augmentedreality
Latest
Inhabitat's Week in Green: high speed rail, augmented reality, and body broadband
The Week in Green is a new item from our friends at Inhabitat, recapping the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us. It was a monumental week for efficient transportation as China unveiled plans to connect its high speed rail network all the way to Europe. We were also excited to see Solar Roadways unveil the first prototype of an energy-generating road that stands to transform our freeways into power conduits. Meanwhile, one 74 year old man is going solo and blazing his own trail across the states aboard a solar powered stroller. Inhabitat also showcased several amazing feats of architecture this week. One of the world's first skyscrapers with built-in wind turbines is rising above London, while designer Enrico Dini has created a gigantic 3D printer that is able to create entire buildings out of stone. Finally, we explored all sorts of ways that people are getting wired - literally. Students at the University of Washington are working on a set of solar-powered augmented reality contact lenses that may just bring terminator vision to the masses, while Spanish scientists are working on nanochips that can be that can be implanted into human body cells to detect diseases earlier. And in case you haven't heard, "me-fi" is the new WiFi as researches have discovered a way to transmit 10mbps broadband data through a human arm.
Nokia hints at augmented reality Maps and 3D smartphones in its future (video)
You know what happens when we see a video pop on Nokia Conversations (Nokia's official blog) featuring a senior VP from Nokia's smartphone division? Everything stops -- who knows what might be revealed during an informal, semi-scripted chat. When asked about Nokia's future smartphone technologies and experiences, Jo Harlow, SVP of Smartphones dives right into a discussion of augmented reality as a means to enhance existing Nokia services like the Ovi Maps experience. She then shifts to an entertainment perspective since "everyone's talking about 3D." As she sees it, there's an opportunity for mobile to be earlier to 3D than typical television development to mobile. That means content, specifically 3D games, which Jo says "could be very, very interesting in terms of enhancing that experience." One can only imagine that what interests Nokia's Senior VP of smartphones will ultimately interest manufacturers on the way to retail. And it's not like Nokia's been shy with its 3D prototypes in the past. Watch the discussion unfold in the video after the break.
Hands-on with TAT's dual-screen phone concept and augmented reality app
What, you thought Home was the only project in the pipeline for these guys? The mobile UI experts at Sweden's TAT are in the house at MWC this week showing off a couple other nifty developments that are keeping them busy these days: a dual-screen UI concept utilizing TI's next-gen hardware, and an app that makes good on a concept it had demoed before. First up, they've been using a TI Blaze to demonstrate their vision of a phone with two displays, likely in a slider configuration (in fact, they showed a Droid to represent how they think the form factor could work) with a screen where you'd normally expect they physical QWERTY keyboard to be. It's slick and wicked smooth on the brutally powerful OMAP4 core, but realistically, this is something unusual enough so that we'd need to play with a unit for a good, long while before drawing any usability conclusions. TAT believes we could see devices with this kind of setup by years' end, but we don't know what carriers, manufacturer, or time frames would be involved at this point. Next up, Recognizr is the realization of the Augmented ID concept it showed off last year that lets you tag your face (it sounds weird, but it's quite literally true) with icons representing services that you use, each of which exposes information about you that you want others to know; then, other users with the system can put you in their viewfinder and see the same icons. It's not flawless -- in fact, TAT readily admits that they probably need better camera tech before it can be commercialized, and they had quite a few issues during our demo time -- but it's a clever concept that's better watched on video than explained, which is convenient considering that we've got videos of both of these goodies in action after the break. Check 'em out, won't you?
Google exhibits Liquid Galaxy installation at TED, we toss back a Dramamine
You know you've wondered what Google Earth would look like across a curved, eight-display installation, and now your most stupendous dreams are a reality thanks to Liquid Galaxy. That's the moniker that's been given to Jason Holt's 20 percent project, which he's just now getting to showcase to the world at the TED conference in San Francisco. Reportedly, eight Linux machines are tied to the process, and he's able to fly through the digital skies via voice commands and sheer mental strength. Or maybe it's just voice commands. Head past the break for a cockpit view, but be sure to close one eye if you're prone to motion sickness. [Thanks, Camron]
Augmented reality mirror picks makeup for the ladies (video)
Ladies and rockers alike enjoy spending time testing different makeup, but their tag-along boyfriends? Not so much. Luckily for Japanese couples, cosmetic giant Shiseido has finally rolled out its Digital Cosmetic Mirrors in Tokyo malls to help speed things up. The machine is able to recommend products for the user's skin type, while allowing them to view it applied via an augmented reality effect. When all is done, the machine prints out a shopping list along with before and after mugshots to make you spend more money feel good about your selections. Good luck with matching the picture though -- the cosmetics aren't going to apply themselves. Video demonstration after the break.
Vuzix Wrap 920AR augmented reality video eyewear: can you afford to look like this?
