The movie Minority Report is often cited as an example and an inspiration for augmented reality. The Microsoft Kinect is bringing that movie magic to the living room.
It uses the Kinect sensor from Microsoft, and the recently released libfreenect driver for interfacing with the Kinect in linux. The graphical interface and the hand detection software were written at MIT to interface with the open source robotics package ‘ROS’, developed by Willow Garage (willowgarage.com). The hand detection software showcases the abilities of the Point Cloud Library (PCL), a part of ROS that MIT has been helping to optimize. The hand detection software is able to distinguish hands and fingers in a cloud of more than 60,000 points at 30 frames per second, allowing natural, real time interaction.
Movies have used special visual effects to augment reality in cinema since George Melies did it first in 1899.
George was a French magician who took advantage of an emerging new technology – moving images – to invent a totally new experience in theaters.
Today we are on the verge of experiencing “special effects” in our field of view anywhere we go (see demos) thanks to emerging augmented reality technologies.
Walking backwards from 1907 to 2008, here are 9 movies to inspire your next augmented reality experience.
This underrated sci-fi movie introduced bad acting and a classic AR story: a homeless drifter stumbles upon a pair of sunglasses through which you can see the world for what it really is. He can uncover the communist aliens that control the world.
3) 1988 – Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The first movie to mix the real and the loony. Bob Hoskins has never been seen drooling like that, not even in Super Mario Bros.
4) 1996 – Space Jam
A second attempt to mix the real and the loony, this time with a stretching Michael Jordan.
5) 2002 – Minority Report
User interface for navigating vast amounts of data that span time and places.
6) 2003 – Terminator 3
Get real time data about people you meet. A very useful application when you’re looking to borrow cloths that fit. Here is the Girl’s Night version from the third installment.
7) 2003 – Pirates of the Caribbean – the Curse of the Black Pearl
Watch minute 0:30 to 0:50 for a spooky AR effect I’d like to try someday.
This one is real reality and took tremendous effort. An incredible inspiration to overlay the world with art (which could be made easier with AR).
9) 2008 – Iron Man
Augmented Reality for (very) rapid prototyping, now for bringing peace to earth.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Arthur C. Clark famously said “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” which brings us back to the magic of George Melies.
Which movies inspire you to create new augmented reality experiences?
*** Update: Reader contributions ***
10) 2006 Stranger than Fiction
From Robert Rice: How an augmented life of a person obsessed with numbers might look like
11) Denno Coil
From Jonas Hielscher: Animated, but visionary take on a world with pervasive augmented reality
12) Fight Club
My son reminded me of this “virtual furnishing your apartment” scene in this brilliant anti consumerism movie
Games Alfresco 