Continuing my coverage of the augmented reality browser wars, here are the latest news (well, some of them are a few days old, excuse me for procrastinating a bit):
AcrossAir is not satisfied with letting you find the closest subway station in London (where it’s called The Tube), it also has its sights on the NY subway system:
If you remember correctly, Mobilizy, makers of Wikitude, claimed AcrossAir’s application demo is nothing but a mock-up. Seems real to me.
Anyway, Mobilizy is working hard to remind people that Wikitude augmented the world way before SPRXMobile’s Layar. Moreover, one of their tweets suggests that Layar was based on Wikitude’s technology. Indeed, SPRXMobile did cooperate with Mobilizy once, when creating their ATM finder, but it doesn’t prove that Layar is Wikitude in disguise.
Mobilizy also released this video demoing their Wikitude API, and did not miss the opportunity to include some sarcastic remark towards its end:
And in the Eastern front, TechCrunch reports on the almost final version of Tonchidot’s Sekai Camera. Compared this video –
With what we have been promised a year ago:
Well, at least they still have something to aspire to.
One of the oldest concepts in the mobile AR community is using augmented reality to match a person with his/her identity. The Swedish software and design company TAT just unveiled their own take on this “augmented id” with the aptly named Augmented ID. Using face recognition and tracking technology from Polar Rose, TAT enables you to check up one’s web identity by looking at him through your mobile’s camera, as the following concept shows:
It’s very pretty, but just be sure that before pointing your mobile at some beautiful girl on the street, you could out-run her boyfriend. (via engadget)
a new identification application apparently under development by Apple that would help identifying objects in a user’s surroundings so that their iPhone can present additional information about the identified objects.
The patent describes scenarios such as:
“the portable electronic device can allow the user to select a mode based on the types of objects that the user wants to identify. Based on the selected mode, the portable electronic device can adjust parameters used for searching an identification database. For example, if the user selects to identify an object in a “MUSEUM” mode, the portable electronic device can search the identification database for objects that are commonly found in a museum. In some embodiments, the portable electronic device can determine the location of the user to help identify an object. For example, if the user is determined to be in Las Vegas and the portable electronic device is set to a “RESTAURANT” mode, the device can limit the search of the identification database to restaurants in Las Vegas.”
As much as it’s encouraging to see Apple’s interest in this domain, it sounds awfully similar to augmented reality research published over the past 10 years.
Moreover, it actually describes the functionality behind existing AR browsing applications already in the market such as Layar, Mobilizy’s World Browser, Tonchidot’s Sekai Camera, Nru, and more!
And how about augmenting Museum experiences? Has anyone at Apple read our roundup of AR museum experiences?
Is there anything new in this patent? Can Apple defend it against previously published AR work? What do you think?
Three weeks after its launch, SPRXMobile’s Layar partially opens up its layer creation API to developers. It’s not freely available online (bad decision?), however, interested developers can register here, and may be among the lucky 50 to get access keys to the API. The press release is here.
Meanwhile, Mobilizy (creator of Wikitude) is not keeping silent. They congratulated SPRXMobile on their twitter account, and placed a comment on Layar’s press release:
On behalf of Mobilizy GmbH the developers of the original Wikitude AR Travel Guide we would like to congratulate SPRX Mobile in their efforts to help shape the Mobile augmented reality landscape.
Good Job!
Mobilizy also put this picture depicting Wikitude on the iPhone 3GS, and released the following advertisement video
All this while both SPRXMobile and Mobilizy are founding members in the new AR Consortium. So, am I making a lot of noise out of nothing? Probably, after all I’m a blogger!
Update: Mobilizy just announced that they will let user add their own tags to the world via Wikitude.me and that they open up their API in a closed beta. And thus begins the battle to control the mobile AR world!
Doritos had several augmented reality campaigns we previously covered (here and here). Now, they let Blink-182 fans watch a virtual concert by the band using a bag of Doritos, a Webcam, and setting their web browswers to this site.
“An online 3-D performance was something we just had to be a part of,” Hoppus said in a press release. “As big technology guys, we’re pumped that people can now experience a little bit of our summer tour through something as accessible as [a] bag of Doritos and a computer.”
This next augmented reality concept , named FoodTracer, comes to us from Italian Giuseppe Costanza, as his final year project for MA Communication Design at Central Saint Martins. And it’s quite an impressive final project!
