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Mixed reality comes to your iPhone thanks to the Bridge headset
There's something more than a little magical about seeing the world in front of you being devastated by dragons or augmented with arrows pointing you to your next meeting. Alas, while mixing realities like that with our smartphones is already possible, the tech still is a long way off from reaching its potential — just look at early, disappointing efforts like Lenovo's enormous Tango phone. Luckily, startups are chasing the mixed reality dream too, including one — Occipital — that has a solid track record of solving the tricky problems that pop up when blurring boundaries between worlds. That's why the team's new mixed reality, the Bridge, seems so impressive right out of the gate.
Occipital's Structure Sensor clamps onto your iPad for 3D scanning on-the-go
With the explosion of desktop 3D printers, there seems little doubt that the next big land grab is the world of 3D scanning. Microsoft's Kinect has taken us a few steps closer to mainstreaming the technology, and MakerBot's soon-to-launch Digitizer is no doubt likely to capture the imagination of much of that community. Kickstarter, naturally, is also littered with smaller companies looking for a piece of that action. Among them, Occipital's Structure Sensor certainly has potential. The company's looking at a lofty $100,000 goal to bring its mobile scanner to market by year's end. The device clips on to a tablet via a bracket, letting you scan objects, create 3D maps of indoor spaces and the like. All said, it's a pretty nice looking bit of hardware. Of course, we can't really vouch for ease of use or effectiveness. If you're willing to take the risk, however, a $349 pledge entitles you to the hardware, an iPad bracket and a Lightning cable.
TUAW Best of 2011: 360 Panorama and iMovie
The votes are tallied for the best iPhone photography and video apps, and the winners have been named. 360 Panorama from Occipital pulled in over a third of the votes (36.8 percent) for take the Best iPhone Photography App award for 2011, while Apple's iMovie grabbed the title for Best iPhone Video App of 2011 with 48.4 percent of reader votes. 360 Panorama (US$0.99) uses the gyroscope in your iPhone (also works with iPad and iPod touch) to stitch together panoramas in real time. Panoramas are GPS tagged and can be tweeted, posted on Facebook, or emailed, and share online. I personally use the app when I'm on vacations so when I get home I can enjoy the immersive experience of moving my iPhone or iPad around to view a stunning panorama. It's not surprising that Apple's iMovie ($4.99) app grabbed the top spot in the video category. It is totally magical to shoot 1080p video on an iPhone and then add a theme, titles, and transitions to raw video to create a digital masterpiece. Our congratulations go out to the teams at Occipital and Apple for their stellar work on these apps, and many thanks to the TUAW readers who nominated and voted for these apps in the TUAW Best of 2011.
360 Panorama app now available for Android users, no gyroscope necessary (video)
Looking to capture panoramic photos on an Android handset? Well, you've certainly got plenty of options -- including, as of today, Occipital's 360 Panorama, which just hit the Android Market. Compatible with devices running Android 2.3 or above (with the exception of Honeycomb), the app offers much of the same functionality you'll find on the previously released iOS version. Just tap a button, pan your handset across any given area and watch your photo come to fruition before your very eyes. The tool also allows exposure to fluctuate as a user pans his or her device, thereby creating the potential for HDR panoramic shots during transitions from dark to bright areas. Interestingly enough, this version relies not upon an actual gyroscope, but a "simulated" one, created from motion-tracking algorithms (that's how it works on older 3GS handsets, as well). Users who already have a 360 Panorama account can still use it on their Android handsets, allowing them to upload and store all their photos in one place. Eventually, this storage system will allow for syncing across both iOS and Android hemispheres, though at the moment, it's a strictly web-based affair. Pan past the break for a brief demo video, or check out some sample shots in the gallery, below. %Gallery-140050%
Occipital announces investment, new hires
Occipital, the company behind the popular iPhone and iPad app 360 Panorama, announced on Wednesday that it received US$7 million in venture funding. 360 Panorama lets you take panorama pictures by shooting a series of pictures at one and stitching them on the phone before saving them to your camera roll. Besides a healthy infusion of cash, Occipital is also expanding beyond its iOS application to create a computer vision platform that other developers can use. Occipital will create the backbone and developers will use their creative skills to produce innovative apps with advanced imaging and camera features like eye tracking. Occipital has also added four new members to its board of directors including Jason Mendelson and Brad Feld of a venture capital firm Foundry Group, Manu Kumar of venture capital firm K9 Ventures and Gary Bradski, the creator of OpenCV, an open source computer vision library.
360 Panorama brings sharing, simplicity to iPhone pano photos
We first looked at 360 Panorama back in July when it debuted against other panoramic photo apps, including Boinx's You Gotta See This and Debacle Software's Pano. On sale now for just US$0.99 (regular price $2.99), Occipital's panorama application has been updated to add what developer Jeff Powers calls "streetview sharing." This new sharing feature (a "hosted immersive viewing experience") allows you to upload your panoramas and access them from any web browser, whether that browser supports Flash or not. When viewed, you can flick and drag to see the panorama from any angle. Follow through the "read more" link to view a sample embedded panorama that I created at a local cemetery, which showcases the hosted interaction. You can easily share your panoramic creations with family, friends, colleagues and clients. All they need is a browser.
