public Voting to Identify the Finalists: May 16th to May 30th, 2013
  • Judging Panel to Select the Winners: June 1st to June 4th, 2013
  • Winner Announcement at the Auggie Award Ceremony: 6:30pm on June 4th, 2013 at The Santa Clara Convention Center

How Do I Enter?

  • First, read the rules
  • Then, Sign up to the AWE site to create an account, or log in with Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin.
  • Submit your nomination that adheres to the rules and the respective category criteria, along with contact info, description, video URL, screenshots, and the additional fields.
  • If your submission adheres to the rules it will appear on the respective Award Category page within 24 hours. Public voting starts on May 16th, 2013.
  • Make sure, to subscribe to your submission by checking the box below the comments to track it. And, share with your community to get more votes!

 Who Went Home With Auggies?

Looking forward to your AWEsome submissions!

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AWE 2013 Early Bird Rate Expires in 1 Week

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Ori Inbar

Momentum is rapidly building for Augmented World Expo™ (AWE), the world’s largest expo dedicated to the augmented world. Registration is trending toward 1000+ AR professionals and over 100 leading augmented reality innovators have confirmed participation in AWE 2013. The agenda for our conference is shaping up to make this edgy conference the most important event of 2013.

Register now with our Early Bird Rate, which will be expiring in just one week (April 9th) and save $200!
After April 9th the full conference pass price will increase to $595.

If you’re interested to see what Augmented Reality is all about, you won’t want to miss this high-power meeting of the minds featuring 5 AWE-inspiring headliners, 35 hours of AWEsome sessions, shock-and-AWE activities, and an Expo that will leave you AWEstruck.

Keynote speakers confirmed: Bruce Sterling (“The prophet of AR”) and Will Wright (legendary creator of The Sims and reality gaming) will return with mind blowing keynotes. We’ve also added Philip Rosedale (creator of Second Life), Toni Ahonen (former Nokia executive and author of 12 best selling books on mobile tech), and Steve Mann (inventor who’s been designing and using AR eyewear for over 30 years). 

Start building your own customized schedule today by saving to your calendar your preferred sessions out of this amazing 110 speaker lineup.

Top 3 Reasons to Attend AWE 2013

Network
1000+ AR professionals — find AWEsome products and partners
Learn
35 hours of AWE-Inspiring sessions by top industry innovators
Experience
100+ demos of “Augmented Humans in an Augmented World”

Augmented World Expo will showcase the best in augmented experiences covering all aspects of life: health, education, emergency response, art, media and entertainment, retail, manufacturing, brand engagement, travel, automotive, urban design, and more. It will be the largest exposition to bring together technologies for Augmented Humans in an Augmented World, including emerging interrelated technologies such as augmented reality, gesture interaction, wearables computing, smart things & robotics, cloud & big data, and 3D printing.

The AWE 2013 program includes:

  • Pre-Event Tutorial (Mon. pm) – review and comparison of the best AR SDKs
  • Keynotes – 5 mind blowing presentations by industry luminaries
  • The Talks – 30 hours of sessions in 3 tracks: Business, Technology, and Design
  • The Auggies –  Awards for the best of the best in augmented reality
  • The ARt Gala – AR art displays by top artists and a food and drinks reception
  • The Startup Launch Pad – Showcase for innovative startups and a competition
  • The Conference Expo – Leading AR companies display their products in the expo

AWE 2013 will be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center, on June 4-5, 2013.
Don’t miss out on our special Early Bird Rate. Register now

About AugmentedReality.org

AugmentedReality.org is a global not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing and promoting the true potential of augmented reality. As trusted partner of its members and supporters, AR.org facilitates and catalyzes the global and regional transformation of the AR industry. AR.org also owns and produces the largest international event for augmented reality and the global forum for AR innovation: Augmented World Expo (formerly Augmented Reality Event). All profits from the event are reinvested into AR.org’s industry services.

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Sneak Peek into AWE-inspiring Agenda at AWE 2013!

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Ori Inbar

Augmented World Expo is proud to unveil details about the 2 1/2 day journey deep into the Augmented World: 4 awe-inspiring headliners, 35 hours of AWEsome sessions, shock-an-AWE activities, and an Expo that will leave you AWEstruck.

