Special Message About ISMAR 2011 – The World’s Premier Event for Augmented Reality Science

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Ori Inbar

ISMAR 2011 is upon us.

…For the exchange of new ideas and presentations of cutting edge work in the field of Mixed and Augmented Reality.

Mark you calendars: October 26-29, 2011 – in Basel, Switzerland.

This is your chance to submit your work in two programs:  The Science & Technology program and a complementary Arts, Media and Humanities program. If you have ideas for demos, positioning papers for workshops, tracking competition, and more – go to  http://www.ismar11.org

This post is dedicated to the call for Demonstration, sent by Sean White:

Proposals due by August 15, 2011

Decisions returned by August 29, 2011

ISMAR 2011 provides a venue for showing Mixed and Augmented Reality demonstrations to the community. The live demonstrations may be related to implementations of techniques presented in the papers, posters or panels, as well as systems not yet presented elsewhere. We encourage a diverse range of submissions and demonstrations from both Science & Technology and Arts, Media, & Humanities tracks. The main selection criteria will be the expected general interest of the demonstration to the Mixed and Augmented Reality community. The Best Demo Award will be presented at the end of the conference.

Submission guidelines

To submit a proposal for a demo, please send an email to ismar11demos@gmail.com with a PDF document containing:

• The title of the proposed demonstration

• The names of the authors

• The name, telephone number and email address of the contact person

• A description of your demo including

• What makes it unique and special?

• Why will it draw a crowd?

• Would an AR expert want to see it and why?

• Keywords

• Information about the demonstration space

• The amount of floor or desktop space needed (length, width, height in meters)

• The list of equipment you will bring (be as detailed as you can be)

• Any power, socket and outlet needs

• Networking requirements (ethernet, wifi, non-HTTP)

• Any environment requirements (Does this demonstration require a dark environment? Does it produce or is sensitive to a large amount of noise or light? Etc.)

• Optional: URL of your demo video (Video in QuickTime, MPEG, or Windows Media Viewer not to exceed 50MB is recommended. Please do NOT send your video by email.)

After sending email, you should get a notification that your email has been received.

***

– Sent on behalf of ISMAR 2011 demo co-chairs,

Sean White, Daniel Wagner, and Andreas Simon

 

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GDC 2009 Roundup: a (tiny) spark of augmented reality

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Ori Inbar

The dust over GDC 2009 has settled a while ago and finally I got to reflect on the AR experience at the show.  Guess which headline would summarize it best:

a) augmented reality was the talk of the show

b) the expo floor was swarming with AR demos

c) AR games snatched lucrative game awards

d) none of the above

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A friend in San Francisco wearing retro AR goggles

Unfortunately (d) is the right answer.

But – and it’s a big ‘but’ – the ignition spark was there. The seed was planted. The first shot of the revolution was fired.

(OK, maybe the last metaphor went too far.)

Here are 5 triggers I identified that ignited the spark:

1) Blair

The first GDC augmented reality talk – ever: Blair MacIntyre covered the latest and greatest about mobile augmented reality in front of a packed room of game developers. Awesome.

2) Demos

Was it the first time AR demos (and more demos) were presented at a major Game Developer Conference ?

Not sure – but it certainly was my first…

3)  Mentions in talks

Was Blair’s AR talk an isolated case?

Perhaps as a main topic it was. However, for the first time, I heard significant mentions of AR in multiple other talks. Check them out:

A talk about pervasive gaming. I liked the title: “Beyond the Screen: Principles of Pervasive Game” by the folks from Pervasive Games. The played with the concept in which the whole world is the playground.  These games, are founded in the belief that doing things for real is pleasurable. Games that harness reality as a source book have interesting dynamics.  Everything in reality matters to the game, the game play emerges from coincidence, and real and artificial blur.

Jane McGonigal fantastic talk “Learning to Make Your Own Reality: How to Develop Games that Re-invent Life As We Know It” introduced a concept she calls programmable reality. Augmented reality is among the key technologies to enable that idea.

Camera Based Gaming: The Next Generation by Diarmid Campbell attracted the attention of a room packed with game developers. He talked about Sony’s upcoming camera games for the PlayStation 3 such as Eye Pet. Armed with the EyeToy camera, these games will have the power to extract amusing gestures from players. Not quite AR – but sure smells like it.

Stretching Beyond entertainment – AR made a surprise appearance in a high profile panel discussion feturing some of the gods of the gaming industry: (from right) Ed Fries , Lorne Lanning,Bing Gordon,Will Wright, and Peter Molyneux.
The best quote award went to Ed Fries for saying: “We need to take game mechanics and apply them to the real world”.

dsc03394

4) Meet ups

Dinners, lunches, business meetups, brainstorming sessions – haven’t had that many meetings with AR enthusiasts since ISMAR 2008…

5) The iPhone

When it comes to bringing AR to the masses – the iPhone is a category on its own . And it doesn’t even know it yet…why the iPhone changed everything

-*-*-

Will we ever get to see answers a, b, or c become a real headline?

Most likely in the next few years, if you ask me.

A (tiny) spark was ignited.

Filed under: AR Events, AR Games, AR Tracking, AR User Experience | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments »

Can The New Nintendo DSi Augment Your Reality?

Posted on November 11, 2008 by Ori Inbar

The Nintendo DSi, now with camera, went on sale in Japan on November 1st; next year in the rest of the world.

We were excited when it was announced in September, and thought it could energize the augmented reality games scene. So, here it is, not just with one camera – but two!

Eurogames shares their hands on experience with the newcomer. If you have a fetish for unboxing new products, get your fix with 1Up.

Aaah, but here’s the rub: the cameras boast a mere 0.3 MP each…

Nintendo’s strategy of taking advantage of inexpensive technology and creating new and compelling game experiences has been wildly successful in the past with the DS and the Wii.

Will developers’ ingenuity be able to beat the DSi constraints (cpu power, resolution) and make it play cool AR games?

Still remains to be seen. Until then, take a look at this basic augmented reality software loaded on the DSi:

  • change the color of your shirt – virtually – with the touch of a stylus
  • face recognition that makes you look happy, angry or sad,
  • or if you are more into felines, why not grow cat-ears-and-whiskers?

Filed under: AR Devices | Tagged: , , , | 5 Comments »

Total Immersion Is Open to Seduce You with Augmented Reality

Posted on September 20, 2008 by Ori Inbar

Bruno Uzzan from Total Immersion sent me this invitation and I thought you might be interested as well.

He is inviting you, augmented reality avid fans, to visit their new offices and have a treat: try some cool augmented reality installations such as transforming yourself to the Joker, or to a hip-hopping break dancer, virtually drive a luxury sedan, hold a beating heart, and he promises even more…

Whether you go or not – you will probably enjoy this clip…

WHEN: September 26th, 2008 from 3-7pm

WHERE: 900 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 255 Los Angeles, CA 90036

WHO:  Media & Event Planners, Brand & PR Strategists, Creative, Marketing & Industry Professionals

RSVP TO: RSVP@t-immersion.com by September 19th, 2008

For more information, please contact Kris Woods at 323.617.4843

If you happen to stop by – tell Bruno I invited you, and ask him how come he missed ISMAR ’08…

Filed under: AR Demos, AR Events | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »