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:
Anybody feels like sponsoring an AR blogger trip to an AR event?
There were plenty of interesting AR links to share this week, but only seven won a place in this week’s linkfest:
If you are celebrating either Passover or April fools day – the augmented matza is for you.
And since they requested me so nicely, I have to mention Seac02’s “LinceoVR for all” plan – you can now use LinceoVR for as low as 25 euro per year. (they don’t pay me for this plug, but they should!).
This week’s quote comes from that talk with Paige Sez:
As we’ve talked about it before, it’s amazing that marketing and advertising are helping push forward AR, and it’s great. It’s fantastic. But it’s also the worst possible thing that could ever happen because it is such a singular way of looking at an overall ubiquitous computing experience. There are other ways.
And as promised, this week’s video is a demo of LookTel, it looks fantastic, and shows that there are some things that an old Windows phone still does better than a new shiny iPhone (well, at least till June):
In January, flying Augmented Reality Drones stole the show at the Consumer Electronics Show: a quadricopter controlled with an iPhone, that unleashes augmented reality games. What a knock out.
Now it’s time for the land-based vehicles to show what they’ve made of.
Seac02 just published an SDK for developing augmented reality games for the WowWee Rovio.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
The PC-based software (dubbed LinceoVR ) not only allows you to control the mobile-webcam Rovio , but can also recognize markers dropped in the perimeter, and overlay on top animated 3d models of enemy robots, weapons of augmented destruction, and more.
In fact, Andrea Carignano’s (Seac02 CEO) big idea is to empower young (and young at heart) out there to create their own augmented reality games.
Andrea explains:
“The Rovio is quite popular with several thousands of customers and a strong following among the tech community worldwide. This one of the reason we have chosen Rovio; the second reason is that you can use it even in an apartment or a really small room.
The LinceoVR (AR enabling) software will be available next week for €25 and the SDK will ship in 2 months and allow any user to create her own new simple game, share on the internet, launch in a browser, start the plugin and control the drone from anywhere in the world. Nice.
When it comes to using augmented reality for marketing purposes, nothing beats those magic mirror applications. After all, trying on a product, even virtually, goes a long way towards selling it (and surely it’s better than those novelty AR gimmicks).
One of the first and still most famous commercial applications of this kind was Ray-Ban’s virtual mirror that enabled web surfers to check out how would they look with different sunglasses. The company behind the technology, FittingBox, has recently licensed the technology to British online glasses retailer Glasses Direct. Taming face detection algorithms, FittingBox can place a pair of glasses on you with an admirable accuracy. And it doesn’t end with Ray-Ban and Glasses Direct. Vogue Eyewear also uses that technology and FittingBox is the owner of YouAreTheModel.com, where you can try on many other brands. Here’s a short video showcasing the technology:
While FittingBox is somewhat a niche company specializing in virtual eyeglasses, Seac02 develops many AR applications (and I really need to cover some of them, sometime). Their Eligo engine simplifies the creation of magic mirrors application at point of sales. Seen here is HairArt, an application developed by Seac02 Asian distributor Hanoul Neotech, that lets the user try on wigs. Yes, we have seen such applications before, but it’s always good to see another one:
Another application of this technology is this next magic mirror that lets you try on and even choose some tailor made shoes. This one still needs a marker to work out, but according to Seac02 they will be releasing a version in July that waives this requirement and detects your feet automatically.
Games Alfresco 