Weekly Linkfest

Oh my, what an interesting week for augmented reality, especially in the business front:

This week’s video features a cool street art by SWEZA named QRadio. Graffiti boom-boxes around Berlin start to play music when the QR code drawn on them is scanned.  Via Wooster Collective.

Have a great week!

Weekly Augmented Reality Linkfest

It’s time again for the weekly linkfest, a collection of augmented reality news stories that I didn’t find the time to blog about during the past week:

This week’s video comes to us from Nokia Research, showing their indoor navigation solution. Coming from Nokia Research, one of the first bodies to look into mobile AR, this should be considered as no more than a teaser. It’s very cool and alluring with its 30cm accuracy, and its “where I put my keys” functionality, but not likely to be adopted anytime soon. Five years from now, Apple/Google will probably come with inferior solution which will be hugely successful. You can read more about the technology on GSM Arena.

Have a great week!

Weekly Consumer Linkfest Show

We have got plenty of augmented reality links this week, so enjoy the show:

Here’s yet another amazing AR project utilizing the power of Kinect’s sensor. Tobias Blum and Prof. Nassir Navab of TU Munich used a Kinect to overlay CT data on a person in real time, transforming a big screen into a magic mirror. It’s also a good party trick for Halloween. More info here.

Have an excellent week!

Weekly Linkfest

I’m back! (but not for long, following the augmented reality event I’ll be mostly offline for three weeks). Speaking of augmented reality events, this week’s linkfest is full of talks from other events that took place recently:

This week’s video demonstrates cooking with AR, a video showcasing some of Yoo Kyoung Noh’s concepts presented in her Object 2.0 project – a concept proposal for the system of the near future, where the Internet is integrated into physical objects and spaces. Via Beyond The Beyond:

Have a great week!

NAB 2010 Show Sets Super Augmented Reality Session

I haven’t done many press releases as of late, but this one caught my eye due to the various partners involved–“Key Figures from Nokia Research Center, Total Immersion, Walt Disney Imagineering & More To Discuss Cutting-Edge Blend of Reality and Computer Generated Content.”

*** press release ***

WASHINGTON – The NAB Show, the annual conference and expo for professionals who create, manage and distribute entertainment across all platforms, has announced the participants in a Super Session titled “Augmented Reality: Entertainment Meets Ubiquitous Computing.” Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging form of experience in which the real world is enhanced by computer-generated content specific to a location and to an activity. The 2010 NAB Show takes place April 10-15, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The panel will feature industry pioneers Rebecca Allen, director, Nokia Research Center; Gene Becker, managing director, Lightning Laboratories; Chetan Damani, founder and CEO, acrossair; Joe Garlington, creative vice president, interactive projects, Walt Disney Imagineering; and Bruno Uzzan, CEO and co-founder, Total Immersion. They will examine how augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and alternate reality games (ARG) provide new forms of entertainment and new ways of transmitting information by dissolving the boundaries between the real and the virtual.

New Amsterdam Media principal Seth Shapiro will serve as moderator. The session is produced in association with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation and takes place Monday, April 12 at 2:30 pm.

“Augmented reality is a concept that is beginning to change media, entertainment and marketing in tangible, exciting ways,” said Chris Brown, executive vice president, conventions & business operations for NAB Show. “We are very excited that this group of leaders in the space will be at NAB Show to share their groundbreaking work and insight into what’s next for content.”

Rebecca Allen is director of Nokia Research Center Hollywood and Nokia Research Center Cambridge, US. Allen previously directed the Emergence Project at UCLA, an Intel funded research effort involving artificial life, 3D virtual environments, augmented reality and unique interfaces. She was also creative director/executive producer and 3D visionary at Virgin Interactive Entertainment and a member of the world-renowned NYIT Computer Graphics Laboratory and MIT’s Architecture Machine Group.

Gene Becker is managing director of Lightning Laboratories, a professional services company focusing on strategy and action for the connected world of ubiquitous computing, augmented reality, social media and the Internet of things. Previously, Becker was a technical director at Hewlett-Packard, where he led advanced research and business development for Cooltown, a web-based platform for mobile and ubiquitous computing.

