Weekly Augmented Reality Linkfest

Posted on April 10, 2011 by rouli

Wow, what a busy week. I’ve listed below only a few of this week’s AR related news stories, just to protect you from an information overload. I hope to blog about the other stories in the coming days.

This week’s video is magnificent in its simplicity. Nothing more than a demo of Qualcomm’s AR platform, featuring virtual domino bricks, it made me think what would happen if they’ll scale this game. Anyone in the world could place bricks, and anyone could push a brick and start a world-wide chain reaction, but of the playful kind. A simple game that will cross borders and cultures, or maybe I’m a walking cliche?

Have a beautiful week!

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AR Games You Must Play Now!

Posted on April 5, 2011 by thomaskcarpenter

It seemed like only last week we were clamoring for more games to showcase the power of augmented reality.  Now I find it hard enough just to keep up with them all.  Instead of trying to create a list, I’m going to just brain dump them into the Internet and let you all decide which ones you want to try.  I’m sure I’ll miss some, so if I have, just add ’em to the comments section.

Paranormal Activity: Sanctuary

I covered this one a month back on the Future Digital Life.  Great game and I loved that it got the kids and I out of the house on late night adventures and using our imaginations.  Nice work, Ogmento.

Paranormal Activity: Sanctuary from Ogmento on Vimeo.

Nintendo 3DS – AR Games

Let’s count the whole suite of them from AR Shot to Fishing.  The game system takes card based AR to a whole new place.  Well, actually, it’s the same place you’re in, but with cool graphics overlain.

AR Soccer

Short and simple but can be addicting for at least as long as it takes your calves to cramp up.

Paparazzi (Qualcomm’s AR Challenge Winner)

The point of the game is to snap as many pictures as possible before the Star gets to pissed and decides to go Lindsey Lohan on your camera.  Thankfully, the cracked screen is only part of the game.  Will a Charlie Sheen edition be coming soon?

Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner

Epic space battles on your iPhone.  New York City sold separately.

AR Basketball

Sorry, but swiping the screen on this game just makes me want to play a version of AR Angry Birds.

AR Pirates!

Created by Optricks Media to get you to say “ARrrr Matey!” for the rest of the day after you’ve played it.

AR Defender

Tower defense by Int13.

The AR Drone

Like having a quad-rotor hovercraft wasn’t cool enough, they had to go and add augmented reality.

Pringles Game

There’s a whole host of these product placement games out there.  I’ll summarize them by posting just this one video.  Fill in any number of other products that have jumped on the product as AR game bandwagon.

PBS Kids Games

It’s not a game yet, but it’s a nice article about combining learning and games.

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Weekly Belated Linkfest

Posted on April 4, 2011 by rouli

Sorry for not posting the weekly linkfest yesterday; Don’t worry though, the links are still fresh:

I love videos done by students to show off their work. This week we are lucky to have Predator, a very impressive video (though I haven’t tried it myself) tracking algorithm resulting from Zdenek Kalal’s phd thesis at the University of Surrey, UK. You can try it yourself by downloading a compiled application to your pc, and read more about it here. Though desktop bound right now, Kalal claims that “implementation for mobile devices is feasible”.

have a great week!

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Special Discount for Games Alfresco Fans for ARE 2011 – an Event Packed with Augmented Reality Goodness!

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Ori Inbar
The second annual Augmented Reality Event (ARE 2011) is unveiling a sneak preview of the schedule for the world’s largest event – focused exclusively on advancing the augmented reality industry.
ARE 2011 will take place in May 17th-18th at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California, and is surely a must-attend event for the Augmented Reality (AR) community, and anyone interested to learn about AR.
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Join Bruce Sterling (“the prophet” of AR) on the main stage, with Vernor Vinge (author of “Rainbows End” and “The Coming Technological Singularity”), and Will Wright (Legendary game designer of SimCity, The Sims, and Spore). Also returning from last year’s event, Blaise  Aguera Y Arcas (a leader in Microsoft’s mobile strategy), to top his Ted talk demonstrating innovations in Bing Maps and Augmented Reality. And if that’s not enough magic – Marco Tempest, the world’s most notable AR magician will stun the audience with a live augmented magic show.

