Three Augmented Reality Demos at SIGGRAPH 2010

Posted on July 30, 2010 by rouli

Earlier this week I reported about an interesting paper accepted to this year’s SIGGRAPH conference, studying how augmented reality makes cookies taste better. However, it’s far from being the only appearance of AR in SIGGRAPH. Following are three more AR demos that took the stage during the conference:

Camera-less Smart Laser Projector
Using a laser beam both for scanning and projecting images, researchers from the University of Tokyo (where the cookies paper also comes from) gained several advantages over the usual projector+camera setup. Mainly, they eliminated the need to calibrate between the camera and projector, and gained the ability to scan 3d objects without stereoscopic cameras.

Camera-less Smart Laser Projector. Cassinelli, Zerroug, Ishikawa, Angesleva. SIGGRAPH 2010

QR-Code Calibration for Mobile Augmented Reality
This work by researchers of Kyushu University uses QR codes in order to fix the user position in the world. It shows you the problem with academic conferences. By the time your papers gets published, some company may already deploy similar technology in the real world, as Metaio did with Junaio.

QR-code calibration for mobile augmented reality applications: linking a unique physical location to the digital world. Nikolaos, Kiyoshi. SIGGRAPH 2010.

Canon brings to life dinosaurs
Not only researchers come to SIGGRAPH, but companies as well. Canon demoed head mounted assisted mixed reality in their booth, featuring a cute velociratpor like dino (lacking feathers, they should get some new biology books). Jump to the 25th second to see it in action:

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Nothing Like the Smell of a Freshly Augmented Cookie

Posted on July 26, 2010 by rouli

SIGGRAPH, the world’s most important conference on computer graphics and a pixel-fetishist wonderland is being held this week in Los Angeles, featuring several interesting papers on augmented reality. One of them explores the augmentation of cookies.

Yes, we have all seen cookies marked with augmented reality markers. Games Alfresco has mentioned such cookies back in 2008. So how come such a paper got accepted into SIGGRAPH? Well, the simple answer is that you’ve haven’t seen (or rather tasted) such cookies before.

Created by researchers at the University of Tokyo, Meta Cookie combines together a head up visual display and head up olfactory display to trick your senses. I’m not quite sure what was the goal of that research, but were successful in changing how the cookie tasted. Probably some smart marketer will find a way to sell it as a weight loss device. You just need a way to print a marker on broccoli to make it tastes (and look like) ice cream (with a crunchy texture).

Meta Cookie. Narumi, Kajinami, Tanikawa, Hirose. SIGGRAPH 2010.
image via BusinessWire

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Head Mounted Display Fetishism

Posted on December 19, 2009 by rouli

Take a nice girl. Make her don various head mounted displays. There, you’ve just invented a new fetish. Did I say the girl speaks only Japanese?

Filmed at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 that ended today, the video below shows various AR and VR applications using head mounted displays. The reporter from ASCII magazine slays virtual samurai warriors in a game named Kaidan by Ritsumeikan University, draws with virtual ink on plates and plays with Franz Lasorne‘s war game.

Head to ASCII to see all five videos it has taken at SIGGRAPH, including weird gadgets, augmented t-shirts (by Julien Pilet), a Micheal Jackson dance room and two more head mounted displays (one with cameras placed on your hands). Via Development Memo For Ourselves.

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