Chetan Demani is founder and CEO of acrossair, a company dedicated to building advanced iPhone games and augmented reality applications using the OpenGL library. Previously, Demani launched several successful companies in the internet space, including Imano, a full service interactive agency with clients such as Nestlé, Citibank and Hotels.com.

Joe Garlington is responsible for the creative development of all interactive attractions for Disney theme parks around the world. Garlington has overseen the creation and development of numerous interactive attractions, including “DisneyQuest,” an indoor interactive theme park that debuted in 1998 at Walt Disney World; “Turtle Talk with Crush”; “Stitch Encounter”; “Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor”; the new post show for “Spaceship Earth”; and many more.

As CEO and co-founder, Bruno Uzzan in the driving force behind the growth of Total Immersion, the global leader in augmented reality and a pioneer in commercializing the technology. Based in Paris, Total Immersion maintains a presence in Los Angeles, London and Hong Kong, and has an impressive client roster that includes Mattel, McDonalds, Disney, Coca-Cola, Nike, Twentieth Century Fox and Nissan Motors.

Two-time Emmy® winner Seth Shapiro is a leader in the profitable application of new technology to emerging business models. He has managed digital media initiatives with Walt Disney Company, DIRECTV, Comcast, TiVo, Time Warner Cable, Showtime, HBO, STARZ, and many others, including a variety of startups, venture and private equity partners. Shapiro is principal of New Amsterdam Media, a partner at the Opportunity Management Company, and co-founder of Media Valuation Partners, a leading firm specializing in the economics of media, entertainment and emerging technologies.

About the 2010 NAB Show

The NAB Show will take place 10-15 April 2010 in Las Vegas (exhibits open 12 April). It is the world’s largest electronic media show covering filmed entertainment and the development, management and delivery of content across all mediums. Complete details are available at http://www.nabshow.com.

News media registration is now available online. Click here to register as press for the NAB Show.

About NAB

The National Association of Broadcasters is the premier advocacy association for America’s broadcasters. NAB advances radio and television interests in legislative, regulatory and public affairs. Through advocacy, education and innovation, NAB enables broadcasters to best serve their communities, strengthen their businesses and seize new opportunities in the digital age. Learn more at http://www.nab.org.

Augmented Reality at the Mobile World Congress

Next week, February 15-18th, will be the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.  There will be a variety of AR related events during the MWC.

AR Showcase

Christine Perey has organized an AR Showcase on Wednesday, February 17th from 5:00-7:00, so AR companies can demonstrate their services and products to customers.  Designers will also have a chance to compare and contrast their products versus the competition.  The following companies have confirmed their attendance:

You can find the Showcase in the northeast corner of the courtyard.  Announcements for the AR showcase can be tweeted to #arshow (changed for length.)

The Mobile AR Summit is an invitation only event.  If you’re interested in joining, please contact Christine Perey at cperey@perey.com.    More information can be found here.

Other Related Events

Navteq Challenge
Sunday, 14.2.2010
Poble Espanyol, City Hall.
Wikitude Drive is an Augmented Reality navigation system. They are one of the 10 finalists at this years Navteq Challenge.

http://www.nn4d.com/site/global/market/lbs_challenge/about/emea/home/p_home.jsp
Mobile Premier Award in Innovation
Monday, 15.2., 2010 15:00 to 20:00
Petit Palau of Palau de la Musica
Mobilizy is with Wikitude one of the 20 finalists of the “Mobile Premier Award in Innovation”.
http://www.mobilepremierawards.com/
Martin Lechner, CTO Mobilizy, will present.

AR Summit

Wednesday, 17.2. 13:00 to 19:00
Location: to be announced.
Mobilizy CTO Martin Lechner presents a position paper “ARML an Augmented Reality Standard”. ARML is currently being reviewed by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). At 17:00 there will be a Wikitude Showcase presentation.

We won’t be able to attend – so if you’re there – keep us updated about your experience.