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The 2 day event will feature more than 33 hours of talks running the gamut of AR essentials in 3 tracks: Business, Technology and Production:
a) Business – For executives of established and start-up AR companies, as well as mobile hardware companies – in search of business models and promising verticals for AR;  a venue to form partnerships, learn about latest innovations, and most importantly speak with clients.

b) Technology – For Developers, programmers and technologists seeking the latest and greatest engines and tools for AR; learn from case studies and post mortems delivered by experienced developers from the leading companies in the space.

c) Production – For Producers, designers, project managers (in gaming companies, agencies, marketers, brands, and artists) hungry for proven techniques to leverage augmented reality to advance your brand, attract and keep your customers, and build successful campaigns and products that will delight users.

For a complete list of confirmed speakers checkout the website at: ARE 2011 Speakers

If you are an AR Enthusiast – you will feel like a kid in a candy store at are2011.

Not convinced yet? Check out these special activities:
1) “Startup Launch pad” – Five AR startups present their business models and products in front of an expert panel: VCs, Entrepreneurs, and industry luminaries – hosted by a major industry powerhouse. Winner receives: “ARE Best startup prize” (to be announced.) Submit your proposal here under track: “Startup Launch Pad”.

2) “The Auggies” – Teams get 5 minutes each to present on stage and compete for the coolest live AR demo. An extraordinary trio of judges: Bruce Sterling, Vernor Vinge, and Will Wright, will comment on the demos – American Idol-style. Winners will be determined by the audience and receive the prestigious “Auggies Award.” Submit your proposal here under the “Auggies” track.

3) ARt Gala – A display of AR art projects and live performance art by the world’s top AR artists featuring: Helen Papagiannis, Amir Baradaran, Sander Veenhof and more to be announced. And to make sure all your senses are stimulated – drinks and food are on the house – courtesy of our sponsors.

4) ARE Press Conference – If you are planning to announce a new product or service – secure your spot in the press conference that will kick off the event. Submit your proposal here and add: “Press Conference” in the title.

5) Exhibition and Sponsorships – A small number of booths is still available in the exhibition hall ($995 for 10′x10′).Grab them while they last!

Use ORI295 – special discount for Games Alfresco’s fans and shave off $100 of the already sweet price tag of $395.

Register today for the augmented reality event!

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Konstruct

Posted on March 30, 2011 by thomaskcarpenter

Verbally constructed art.

I’m a complete fumble fingers when it comes to drawing, so letting my whistle do the drawing sounds like a “Winning!” to me.

Konstruct is brought you by James Alliban, the same guy who made AR business cards and AR Ribbons.

It is a sound reactive AR experience for the iPhone that allows the user to create a virtual sculpture by speaking, whistling or blowing into the device’s microphone. A variety of 3D shapes, colour palettes and settings can be combined to build an endless collection of structures. Compositions can be saved to the device’s image gallery.

Konstruct is a free app available on iPhone 3GS and 4 running iOS 4+. A version for the iPad 2 is planned in the coming months.

Konstruct from James Alliban on Vimeo.

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Location Based Coupons with Junaio

Posted on March 29, 2011 by thomaskcarpenter

Locoupons?

Straight outta the box this one seems pretty boring until you think about how well Groupon is doing.  Plus, the people *behind* the person with the Junaio based coupons will be happy.  No more waiting for the lady in front of you to dig through her purse for twenty minutes to find all the right coupons.  Presto.  Magic.  Coupons on your smartphone.

Valpak Launches Location Based Coupons with junaio Augmented Reality Partner

Consumers have a fun, easy way to save money, find coupons on the go through the augmented reality application

LARGO, FL and SAN FRANCISCO – March 29, 2011 – Valpak Direct Marketing Systems / Cox Target Media and junaio today announced the Valpak coupons will now be available on the junaio app, allowing consumers to save money at nearby businesses with geo-targeted coupons that pop up on their smartphones.

With the Valpak coupons on the junaio app, consumers don’t wait to receive coupons, the geo-location coupons are available whenever they want them. The app launches the smartphone’s camera and GPS to overlay a set of 3D icons in real-time, showing the available Valpak coupons in the vicinity as the user scans the surroundings, with a radius varying from 5 feet to 20 miles away. The coupons and offers literally “pop up” on the screen.