CES 2010 might go down in history as the show of silly glasses, and Vuzix isn't going to cede any ground to 3D: it's launching a new augmented reality headset called the Wrap 920AR, which features a built-in stereoscopic camera that allows reality and computer-generated imagery to blend in front of your eyes. To be clear, that means you'll actually be looking at reality on a 1,504 x 480 screen while you wear these glasses, but what's one layer of virtualized abstraction between friends who don't mock each other for wearing ridiculous $800 video glasses?
Found Footage: Sudoku Grab goes Augmented Reality
When it comes to the iPhone, Augmented Reality refers to applications that integrate live camera feeds with data generated either directly from those camera images or from related data linked to the user's real world location. Over the past year, we've seen a number of augmented reality applications appear on App Store and in the Cydia store, offering a way to connect real world visuals with enhanced data presentations. On the recent Augmented Reality front, Sudoku Grab [iTunes Link] developer Chris Greening has been inspired by Apple's recent decision to allow calls to UIGetScreenImage(), the computer function that allows iPhone developers to copy an image directly from the iPhone screen. By relenting on this issue, Apple has allowed programmers to pull live data from the iPhone camera, and process that data in real time. That opens the door to immediate image processing and visual presentation of data on top of that image stream. The above video demonstrates this ability by scanning for Sudoku boards. When it detects one, the numbers in question turn green. So how useful in general is this new SDK feature? Chris says, "It's a bit horrible to do anything really useful, you haven't got a direct feed from the camera so you have to do a bit of jiggery pokery if you want to draw on top of the camera preview and still have something usable." As you can tell from the video, his "jiggery pokery" is pretty well done. His real time scanning and enhancement of raw image data allows his detection routine to work with the camera's live feed to acquire new Sudoku boards. It's still early days on the augmented reality front. Greening's work represents just the start of where this technology can go. With faster processors and better screen access routines (UIGetScreenImage is a very slow call compared to the iPhone's non-public CoreSurface routines), real world integration is just going to get better and better.
Google Goggles gets video demo on Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
There's little sense in resisting the obvious: Google is slowly but surely taking over your life, but rather than get indignant and discombobulated, we'd suggest letting go and appreciating how much easier things are with the folks in Mountain View squarely in control. Take Google Goggles, for instance, which aims to convert cameraphone images into useful search results on its own Android platform. Up until now, we've been shown stock demos and videos of it running on conventional handsets, but seeing the Goggles hard at work on Sony Ericsson's not-yet-released Xperia X10 is another thing entirely. Hop on past the break for the frames you're craving, but don't bank on this making the wait for said phone any simpler to stomach.
iPhone in iPhone app is useless, but mesmerizing
Here's the premise: you take a good old fashioned augmented reality setup, the likes of which we've seen all over the land, and attach a three-dimensional, rotatable iPhone to it. Not impressed yet, are you? Neither were we, but there's some secret sauce to this one: you can actually launch apps on the simulated iPhone. That extra layer of interactivity makes the video after the break a lot more fascinating than it has any right to be, though it's worth pointing out that we don't think the apps are actually usable -- they just give the illusion of launching. Anyhow, don't wait around while all the cool kids are watching it, go have a gander yourself.
Gunman for iPhone finally makes augmented reality awesome
First-person shooters are great stress releases for a world fraught with nagging bosses, horrible traffic, and dry cleaners that screw up your pants, but there's a problem -- the people you're shooting are just collections of polygons on an electronic display. The solution, of course, is to combine the world's love of the FPS genre with real friends and loved ones, and that's exactly where Gunman for iPhone comes into play. Using the phone as your gun and the camera as your scope, you can seek out up to three other opponents in local multiplayer matches or take the hunt global using Foursquare -- when you score a kill, you can post a shot of your unsuspecting victim straight to Twitter. If nothing else, this seems like it'd be a fantastic workout and a cheaper substitute for a full laser tag rig, making it perhaps the best use of augmented reality to date. Score it now in the App Store for $2.99 -- follow the break for the full press release.
Layar 3.0 reunites the Beatles in 3D augmented reality
Layar's approach to bringing augmented reality to the masses is unique. Instead of writing isolated AR apps, Layar provides a very real augmented reality platform onto which content owners can layer (or layar) their data resulting in a richer experience when viewing the world through your Android or iPhone 3GS camera lens. There are already 294 layers and counting ranging from Google's ubiquitous local search results to homegrown content listing apartments for rent or tourist hot spots. Today sees the launch of Layar 3.0 with new 3D capabilities, authentication, and plenty more to entice anyone "with basic web development skills" to join the fun. To show the platform's new capabilities Layar presents a handful of use cases that include the ability to add authenticated social media layars (like Twitter and Foursquare), see incomplete construction sites in their final form, interactive public-space art projects, and a guided Beatles discovery tour that takes you to destinations made famous by the fab foursome -- you can even pose with the band for pictures as they cross Abbey Road. Sure, the jury's still out on the usefulness of 3D content presented in this manner and the ability to geolocate Twitter users and Hollywood stars in this manner continues to creep us out. But man is this stuff interesting.