Did we mention the conference’s short name is AWE…?

For details about speakers go here. Or for participating companies – here.

Pre-event (Monday, June 3rd)

 

1) Tutorial for AR developers

The 3 hour session will be lead by Patrick O’Shaughnessey who’ll review the best AR SDKs in the market and how to get started, followed by vendor presentations featuring: Vuforia by Qualcomm, Metaio, Total Immersion, Layar, Wikitude, 13th Lab

2) International Hardware Start up Meetup

AWE is hosting the first International Hardware Startup Meetup that  will bring hardware startups from across the world. On fire on kickstarter, these startups are not only reinventing manufacturing with digital design, manufacture as service, 3D printing, and robotics, they are also changing the landscape of human computer interaction.  Wearables, eyewear, gesture interfaces, and a plethora of “connected things” are bringing clouds and atoms together in new ways to create one the most important new opportunities for the augmented world since smart phones and GPS.

Headlining (Tuesday, June 4th)

Bruce Sterling
Sterling is an American science fiction author who is best known for his novels and his work on the MirrorShades anthology which helped define the cyberpunk genre. In the last few years, Bruce has been regarded as the prophet of augmented reality, covering and critiquing the emerging field and has headlined previous ARE events.

Toni Ahonen
The former Nokia executive and author of 12 best selling books on mobile is best known for his TEDx talk where he describes augmented reality as the 8th mass medium and predicts 1 billion AR users by 2020.

Will Wright
Wright, the legendary creator of SimCity, The Sims, and Spore – may share for the first time his new endeavor in personal games – new concepts to expand the realm of gaming into our everyday lives. Or maybe he’ll talk about the Russian space program.

Philip Rosedale
The creator of Second Life shares learnings from building a virtual reality world that apply to building an augmented reality world.

Featured Talks in the Main Theater (June 4-5th)

1) The Augmented World Experience

Avi Bar-Zeev (RealityPrime)
Inside the looking glass: super powers through augmented perception and interaction.

Amber Case (CEO, GeoLoqi, Acquired by ESRI)
Future of Wearable Computing: Constraint, Context and Location.
This talk will focus on trends in wearable computing starting from the 1970’s-2010’s and how mobile interfaces should take advantage of location, proximity and haptics to help improve our lives instead of get in the way.

Ben Cerveny (Grey Area Foundation for the Arts)
Tending your Ambient Computational Metabolism.
As we become continuous users of a whole host of processes running in the cloud on our behalf, accessible across myriad touch points and interfaces, we need to develop relationships with these tools that span individual devices and contexts, and allow us to see how whole systems are affecting us and how we’re affecting those systems. We will tend to a huge metabolism of computation in which we live our everyday lives.

Tish Shute (Stupid Fun Club)
Parsing Reality – how the vision of Augmented Reality evolved into the Augmented World.

2) Startup Launchpad 

The startup launch pad provides a stage for promising AR startups seriously looking for funding to pitch their company, business model and products in front of a panel that consists of VCs and entrepreneurs. The judges will pick a winner for the best AR startup award and a $5000 reward!

3) Augmented Eyewear Face-off

Panel featuring contenders for the crown of top Eyewear with products that surpass Google Glass in some aspects. Moderated by Pete Wassel , leading manufacturers of Wearable displays including: Paul Travers (CEO, Vuzix), Dan Eisenhardt (CEO, Recon Instruments), Kayvan Mirza (CEO, Optinvent), Stephen WIlley (Innovega), Anna Jen (Epson), Uwe Vogel (Fraunhofer), and Meron Gribetz (CEO, Meta-View)

4) Future AR Technologies

Matt Miesnieks (CEO, Dekko)

Petter Ivmark (13th Lab)

Jeff Powers (CEO, Occipital)

5) Form Factors for the Augmented World 

Mike Kuniavsky (Principal Scientist, Parc)
Sculpting the augmented world: how to create experiences for augmented reality, urban informatics, the Internet of Things, the quantified self, and transmedia storytelling by treating those disciplines as facets of a single thing: networked processing distributed throughout the world.

