Junaio is Available on the iPhone App Store – Can Social Augmented Reality be Fun?

Posted on November 11, 2009 by Ori Inbar

They made it:

metaio, Inc. is proud to announce that junaio – the world’s first social augmented reality platform is now available in the App Store. The application is free and available globally on all iPhones. Users without an iPhone can also edit and share 3D augmented reality images via the online platform on http://www.junaio.com.

junaio is a mobile and online platform that lets users create, explore and share information in a completely new way using augmented reality and location-based content. Users can place 3D objects, Twitter messages or websites into the real world and then share their creations with friends through social networks such as Facebook.

Download from the App Store or Visit the website

I participated in the beta and it was quiet fun.

I took pictures of interesting things in and around my house, and in a few minutes – folks from around the world (mostly Germany…) added creative fun stuff to it.

I like Junaio’s concept of You (stuff you created), Here (stuff people around you created), Now (stuff being created right now). However, it was a bit weak on the Here. I guess no one else in NYC participated in the beta. Hopefully that will change now that it’s on the store.

What I am missing in Junaio is the ability to see my creation (and others) truly overlaid on reality. That is quiet hard to achieve on the iPhone with just GPS and compass. This will get much more interesting when computer vision is used and objects are aligned with your real time view of reality.

In the meantime – congratulations to Metaio and all the best!

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The Kindle Test

Posted on November 10, 2009 by rouli

[This post is going to be strange at times, readers should note that I’m the author, not Ori]
According to some estimates, up till now, Amazon sold more than one million units of Kindle.

That’s one million units for a device that is not a phone, doesn’t include a camera, can’t guide you from point A to B, has a grayscale screen, and really doesn’t do much but serving as an e-book reader (don’t get me wrong, I would love to have one).

The point is, e-book readers are far less revolutionary than AR devices. Some would claim (me included) that AR devices are also more useful. Yet, it seems that no one is building a dedicated augmented reality hardware. If AR was really that hot and not a technology that is still a few years away, shouldn’t we see at least a concept AR device? After all, if over a million Kindles were sold, the FlARe™ would sell like cupcakes.
Yes, the HMDs coming next year can be used for augmented reality, but it seems that they primerly target other markets.

Another “AR capable” device that targets other markets is, of course, the iPhone. Instead of complaining about the iPhone’s lack of support of augmented reality, can’t AR enthusiasts take action to their own hands? Isn’t there another Noah Zerkin type of guy that instead of building an amazing glove, would build a rough hand held AR device to prove that augmented reality is not a lot of hype? Sergey Ten has written today a set of features he is looking for in the perfect AR device. If you are a resourceful guy or girl, start from there.

Consider this post as a call for action, or at least for comments. Is augmented reality going to be bigger in 2010 than e-books readers to merit its own dedicated device?

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Weekly Linkfest

Posted on November 8, 2009 by rouli

Still waiting for Junaio.

In the meantime the backlash against augmented reality (and the hype bubble surrounding it) has begun, with PSFK’s “Is Augmented Reality The Next Second Life?”, Fast Company’s “Put Your Phone Down: Augmented Reality Is Overblown” and Techdirt’s critique of gimmicky AR applications. Even Zugara has called on bloggers to cool down the hype. The best of its kind is BusinessWeek’s “Augmented Reality: Getting Beyond the Hype” (you should read this article):

The industry could battle the hype and mislabeling by establishing standards the rest of us can understand. Otherwise, augmented reality will quickly meet the same fate as “green” products: Marketers will advertise even the slightest of augments as “augmented reality,” leaving consumers confused and bewildered.

On the other hand there’s Robert Rice’s reply to that Fast Company article.
Well, I don’t think that anyone will deny there’s a lot of of hype around augmented reality at the moment, and I’m sure most believe that augmented reality has a great potential. It is my humble opinion that really exciting AR is still a few years away and in order to get there, we need to keep the hype at bay. As Rice writes, there’s a fine line between evangelizing and hyping, and we should be careful not to cross it. Not that it’s going to help, as many startups are pumping air into the bubble, hoping for an exit before it bursts.

Oh, and in other news:

This week’s video is of an art performance named .txt , that features a tag cloud haunting a dancer. I’m not an art critique, so I can say anything about the performance itself, but technology wise, it’s using YDreams’ YVision for real time interaction between the dancer and words (via @YDreams):

Have a nice week!

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System Flaw – first augmented reality game for DSi

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Ori Inbar

The buzz continues, this time shooting alien invaders in a room near you.

We have seen similar (semi) Augmented Reality game mechanics with the addictive Arcade Reality and Mosquitoes.

The new game by Visual Impact System Flaw launched this week – has a much slicker interface, and the second DSi screen does add finesse (though I’d rather play it with just one hand on the iPhone):

The mission is to hunt down alien invaders – the Flaw – who are only visible through the DSi, and the radar tracker screen gets the player gyrating and spinning from room to room or running outside in pursuit!

With its US launch this week and UK and Europe scheduled for February 2010, System Flaw is the first game to come from new family-oriented publisher Enjoy Gaming.

One question remains: since the DSi has no compass – how does the tracking of aliens around you work? Optical flow?