Who Should Attend The Augmented Reality Event in Santa Clara, CA June 2nd & 3rd, 2010

Over the last 2 years we have seen growing interest in Augmented Reality in various events – panels, dev camps, meetups – and many more. Due to growing demand for knowledge and expertise in augmented reality (AR), a group of AR industry insiders, backed by the AR Consortium have put together the first commercial event dedicated to advance the business of augmented reality.

How is are2010 different from ISMAR…

…previously touted here as the “World’s best Augmented Reality event”?

Well, ISMAR is still the best AR event for the scientific community. If you want to learn about (or present) the latest advancements in AR research – you should be in Seoul this October for ISMAR 2010. However, for the rest of us, who wish to take advantage of AR in practice, in the commercial world, and build a business around it – there was a gaping hole.

That is, until now.

Meet the Augmented Reality Event.

Who’s this event for?

For established and start up AR companies –

For established and start up AR companies (such as Total Immersion, Metaio, Acrossair, Ogmento, Circ.us, Mobilizy, Layar, Zugara, Neogence, whurleyvision, Chaotic Moon Studios, and many more) – are2010 is a stage to showcase their products and services; a venue to form partnerships, learn about latest innovations, and most importantly speak with clients. Bruno Uzzan, CEO of Total Immersion will wow the audience with a cutting edge augmented reality show; Peter Meier, CTO of Metaio, will speak about his companies latest products. Early stage startups and individual developers will receive guidance from Cole Van Nice (Chart Venture Partners) for how to build a successful company in the AR space, including raising funding (from VCs that actually invest in AR), licensing technology and IP, legal aspects, forging partnerships, etc. Christine Perey will speak about the scope of the mobile AR industry today and it’s growth trajectory.

For Developers –

For developers, are2010 is a window into the latest AR algorithms, engines and programming tools. Learn from case studies and post mortems delivered by experienced developers from the leading companies in the space. Blair MacIntyre, director of the GVU Center’s Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech, will speak about his experience with tools and technologies while developing augmented reality games. Daniel Wagner, one of the leading mobile AR researchers in the world, will bring developers into the wonderful world of mobile AR. Patrick O’Shaughnessey, which has lead the development of more webcam-based AR campaigns than anyone else I know – will share his knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. Mike Liebhold, Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for the Future , will speak about Technology foundations of an Open ARweb. Gene Becker, co-founder of AR DevCamp, will dive into augmented reality and ubiquitous computing, and Sean White, a pioneer in Green Tech AR will suggest concrete examples of how AR can help save the planet

For Mobile, Hardware, and Platform Companies

For Mobile, Hardware, and Platform companies (such as Vuzix, Nokia, Qualcomm, Intel, QderoPateo, Microsoft, Google, Apple etc.) are2010 consists of a captive audience to launch and showcase their latest devices, processors, AR glasses, sensors, etc. The best collective minds of the AR commercial world will be onsite to articulate the market demand characteristics and help influence the design of future hardware.

For Clients and Agencies –

For clients and agencies in entertainment, media, publishing, education, healthcare, government, tourism, and many more – are2010 offers everything you need to know about AR: how to leverage augmented reality to advance your brand, attract and keep your customers, and how to build successful campaigns and products that will delight users, including postmortems of landmark augmented reality projects.

Jarrell Pair, CTO and a founder of LP33.tv, will speak about “Augmented Reality in Music Entertainment: Then and Now”, Brian Selzer, co-founder and President of Ogmento, will deliver a crash course for clients and agencies about how to leverage AR in marketing campaigns. Marshal Kirkpatrick, lead blogger for ReadWriteWeb, will share the results of his AR survey collecting feedback from dozens of AR developers and their experience in delivering AR campaigns and apps. Kent Demain, designer of the visual effects in Minority Report, will open our minds with the talk: “Taking Hollywood visual effects spectacle out of the theatre and into your world”. And of course…

For any AR Enthusiast –

Are you an AR Enthusiast? If so, you’re going to feel like a kid in a candy store at ARE, with a soon-to-be unforgettable keynote by Bruce Sterling, demo gallery, exhibitors from leading companies, artists installations from AR artists such as Eric Gradman and Helen Papagiannis, and many more surprises.