Natan Linder (MIT Media Lab)
New prototypes for interactive augmented reality interfaces that better integrate information interfaces into our physical environment.  From the creator of LuminAR–a compact and kinetic projected augmented reality interface embodied in familiar everyday objects, namely a light bulb and a task light. It allows users to dynamically augment physical surfaces and objects with superimposed digital information using gestural and multi-touch interfaces.

Thomas Alt (CEO, Metaio)
The AR Engine: Accelerating Augmented Reality. The monumental impact hardware acceleration will have on the future of the Augmented Reality industry, taking AR from single-use apps to always on, always augmented experiences- first in Mobile, and then to the future of wearable headsets and embedded systems

6) AR for more Engaging Brand Engagement

Ambarish Mitra (CEO, Blippar)
5 reasons the world of Brands get excited about Augmented Reality: How AR adds meaning to above the line media and increases ROI

Nathan Kroll, Jonathan Burns (CEO, Ad-Dispatch)
Case studies from the company that teamed up with Walmart and Hollywood studios: Marvel, Disney, and Nickelodeon – to offer in-store AR experiences for Spiderman, Avengers, and more.

Brian Selzer (President,Ogmento)
Designing Virtual Character Interaction for a Physical World: premium brand engagement, real world gaming, and other not-to-distant scenarios to engage your customers.

7) Connected Play 

Jay Wright (VP, Qualcomm)
Augmented Reality: Learning to Read with Big Bird

Lauren Elliott (Robot 11)
Best selling Author of 23 original computer software titles with over 30 million copies of work in circulation – including Where in the World is Carmen SanDeigo software series – will talk about his latest endeavors into connected play with Robot 11.

Josh Shabtai (Vertigore)
Augmented reality games from the creator of the successful StarWars game, and AR for Laser Tag.

8) Cloud, Big Data, and Location technologies

Jon Fisher (CrowdOptic)
How to  analyzes where people point their smartphones to identify activity hot spots, engage users with contextual applications, and curate social media content.

Richard Ferraro (Catchoom)
The future of AR will rely on providing valuable content to the user in a dynamic and scalable way, the cloud becomes an essential component.

Clark Dodsworth (Kimera Systems)
How to use AI-driven context awareness as a service to enable brands to serve and sell to end-users in the moment, a totally user-centered model that is intent-based, replacing the mobile advertising model.

AR Means Business!

Showcases of AR in 10 Verticals

1) Retail and commerce

Matt Szymczyk (CEO, Zugara)

Bruno Uzzan (CEO, Total Immersion)

Andrew Couch (CEO, CandyLab)

2) Automotive and Tourism

Victor Ng-Thow-Hing (Principal Scientist, Honda Research)

Jana Rodic (LiveViewStudio – Techcooltour)

Andrea Carignano (CEO, Seac02)

3) Print, Media and entertainment 

Maarten Lens-FitzGerald (GM, Layar)

Suresh Narasimha (CEO, Telibrahma),

4) AR for enterprise and industrial applications

Gabriel Weiss (Mitsubishi Electric)

Gerben Harmsen (GM, TWNKLS)

Brian Mullins (CEO, Daqri)

5) Military and Government

Jim Donnelly (VP, Six-15)

Tod Soderstrom (CTO, NASA)

6) Urban and Architecture

Dave Lorenzini (CEO, ARC – CubeCities)

Anthony Cortez (ARUP)

Graziano Terenzi (CEO, Inglobe)

7) AR for Education

Mindy Brooks (Sesame Workshop)

Christopher Stapleton (President, Simiosys)

Jay Van Buren (CEO, Early-Adopter.com)

8) AR for Training

Alejandro Vazquez (AR Welding Mask – Seabery)

Carl Byers (VP, Ngrain)

Steven Feiner (Professor at Columbia University)

9) Health, Recreation, and Sports 

Dan Eisenhardt (CEO, Recon)

Kevin Hughes (ARPool – Queens University)

Patricio Barreiro (Co-founder, Innovar Group)

Hot topics in Design, User Experience, and Culture

1) AR in Art and Museums

Brian Haberlin (Anomaly)
Anomaly is an epic science-fiction adventure created by Skip Brittenham and Brian Haberlin, and is available as a 370-page hardcover book and a free augmented reality app which has to be seen to be believed.