Oh, and by the way, it was already awarded the “Best Innovation” nomination by Agence Francaise pour le Jeu Vidéo.

Via Game Zone

Filed under: AR Games | Tagged: , | 4 Comments »

Droid Does Tease

Posted on November 1, 2009 by rouli

If you were living in a cave for the last two weeks, Droid, Motorola’s new Android device is heralded as the new iPhone killer. The campaign created to promote the coming the new phone has focused on what Droid does that the iPhone cannot do. Interestingly, Thomas Carpenter has noticed the following tease on the Droid’s promotion site:

So, are they meaning Layar/Wikitude or something completely different? After all, we do have those on the iPhone, but the iPhone is famous for its lack of support for real video-feed-processing type of AR.
Time will tell …

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Buzz, Buzz: Augmented Reality Mosquitoes All Around Your iPhone

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Ori Inbar

Vincent Verwey is happy to report that his new augmented reality game  has just been approved on the app store. It’s called Mosquitoes.

It lets you kill pesky mosquitoes flying around you in virtual space.
Watch through the camera and you see tens of mosquitoes around you. On the
ceiling, hovering above the floor, on your left and to your right.

The game uses the compass and accelerometer (works on 3GS only) for a realistic augmented reality effect. The animated mosquitoes are projected in the real world,
which you see through the camera lens.

There are two modes:

1) Shoot Out. Kill as many mosquitoes as you can in just two minutes.

2) Precision. You get only 10 bullets and 10 mosquitoes. Don’t waste your ammunition and don’t waste time.


Here is more info about Mosquitoes from Makayama Software.

Or for just 99 cents you can get it yourself on the app store.

I did.
I can’t get enough augmented reality games on my iPhone.

Mosquitoes is based on a similar game mechanic as we have seen with Arcade Reality: alien space ships (or here mosquitoes) appear randomly around you, seemingly registered in 3D space (but not truly aligned with real life objects). It’s pretty addictive and sure makes you move (as well as behave like a deranged monkey ;)

Arcade Reality is very low brow, reminiscent of early arcade B games (and parents tend to ban it from their kids for safety issues), however it’s radar view makes the game a tad more interesting than Mosquitoes. Plus I’d rather listen to an 8 bit sound track than to mosquitoes buzzing nervously around me…

AR history buffs among you would remember that Mosquitoes is not the first AR game to use, um…mosquitoes.

Mozzies (also known as Mosquito Hunt) was developed for the Siemens SX1 launch in 2003. The mosquitoes were superimposed on the live video feed from the camera. Mozzies was awarded the title of best mobile game in 2003.

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Weekly Linkfest

Posted on November 1, 2009 by rouli

While reading this week’s linkfest you may find some links are missing – don’t worry, many ISMAR related links and videos will be posted later this week.

Although Halloween was yesterday, and I’ve dedicated a whole post to Halloween related AR, here’s another cute scarry example found by Bruce Sterling. Actually is part of a campaign to promote eco-friendly chargers and power managemant systems, and you can try it yourself here.

Have a nice week!

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Augmented Job Board

Posted on October 31, 2009 by rouli

Looking for a position at a leading AR company?

Metaio’s  is looking for an iPhone developer for its San Francisco offices:

Your tasks include the analysis, the design and the transfer of customer specified Augmented Reality solutions.
Task profile:

  • Application development on iPhone / MacOSX
  • Working on customer projects
  • Requirements analysis / engineering
  • Application design
  • Project communication
  • Collaboration with the core development, research and product development
  • Customer and service orientation

You can find this and many other available positions at Games Alfresco’s Job Board.

If you happen to look for the right person to fill an augmented reality related position, why won’t let us publish it over here? There’s nothing to lose, it’s free!

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Freaky Friday – Nude It

Posted on October 30, 2009 by rouli

I’m sure that such an application would be a killer-app for augmented reality. “Augmented reality? I’m only using it for the articles”. Via @u2elan.

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Three More HMDs to Consider

Posted on October 29, 2009 by rouli

Cool NEC is developing a head mounted display named Tele Scouter which it hopes to begin shipping somewhere in 2010. The eyepiece shown in the image below has some really neat features like front facing camera and eye tracker. This enables a remote server to see whatever you’re looking at, and send you some relevant content to be displayed on the little screen. Not so cool- it’s going to cost a small fortune, and NEC is only planning to sell about 1000 of those in the next three years. More details on SlashGear.

Cooler Fellow Japanese company, Brother Industries is not left behind. Apparently they developed a light-weight HMD (by light-weight I mean 350 grams including batteries) that should also hit the stores in 2010. Like in Tele Scout’s case this unnamed HMD superimposes the image it generates over reality, not blocking the user’s view. So why is it cooler than NEC’s device? Well, they use terms like “green diode lasers”, and if that doesn’t make you blind, it’s surely very cool. More details on TechOn.

Coolest Now you can make a HMD right in your own home (though you’ll need an iPhone and some cardboard):

Though none of those devices (certainly not the last one :)) is aimed for the AR crowd, I guess that enthusiasts will find way to harness them for cool demos. Don’t forget to read Tom’s review of more concrete offerings from ISMAR.

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