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.
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.
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.
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?
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:
Techcrunch (1) discovers the VR versus AR Google trends graph. I think just about every other AR blog featured it at some moment.
Techcrunch (2) covered yet another AR browser named Nomao.
And yet another brand of sugary cereals use AR to augmented its boxes.
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).
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
• 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
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.
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.
Augmenting reality using the GPS&Compass combo has become very popular in 2009, and has decent accuracy when used to augment distant big objects such as buildings. However, it won’t be terribly useful for augmenting specific floors within a building.
Japanese Qosmo and Teradadesign Architects to the rescue. By covering the facade of Tokyo’s N Building with giant QR codes, they were able to display store information and even tweets, linked to their source from within the building. It’s cooler than my lame description, check out the video:
Thursday begins the Consumer Electronics Show 2010, the gadget-head show of the year. While the Nexus One has all the buzz going into the show and 3D TV will probably be the talk of it, readers of Games Alfresco will want to know what to expect from CES2010 for augmented reality.
Overall, there’s not going to be any big surprises for augmented reality, but there will be some products that will help further the cause.
AR Drone
The combination of self-adjusting mini-helicopter and augmented reality interface has turned this little toy into quite the buzz maker pre-show for the device maker Parrot (so much so the website is currently crashed due to traffic.) The drone has two cameras that can connect to an iPhone or iTouch through a wi-fi network.
The Drone was introduced Tuesday and attracted the biggest crowd. This creative application of AR really shows what’s possible using well placed cameras and some ingenuity. The price or released date hasn’t been announced but it’s expected in late 2010.
Tablets
Microsoft & HP are expected to release a tablet during the 2010 show while Apple plans to release theirs afterwards. Tablets are interactive stylish screens that are supposed to be the next wave of portable computers. Their built-in webcam, wi-fi, processor speeds and portability will give augmented reality the option to upside the “magic lens.” Redmondpie website has supposed leaked specifications that include a projector which would allow Sixth Sense type AR.
The supposed iSlate or iPad (really how hard is it to sound like you’ve found leaked Apple information by adding an “i” in front of a random techy word) will need to have GPS, accelerometer, and a compass to truly be AR ready. Otherwise, the only thing the tablet will be able to do is object recognition and marker-based AR.
TVs with Cameras
The stealthier possible boon for augmented reality might be in the form infusing TVs with computer sensibilities. The Skype tool is looking to add webcams to HD TVs for video-calls. With TVs having wi-fi access, computer processors and downloadable widgets, TV-apps could be a huge market for augmented reality. The technology would have to be marker and object recognition based, but the stationary setting could allow for creative products like the Sony EyePet without having to fork-out $400 for the PS3. I’m sure the furry-crowd would love to talk to each other on video-Skype, augmented to look like their favorite animal.
In general, we’re not going to have an OMFG moment from the CES 2010. There could be a few surprises similar to the AR Drone, but mostly we’ll grind out more processing power, camera speeds and other un-sexy improvements that will help make augmented reality better.
A special message from Presselite Co-founder Antoine Morcos:
I take the liberty to contact you to let you know that our new application has been approved by Apple today, we are very proud to announce Nude It for the iPhone, now available on AppStore.
Nude It app shows your friends naked! Nude It is a funny Augmented Reality application for the iPhone that lets you see through clothes. Simply point your iPhone at a friend (less than 6.5 ft / 2 m from you), and using Nude It scanning technology, you will see him or her totally in the nude. Please, note that you must clearly see your friend’s face on the screen to get good results.
Of course, we were inspired by whoisthebaldguyblog Nude It amazing video to develop this application, we hope you will like the result.
You can find all details about the application on presselite and here’s the iTunes Link
The last week of 2009 was quite a slow one, and having Thomas K. Carpenter join Games Alfresco, diminishes my list of resources even further. Nevertheless, here are some AR related news-bits that we haven’t covered this week:
Just before moving to Games Alfresco, Thomas had the most exquisite, well researched review of 2009 in AR.
Augmented Planet on EyePly that are set to augment sport venues.
One niche of AR browsers that’s getting crowded very fast, is ski-related browsers. Resort Technology Partners’ REALSKI is yet another of this kind with a neat business plan – each mountain map costs you another 99 cents.
If you are living in Copenhagen, you can use Layar to see air pollution readings around you.
Now, if I get it right, Soho is a men magazine from Colombia that employed AR to boost its sales. Which is one step closer to my prediction about Playboy getting augmented. (via Design Memo for Ourselves)
Games Alfresco 