Yolande Kolstee (AR Lab)
The founder and head of the AR Lab shares her experience in augmenting art and museums Kwith röler-Museum, Boijmans van Beuningen, Van Gogh, Escher in the Palace and many more

Sahar Fikouhi (Darf Design – Creator of Grid)
This ground breaking artist will talk about her projects including Grid, an Augmented Reality environment which provides a spatial configuration for real-time gaming at an architectural scale.

2) Content Creation for Non-Programmers

Jean-Francois Chianetta (Founder, AugmenteDev)

Maarten FitzGerald (GM, Layar)

Jacob Ervin (Metaio)

3) Designing Innovative AR Games

Fabrizio Polo (Sphero) – Robot AR Markers: When Balls Become Beavers

Oriel Bergig (VP R&D, Ogmento) – real world interactions for monetization of games on mobile devices.

4-5) Double Session on Augmented Reality Design

Mark Billinghurst (HIT LAB NZ)

Helene Papagiannis (InfinityAR)

Gene Becker (Samsung)

Sally Applin (University of Kent)

Eunjoo Kim (Qualcomm)

Ori Inbar (CEO, AugmentedReality.org)
The 3 Laws of Augmented Reality Design – How to design augmented reality application that add value and delight users.

6) AR Impact on Society & Culture 

Panel moderated by Joseph Rampolla with Greg Kipper, Marc Goodman, Bobby Simpson, and Noah Zerkin.

7) Law, Ethics & IP in the Augmented World

Panel lead by Brian Wassom (Honigman) with: Brett Krueger (Honigman), Nicola Liberati (University of Pisa), Matt Szymczyk (CEO, Zugara)

Technology Deep-Dive Sessions for Developers

Leading Mobile AR SDKs 

Leading Mobile AR SDKs share their latest innovations, featuring: Qualcomm’s Vuforia, Metaio, Total Immersion, Wikitude

Interoperability and Open AR

Discussion presented by Christine Perey, with Neil Trevett (VP Nvidia), Martin Lechner (CTO, Wikitude), Rob Manson (CEO, BuildAR)

Special Events

ARt Gala

Art works and live performances by top artists of the Augmented World and a sponsored reception with food and drinks.
Featuring Art by: Yolande Kolstee (AR Lab), Shannon Novak, BC (“Heavy”) Biermann & Ean Mering , Kevin Nally, Sahar Fikouhi, Mark Skwarek, Amir Baradaran, and more!

The Auggies

The industry’s most prestigious award ceremony will highlight the winners of this year’s best products in various categories. The best products nominated will demonstrate their innovations during the evening. Categories and nominated products: to be announced in a few weeks.

City Visions

City Visions is designed to provide an urban AR experience that will offer a glimpse into the digital 21st century city. Developers will reimagine urban spaces by using a wall-sized composite cityscape image that will serve as the marker for any natural feature tracking platform for mobile devices. The cityscape will be large enough to allow users to “walk the city” as they view the unique AR deployments. Developers are encouraged to reimagine urban spaces by creating innovative AR experiences that demonstrate new visions of urban planning, architecture, transportation, and art.

Event Wrap Up and Grand Finale

Following a panel with industry titans that will discuss the challenges and infinite opportunities of future of the augmented world, a live augmented reality performance by Yung Jake:

Breakout star from Sundance Festival, rap artist Yung Jake is “Net art incarnate, flowing lyrics about tweet culture, datamoshing, hashtags, augmented reality, and memes as he blows up on Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, and Instagram in his HTML5 music video, E.m-bed.de/d.” This rapper-artist drops will stream into conference screenings, and pops out of walls in augmented-reality music videos. Experience an In Real Life sighting at the live performance at Augmented World Expo.

Are you in AWE yet?

Stay tuned…more details to be revealed soon!

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Augmented Toys and Games Mature at Toy Fair 2013

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Ori Inbar

As in each of the last few years Augmented Reality toys and games were very visible at Toy Fair in New York last week.

These games combine physical and digital interaction which is a fantastic way to get kids away from the traditional TV or computer screens and encourage them to interact with the physical world.

Here is a collection of Augmented products I discovered:

Barbie Digital Mirror Lets Kids Try on Makeup

Allow young kids to try out make up while avoiding all the mess. Can’t go wrong with that! The game uses the iPad camera to track faces.