If you are into Augmented Reality – are2010 is the one event you should attend this year.

Want to join the event? Early registration is now open!

Weekly Linkfest

Oh, there’s just too much to write about this week.
In the mobile AR front:

  • Nokia’s researcher Kari Pulli gave a talk last week at the SDForum about Nokia’s take on mobile augmented reality (slides). In a nutshell, it should be based on image recognition and accessed using HMD. And here are some more details from the Nokia World event that took part this week.
  • buUuk is an AR browser-like application for Asia, Australia and the middle east. [via DMFO]
  • Discover Anywhere Mobile is a Canadian company set to provide AR application to help you ride North American public transit.
  • While Presselite which brought us Metro Paris has an application for Tokyo that looks much the same.
  • And GeoVector, one of the veteran players in the AR industry is going to release an application for Android named WorldSurfer. They accidently published a post about it in their corporate blog (dated for next week) and then deleted it. Luckily, there’s Google Cache.

In the world of novelty AR advertisement:

  • You can check whether the new Samsung LED television fits your living room (which is actually a bit handy).
  • ABC promotes their new thriller FlashForward.
  • I’m not into baseball, so there’s something about a Rawlings golden glove over here.
  • You can’t escape augmented reality even if you live in Vietnam, thanks to Coca Cola.

In other news:

This week’s video comes from Vodafone, which had a lightly augmented version of the game of tag in the Netherlands for the launch of the HTC magic. More details can be found here.

Have a nice week!

Your Favorite Augmented Reality Games Of All Time

Our inaugural post from early 2008: “Top 10 AR demos that will…” sparked huge interest. Since then, we have witnessed loads of AR games swarming the market.

Well, that may be an exaggeration – but the industry has certainly transitioned from delivering mere demos to actual games; from proof of concepts to commercial products; from “Yay” to “W00t!”

We have covered these AR games before, but Today is your chance to choose.

Vote for your all time favorite augmented reality games!

Our only rules for nomination:

1) It’s a fun game

2) It registers computer graphics on reality

3) It runs on commercial off the shelf hardware.


Here are the 18 nominees in chronological order (when first surfaced on the web):

go!

1. The Invisible Train

2004 – Graz University (PDA, Gizmondo)

2. Catapult

March 2006 – Gizmondo (Gizmondo)

3. Eye of Judgment

May 2006 – Sony (Sony EyeToy)

4. AR Tennis

June 2006 – Fanta/HIT Lab NZ (Nokia)

5. WizQubes

March 2007 – MXR

6. Level Head

October 2007 – Julian Oliver (webcam)

7. ARis

July 2008 – Geisha Entertainment (Webcam)

8. Kweekies

October 2008 – Int13 (Nokia, iPhone)

9. Ghostwire

October 2008 – A Different Game (Nintendo DSi, Nokia)

10. Tower of Defense

December 2008 – Sergey Ten

11. Topps

March 2009 – Total Immersion (Webcam)

12. Scope

March 2009 – Frantz Lasorne (Goggles)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

13. Do the Dip

April 2009 – MacDonald’s (webcam)

14. ARhrrrr!

May 2009 – GA Tech and SCAD-Atlanta (Nvidia Tegra)

15. Candy Wars

May 2009 – GA Tech and SCAD-Atlanta (Gizmondo)

16. Art of Defense

May 2009 – GA Tech (Nokia)

17. RubberDuckzilla

May 2009 – Oasis (webcam)

18. InVizimals

June 2009 – Sony (PSP)

-*-*-*

Which are your favorites?

Share with your friends and find out their favorites!
(share button at top right of page)

The winners will receive the lucrative –

“Games Alfresco Hall of Fame Award”

Weekly Linkfest

This week seemed to be all about Layar. The blogosphere and major tech sites were all reporting about the “first augmented reality browser” (and we had our fare share in the coverage as well). However, there were some other AR releated news this week, even though the first item on this week’s linkfest is still about Layar:

Happy Father’s day! If you live in the united states and forgot to get something special for your father, don’t worry, you can still make him an augmented greeting card, thanks to internet developement agenct Mangrove:

Have a good father’s day, and a great week!