Users can view local coupons, savings and deal offers from the convenience of smartphones anywhere and anytime, and find deals from thousands of local and national brands using the app. Consumers can view and redeem Valpak mobile coupon offers for their favorite businesses in the area by showing the local merchant the Valpak coupon(s) displayed on their smartphone.

The Valpak coupon channel puts the consumer at the center focus, delivering content based on the consumer’s location, or geo-location. The app uses the innovative technology of augmented reality, which combines real and virtual, making the experience interactive and 3D.

The Valpak coupon channel on the junaio app is the world’s largest augmented reality mobile coupon application. To experience this feature, users can download the free junaio application, created by metaio, the leader in AR technology, from either the iTunes Store or Android Market and select the “Local Coupons by Valpak” channel.

“Providing Valpak content on the junaio platform extends the reach our advertisers achieve when they purchase Valpak advertising,” according to Nancy Cook, Vice President of New Media Business Development for Valpak/Cox Target Media. “Our content distribution strategy is to be everywhere consumers look for savings. Valpak content appears on many different apps and platforms. That’s good for consumers and good for our advertisers.”

“Partnering with junaio gives us access to a new audience and gives them a fun, interactive way to see which local businesses are offering savings, and then connect to the offer,” said Cook. “Now consumers can find discounts on their favorite nearby businesses as they are walking by them or discover new favorites in the neighborhood.

”In addition to this augmented reality, app, the familiar Blue Envelope and Valpak.com, Valpak offers available via apps for the five major mobile platforms, recently launched Valpak Deals daily deals site, and offers SMS texting for advertisers.

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Weekly Spring-Time Linkfest

Posted on March 27, 2011 by rouli

The spring is here (unless you live below the equator, and somehow don’t fall off the face of the earth), and it brings some great links (and allergens) :

  • Librarian’s dream app – researchers from Miami University created an augmented reality meets mobile application to help keep books ordered on libraries’ shelves.
  • Beats me why the need the money, I always assumed they make millions, but Total Immersion gets USD $5,5M in funding led by Intel Capital (which, interestingly, also funded Layar).
  • Quimo from the University of South Australia, is like play-doh for augmented reality. This “deformable material” supports “freeform modeling in spatial AR environments” by embedding almost invisible AR markers.
  • “The Witness” is a German half-movie-half alternative reality game that uses AR (or pseudo-AR) to move the plot forward (via @).
  • Comedian Ricky Gervais dismisses augmented reality as “a load of bollocks” (via @Layar).

This week’s featured video is coming to us from Microsoft, a company that develops stunning technologies just to see them later made into products and sold by the likes of Apple. Here they develop a “Photosynth Lite”, enabling users to create 3d models by taking a few pictures with their cellphones. I wonder where this technology can be applied:

You can read more about this on Technology Review.

Have a sunny week!

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Utopian AR Concept Video

Posted on March 24, 2011 by thomaskcarpenter

I’m not sure when I’ll tire of concept videos.  As long as they keep upping the ante, I’m in.

This one treats AR as a private little wonderland without intrusion from a world trying to get you to buy stuff.  I’m all for the Utopian vision, but I expect the corporate spam-mongers to find ways into our idyllic little islands.

Quote from the makers, Mattias Wozniak and Bjorn Svensson:

Our objective was to focus on how to interact with an AR system in the near future. Main focus was to keep it socially acceptable, non-obtrusive and intuitive.

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Nintendo 3DS Hacked, Shows Augmented Reality 3D Anime Boobies

Posted on March 22, 2011 by rouli

Well, the title says it all, and this video shows it all, but if you are clamoring for more detail, check out Japanator.com

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Weekly Augmented Reality Linkfest

Posted on March 20, 2011 by rouli

Wow, this is my 400th post. Can’t believe I kept on blogging for so long.

This week’s video is a fantastic demo of Seac02’s Eligo SDK power to track 3d objects and overlay virtual layers on them. This gives the programmer the ability to “X-Ray” a model car:

Augmented reality Xray ARAY from Seac02 srl on Vimeo.

Have a good week!

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