Mattel Disney Princess Ultimate Dream Castle

The concept of augmenting dollhouses have been around for sometime (see Helen Papagiannis). This, I believe, is the first mass market dollhouse to support augmented reality.

Popar Books

We have seen many popup book, but Popar is the first to put so much effort into it. Popar is fully immersed in the AR industry and have product lines incorporating AR that are currently in the worldwide marketplace.

Sphero Ball And Sharky the Beaver

Orbotix introduced a fun innovation with its smartphone-controlled Sphero Ball last year. Now, they have enhanced it with an augmented reality character and matching games that augmented the ball. Leveraging robotics to create this form of augmented reality games seems like a great way to bring AR to the masses in a fun way. It overcomes many challenges facing the common AR approaches.

Imaginext Apptivity Fortress

Most of the game play still revolves around an iPad screen, but it’s an interesting attempt to combine physical and virtual play.

NeuroSky and Puzzlebox – Brain waves controlling furry ears and a quadrocopter

Wii introduced physical games to millions of living rooms, and Microsoft Kinect made our bodies the controllers for games, but NeuroSky and Puzzlebox promises to not even require a body – just your mind to play. Here is a simple but awesome example how furry ears can be controlled by your brain waves alone. Next I wish to have such a tail!

Nuko Toys and Cards

Many studies have shown that physical hands-on interaction improves learning & memory. On that premise, Nuko adds cards interaction to their games. Is it truly augmenting the experience? You’ll be the judge.

Lego Mindstorms EV3

Lego amazing user-created robots have become more sophisticated and can be controlled by various sensors, and smartphones.

Cubelets

Somewhat similar to Sifteo (see next), but puts more focus on sensors and mechanics while Sifteo has slicker screens and focused on games that come to life through physical interaction.

Sifteo

Scan Games – trigger content on smartphones with QR codes and cards

Scan Game with AFV

Codigo Cube

Last but least on our list today…it’s cool that this game leverages QR Codes as an input for a smartphone trivia game, but the use in this game seems forced. Isn’t it a better experience to simply roll the dice on the phone screen itself? It might have been a great experience if the cube itself would have been augmented with graphics that truly enhance the experience.

Conclusion

Toy Fair 2013 featured a really nice collection of augmented toys and games which are spear heading the use of augmented reality for the masses. What will you build next?

Filed under: AR Education, AR Events, AR Games | 6 Comments »

Augmented Reality at Toy Fair 2013 – Next Week

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Ori Inbar

In previous years Toy Fair, which is starting this weekend in New York City, was a showcase for the latest in augmented reality toys and connected play.

Some of the notable examples were:

WowWee’s AppGear showed off several games that combine the iPad with physical toys.

Mattel demoed the Hot Wheels game from its new Apptivity line of toys and corresponding iPad apps. Using one of the two cars included in the pack, players zoom along the racing track on their tablet’s screen, performing stunts and jumping over roadblocks along the way.

Nukotoys’ Animal Planet and Monsterology card games AR games let children learn about real animals or fake monsters (based on their title of choice) by choosing cards and swiping them in front of the tablet. The iPad detects the playing cards and displays information along with an animated version of the creature, which users can then control.

Slip your iPad into the GameChanger board, and you have two games at your fingertips. Animal Mania and Magic School Bus are included, but other games can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store. The game board has pressure-sensitive fields that register the movements of players’ tokens.

Hasbro wouldn’t let us take video of the iPhone/iPod touch app that makes its new Lazer Tag Blaster so cool, but we can assure you that it puts augmented reality tech to good use. You can complete missions on your own or play against up to 24 players. Either way, your device’s screen is the viewfinder for targeting the red tip on opponents’ guns.

see more at: http://blog.laptopmag.com/augmented-reality-at-toy-fair-2012-the-top-apps-games-and-gadgets

 

What augmented reality toys and games will be showcased at ToyFair this year?

I’ll be there to find out!

 

 

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AWE 2013 Registration is Open!

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Ori Inbar

The Augmented World Expo 2013 (AWE 2013) today announced that registration is open for the 2013 event scheduled for June 4-5, 2013 in Santa Clara, California.  Now in its 4th year, Augmented World Expo™ (formerly Augmented Reality Event) is assembling the leading minds in augmented reality to showcase the world’s most innovative-augmented experiences that solve real world problems in all aspects of life, from entertainment, and brand engagement, to enterprise, industrial, and commerce applications.

are-awe_Logo_Btn-V2_Reg

Attendees will experience the largest AR exposition ever created bringing together more than 100 companies, from the hottest startups and leading AR providers to Fortune 500, all developing technologies, solutions, and hardware for augmented humans in an augmented world.

AWE 2013 will include mind-blowing keynote addresses by Bruce Sterling (“The prophet of AR”), Will Wright (legendary creator of The Sims), and include over 35 hours of talks covering business, technology and design.

The AWE 2013 program is designed to address topics such as:

  • Current augmented reality market scope and its future
  • The most disruptive augmented reality innovations, engines and tools
  • Real showcases of revolutionary adoption of augmented reality projects
  • How to leverage AR to advance your brand, attract and keep customers
  • How to build meaningful products and campaigns that will delight users

Now through April 9th, early bird attendees receive a $200 discount (over 30%!) on the full conference pass.

Register Today!

Filed under: AR Events | 12 Comments »

ARE 2012 1st Keynote Speaker Announced: Adrian David Cheok Inventor of “Krazy” Augmented Reality!

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Ori Inbar

The line up of luminary speakers to keynote at ARE 2012, the world’s largest augmented reality event, will blow your mind.

The first we are revealing is Adrian David Cheok, Professor at Keio University, Graduate School of Media Design, in Tokyo Japan, as well as a Young Global Leader at World Economic Forum.

Dr. Cheok has been a hero of mine in pushing the envelop of augmented reality. He will join an amazing group of keynote speakers in previous years.

Adrian has been a champion of the idea that Augmented Reality is more than just about the visual sense, but has to include all the senses. Over the years, he’s been working hard to prove his idea and created many prototypes of augmented reality systems that involve the other senses.

To warm you up, check out his Hug Accentuator.

I can’t wait to see his Kissinger system in action.

(Hint: it’s not about the legendary statesman.)

Dr. Adrian David Cheok also created the first real world Pac Man game. When he wanted to create an exciting augmented reality game, he chose to remake the first video game to ever introduce a character – the legendary Pac Man. Cheok literally stepped into Pacman’s shoes in this first-person-shooter-like real world game.

Make sure to register for ARE 2012 before the early bird discount expires on March 21st.

Here is my exclusive discount code for Games Alfesco readers: ORI375AR

Here’s an excerpt from Adrian’s illustrious career so far:

Adrian David Cheok  was the Founder and Director of the Mixed Reality Lab, Singapore. and previously worked in real-time systems, soft computing, and embedded computing in Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, Japan.

Mr. Cheok has been working on research covering mixed reality, human-computer interfaces, wearable computers and ubiquitous computing, fuzzy systems, embedded systems, power electronics. He has successfully obtained funding for externally funded projects in the area of wearable computers and mixed reality from Nike, National Oilwell Varco, Defense Science Technology Agency, Ministry of Communications and Arts, National Arts Council, Singapore Science Center, Hougang Primary School. The research output has included numerous high quality academic journal papers, research awards, keynote speeches, international exhibitions, numerous government demonstrations including to the President and Prime Minister of Singapore, broadcast television worldwide broadcasts on his research (such as CNN/CNBC/ABC/Discovery/National Geographic etc.), and hundreds of international press media articles.

In addition, Mr. Cheok has been a keynote and invited speaker at numerous international conferences and events. He was invited to exhibit for two years in the Ars Electronica Museum of the Future, launching in the Ars Electronica Festival 2003. His works “Human Pacman”, “Magic Land”, and “Metazoa Ludens”, were each selected as one of the worlds top inventions by Wired and invited to be exhibited in Wired NextFest 2005 and 2007. More…

Filed under: AR Events | 2 Comments »

Early Registration for ARE 2012 is Open! Join The World’s Largest Augmented Reality Event

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Ori Inbar

Friends, colleagues, and augmented reality enthusiasts at large – the early registration for ARE 2012 is open!

We are just 3 and a half months away from another Augmented Reality Event, the world’s largest AR event, and I can’t wait. As one of the event chairs, I can share with you a secret – ARE 2012 is going to be even bigger and better than before!