Aimed to give consumers more information about the food products they are buying (such as their carbon footprint and where they were produced), while minimizing packaging, FoodTracer is a bright idea on how AR can make the world a tad better. Users would be able to access the information that concerns them, compare and bookmark several products, and later examine their shopping history at home. Here’s one of Costanza’s imagined use cases:
When Susan goes shopping in her usual supermarket she knows where organic products are placed so she can quickly pick the right products, but today she went shopping in a new supermarket where products are displayed in a different way, she doesn’t have the time to check on the packaging which product is organic so she uses FoodTracer to easily spot organic apples.
Costanza even built a demo application for the Symbian mobile operating system, using embeded markers and d-touch nice looking markers that hide in the products’ logos, as can be seen in the following video:
This week wasn’t defined by cool videos and nice looking demos, but on the bright side, there were a couple of interesting articles and interviews that will surely tickle your mind:
Programmer Joe (part one) – “Augmented reality should be open” argues that AR should use open protocols and standards in order to flourish as the web did. Robert Rice has a rebuttal on Curious Raven that although openness is positive, AR should not be compared with the web. I’ll have a longer post about it in the next couple of days (once I’ll iron out the last creases).
In somewhat of the same vein, Blair MacIntyre interviews to blogtalkradio, and talks about how AR should be and what challenges (aside from the obvious technical ones) we are facing (I’ll be definitely listen to this interview at least once more).
This week’s video is a silly augmented reality tribute to Michael Jackson (please don’t get offended if you are MJ fans, I don’t say he was silly, I just don’t think highly of this tribute). You can try it yourself over here.
That is, to London’s subway system. Most tourist facing augmented reality applications are focused on landmarks. But, there’s an even more important issue affecting a tourist’s visit to an unknown city – how to get around. The city’s residents know perfectly well where’s the closest subway station that will serve their needs, but a tourist needs to constantly look at maps and look around herself.
To the rescue comes AcrossAir, a British mobile application development company. They have created a simple, yet useful, iPhone application, that shows you where’s the nearest tube station. When held horizontally, the application behaves quite like a map, but when the phone is tilted upwards, bubbles signifying stations’ presence are overlayed on the video feed. Obviously, this only works on the new iPhone 3GS, since it requires a compass reading.
Here’s some obvious further directions from the top of my head, this kind of app could follow:
Add more cities around the world, New York should probably be the first.
Add more public transportation options, such as buses and regular overground trains.
Add route planning, so the application will also recommend which station best suits your needs.
Some real time info will be great, like knowing when the next train is due.
Make it work underground (using cellular tower triangulation in lieu of GPS read), so commuters can be advised where to get off a train, and which line should they take next.
So there’s much room to innovate, even in such a niche application.
Dutch website (what’s with all those Dutch companies lately?) YouTellMe.com, which specializes in social shopping online (e.g. recommendation engines) has just launched a new augmented reality application, letting you see how your favorite electronic products look like in the palm of your hand (or in your living room).
By harnessing the power of your webcam, Flash, and probably FlarToolKit (though, I failed to prove it), you can now try the new iPhone, or that Canon camera you always coveted:
Actually, since style and appearance play a big part these days when we are out to buy a new gadget, I can imagine such an application would have a market (much like those magic mirrors that let you try on jewelery and accessories). Though, IMHO, it could be much improve if instead of simply printing a marker, you would be able to print a simple paper-craft box with markers on its sides, that although will require some folding, will give you some more “hands on” experience.
We are a collection of augmented reality (AR) enthusiasts and professionals (from business and academia), who have been working on a multitude of AR apps for the iPhone. These apps are poised to change the way people interact with the real world.
But here is the rub: we are currently unable to publish these apps on the app store because the iPhone SDK lacks public APIs for manipulating live video.
We are asking Apple to provide a public API to access live video in real time, on the iPhone.
We will be happy to offer additional technical details.
The impact of augmented reality (AR) on our lives could be as significant as the introduction of the PC.
In 10 years, we believe augmented reality will change the way everyone experiences travel, design, training, personal productivity, health care, entertainment, games, art, and advertising (videos).
Looking back just a few years, AR pioneers had to hack a slew of components into ridiculously large backpacks and HUDs, and be confined to rigged environments. Nowadays, it comes in friendly, affordable packages and the iPhone is one of the first devices to have it all – except for a public API.
The battle to determine the winning device has already begun; a public API to access live video will give the iPhone a lucrative ticket to compete.
We believe Apple has a window of opportunity of about 3 months before developers start looking elsewhere. If Apple decides to publish the API in that time frame – in the next 10 years, everyone might be using the iPhone as the preferred device to interact with the real world.
Here is how augmented reality could open up new opportunities for the iPhone this year:
Games Alfresco 