Gonzo-Reality

Posted on July 6, 2010 by thomaskcarpenter

The story Bruce Sterling posted up last week on his Wired blog blew my mind.  It shouldn’t have really.  But I guess I’ve been considering augmented reality and its commercial uses to be official and sanctioned.  This kind of unofficial gonzo-view of reality could go a long way.

First, if you’re too lazy to click the link and check out the article, the leak in your hometown gang have made an augmented reality view that shows the oil leak on your smartphone when you point it at any BP logo, assuming you have the proper layer pulled up.

Mark Skwarek, one of the creators, sent me an email about the project as I was writing up this post.  Here’s some of the progress they’ve made and other places talking about it.

We were featured on WIRED’s Beyond the Beyond. We have an upcoming show at Famous Accountants in Bushwick NY, Aug 7th through Sept 4th. We are showing it at the Bronx Art Space in NYC. We were featured on Turbulence’s Networked_Performance and will present on it at Upgrade! Chicago in September. We were also featured on Eyebeam’s Reblog. And we are in the upcoming Cyberarts.

This project itself seems simple and is quite ingenious.  But why stop at poking fun at the world’s current kick toy?  Pointing your smartphone at random objects and getting an individual person’s POV visual could be quite mind expanding.

An unofficial game of object-association could make great interactive art, political rhetoric, or dystopic reinforcing world-view; depending on its implementation.  Wouldn’t you like to point your smartphone at everyday objects and find out how your favorite artists or celebrities view the world?  Seeing how YoYo Ma, or the Dalai Lama or Bruce Campbell (the guy from the Evil Dead series) view the world could be liberating.  Or since our own Bruce Sterling is the Prophet of AR, one of the AR browsers could do a “Bruce Layer” and show us what kind of world he sees when he’s looking around.

Maybe if Glenn Beck was your thing, you’d have a Nazi symbol pop-up when you pointed it at an Obama sticker.  Or if you were a former Bush-hater, you could see a Stalin-esque version of the W with your smartphone.   Propaganda could be all encompassing, blotting out all but the sanctioned viewpoints.

I’m absolutely certain I wouldn’t want to see what Lady Gaga has in mind for the world.  Well.  I might take a peak for a few minutes.  Just out of curiosity.  Not like I’m a fan or anything.  Just curious.

And maybe that’s what a gonzo-reality could bring to AR.  Instead of a mirror reflecting all of our beliefs into an ever-increasing sine wave, we might be privy to alternate views to our own.  Maybe even trying out how someone else sees the world.

Maybe.

Or maybe we couldn’t handle their viewpoint.  The overstimulating rush would make our realities spin around us until we puked it back out, losing all those alternate nutrients our world views could have used to grow.

Oh well.

It’s a nice little project, anyway.

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Three Reasons Why 3D TV and Movies Will Help Augmented Reality

Posted on May 25, 2010 by thomaskcarpenter

While we augmented reality aficionados would like to believe that AR has hit its stride, the nascent technology is no where near the level of 3D movies and TVs.  This all may change in the future, but for now the 3D movement far outweighs AR.

This isn’t so bad as I believe, and will try to explain, how the change to 3D TVs and movies will help augmented reality:

1) Augmented reality is just 3D unhinged from a screen

The first and most obvious reason is that augmented reality by its nature exists in a three dimensional space (though in its current iteration we often see 2D sprites hovering in the air.)  So products like 3D movies, TVs, and games will help drive interest in bringing an immersive 3D experience like augmented reality to consumers, as opposed to the 3D view within a flat screen that current 3D offers.  Why be stuck with a screen when you can enhance the whole space around you?

Image from Skooal on Flicker – http://www.flickr.com/photos/skooal/322346446/

2) Why not augmented plays?

I’m having a hard time imagining what an augmented reality movie would look like.  It seems extraneous to add that space in the theater to the story telling medium because that space is a part of your life rather than the story in the screen.

Plays on the other hand could benefit greatly from augmented reality.  What 3D is doing for the movies, I could see AR doing for plays.  Theater typically breaks the fourth wall during its performances, letting the audience in the secret or involving them, even if its just through thunderous applause.

So what if every seat had AR glasses (they could be a little bulky for a two hour experience right?) and the players interacted with this 3D immersive medium?  The type of material presented in that format could be wildly expanded and new forms of storytelling could emerge.

(Picture from Armida!)

3) 3D Glasses –> AR Glasses

Let’s be real.  Ten years ago, someone with a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant for those that don’t remember the 90s) was considered pretty nerdy.  Wearing one on your belt was the equivalent of the pocket protector.

Flash forward to 2010 and one of the big concerns for AR glasses is the style.  Does anyone remember the early versions of the Blackberry?  I felt like I was wearing a frisbee on my hip or that I had a side-holster with a six shooter in it.  If it’s functional and not too bulky (i.e. – neck ache) then it’ll be a hit.

The 3D glasses we start buying for our TVs and games will help bridge that fashion gap.  Who cares what you look like when you’re used to wearing them at home in front of the TV?  Just convince Lady Gaga to wear a pair of bulky AR glasses as a fashion statement and Vuzix will be trying to make them bigger (which brings me to the thought that Lady Gaga is probably just dying to get freaky with some AR.)

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