ARE 2012 will take place on May 8, 9 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California.

ARE is where the people working on, and using, Augmented Reality technologies come together to explore best practices and innovations in software development, tools, business strategies, design and marketing. Developers, technologists, marketers, hardware manufacturers, mobile operators, researchers, designers, startups, business developers, and entrepreneurs gather to share their experiences and learn from their peers.

In 2011, over 530 buyers and builders of AR in entertainment, media, education, healthcare, government, tourism, automotive, sports and other vertical markets, united in the 2 day must-attend event in Silicon Valley.

With this proven track record and the tremendous momentum in the Augmented Reality industry, ARE 2012 will set a new record and draw attendees that seek to leverage augmented reality into a productive, sustainable and entertaining new medium. ARE 2012 will spotlight inspiring keynotes by industry luminaries, and feature more than a 100 speakers from leading AR companies in more than 30 sessions. Organized into business, technology and production tracks, the conference program is designed to address topics such as:

  • current augmented reality market scope and what’s expected in the next 5 years,
  • latest augmented reality innovations, engines and tools,
  • showcases and postmortems of landmark augmented reality projects
  • how to leverage AR to advance your brand, attract and keep your customers
  • and how to build successful campaigns and products that will delight users.

The exhibition floor unites all the leading providers of Augmented Reality services and products, and offers a fantastic opportunity to witness demonstrations, speak with the architects of these experiences and network with all participants in this exciting industry. Last year’s successful activities such as the ARt Gala, AR Start up launch pad, and The Auggies (best AR demo award) will return to delight attendees. The new Augmented Future plenary session will feature 5 ground breaking augmented reality ideas that will change the world.

Submissions

Awareness for augmented reality (AR) is building up and getting stronger and broader all over the world. I can see it by the number of submission for talks pouring in, covering all aspects of augmented reality and venturing into new topics and uncharted industries. Thank you for your fantastic contributions!

If you have an idea for the event, there is still time to submit your proposal for a talk, demo, or become a sponsor and exhibitor.

Schedule

We have published a first glimpse into ARE 2012 schedule to give you a sense of the event structure and the topics that will be tackled. Check out the preliminary schedule. This may still shift a little, but will certainly remain the event backbone. Would love to hear your feedback.

Registration discounts

Make sure to take advantage of the early bird registration. It will save you a $100 (or 20%) from the standard price. But you have to act before March 21st.

If you have ever attended an ARE event before – you are eligible for the Alumni rate. But that offer will only last until February 21 – so act really fast!

Become a member

We have added this year a new membership option. With a mere $49 you can become an official member of the Augmented Reality Event. What is that? A new ploy to extract more from attendees?

Well, first you should know that ARE is a non-profit organization, initiated for the sole purpose of helping to advance the Augmented Reality industry. The new membership has several purposes:

First, it is a new approach to gauge the interest and help fund the video recording and distribution of all event sessions. It has always been the achilles heel of the event. We never found the time and funds to properly edit and distribute the content. So if you are in favor of ARE videos – this is your opportunity to vote. The value of these videos extends way beyond the mere $49.

The second purpose is more strategic in nature. ARE has always been about raising awareness to AR and helping advance the industry. And yet, although it established itself as the largest global AR event, it only takes place once a year. But when you think about it, each year, key players across the industry see the value in taking the time and uniting with their peers for 2 days in Santa Clara; they extract tremendous value from this get together which persists for many subsequent months. So, how about we use this opportunity to build a formal community that will join forces in helping promote awareness to augmented reality on a global and local basis? How about we extend the magic for the entire year?

We are not yet sure where this will go, but thought we should give it a go. If people sign up and show solidarity, it will be a great motivator to keep it going even after we all leave Santa Clara.

At the event, ARE members will bear a distinguishable badge, so you will be able to spot them from afar. So make your choice: do you want to be that guy with the plain-looking badge? ;)

Seriously, if you care about raising awareness to AR, and want to contribute as well as benefit from this program, join the ARE membership this year. The videos alone are worth the cost. The free T-shirt makes it a steal. Helping spread the word about AR is…priceless.

Register for ARE 2012 here

Filed under: AR Events | Tagged: , , , | 19 Comments »

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