Augmented reality Twitter 360 app geolocates your friends by their tweets
We're going to start off by stating unequivocally that we think this is a bad, bad idea. The Twitter 360 app, just launched by Presselite, is an augmented reality app for your iPhone 3GS which enables you to track your friends by the geolocation of their tweets. The app makes use of the iPhone 3GS's compass to locate the tweeter, then reports back on their location. Now -- if, like us, you want to be able to tweet about the rocking party you're at on a Friday night when you're actually sitting on the couch watching Mama's Family -- don't worry: you can opt out of the geolocation feature. The Twitter 360 app, sure to be a resounding success with creeps the world over, is available now in the iTunes store for $2.99. Check out a video demonstration of it after the break.
Twitter 360 Augmented Reality app for Twitter
As far as AR (augmented reality) Twitter apps go, Twitter 360 [iTunes Link] looks like the best of the bunch... so far. In what will no doubt become the top term of 2010, this augmented reality app allows you to track your friends via geolocation of their tweets. If you're into that sort of thing (or have an iPhone 3GS, since AR apps use the compass to position their markers). If the thought of strangers tracking you while you tweet creeps you out (and frankly, it should), rest assured that tracking is opt-in in that you can turn off geotagging for your tweets. As Fast Company points out, a neat feature is setting your "limit" or range of detection for tracking tweets. You can set this to World and see just how far away everyone is from wherever you happen to be standing. So yeah, pretty soon we'll all be tracking each other all over the place. What could go wrong? Twitter 360 is currently $2.99US and is from Presselite, the folks who snuck in the first AR app without Apple's detection. Thanks for opening the floodgates! Check out the video of the app in action, below.
Latest SixthSense demo features paper 'laptop,' camera gestures
We've already seen MIT researcher Pranav Mistry's SixthSense projector-based augmented-reality system in some cool demos, but he just gave a TED talk and his latest ideas are the wildest yet. Forget simple projections, he's moved on to taking photos by just making a box with your fingers, identifying books and products on store shelves and projecting reviews and other information on them, projecting flight schedules on boarding passes, and even a new paper "laptop" concept that works by using a microphone on the paper to sense when you're touching it. It's pretty amazing stuff -- check out his whole talk at the read link.
Esquire's Augmented Reality issue goes on sale, and we have video to prove it
The Augmented Reality issue of Esquire has hit the newsstands, and our fears have come true: when this magazine comes in contact with your webcam, Robert Downey Jr. is unleashed! Aside from dangerous levels of the Academy Award-winning actor, however, the video (after the break) really highlights how silly the whole affair is: While AR has been implemented to great effect for a number of different applications, delivering video content that could just as easily been delivered without waving a magazine in front of your computer definitely crosses the line into gimmick territory. Still, the magazine's design team did pull all the stops -- so if you're curious to see what you'd get for your hard-earned dollar, check out that video walkthrough after the break.
Sixth Sense creator to release code, wearable gesture interface becomes a reality for all
If we're being honest (and trust us, we're being honest), Pranav Mistry's Sixth Sense contraption has always baffled us. It's kind of like Sony's Rolly. It looks cool, it sounds rad, but we're fairly certain only 2.49 people actually know and fully comprehend how it works. That said, we're more than jazzed about the possibility of having wearable gesture interfaces gracing every human we come into contact with, and rather than attempting to make his invention "comply with some kind of corporate policy," he's purportedly aiming to release the source code into the wild in order to let "people make their own systems." Nice guy, huh? All told, the Sixth Sense can be built for around $350 (plus oodles of unpaid time off), and we're pretty certain that a few talented DIYers can get this thing whipped into shape far quicker than Mega Corp X. So, how's about a release date for that code?
Symbian Foundation teases augmented reality/social networking tool, says you'll probably never get it (video)
What do you do when everyone's talking about the competition's exciting new take on navigation? Why, you come up with your exciting new angle that's way cooler than theirs then sit back and guffaw while high-fiving your co-workers. That seems to be what Symbian Foundation is attempting here, with a teaser of a tool that would let you not only easily interact with Facebook events but also get real-time augmented reality navigation straight to them. It looks fancy enough, but there's a big catch: the company has no current plans of making it a reality, saying it's "not part of the Symbian UI Roadmap." Carry on, then, nothing to see after the break but a mobile Web 2.0 pipe dream.
Real Time Race promises to let you race against the pros, in real time
There's certainly no shortage of impressive augmented reality games around these days, but it doesn't look like the folks behind the so-called Real Time Race will have any trouble turning a few heads with theirs, at least if they can actually deliver as promised. Their basic idea is to make use of some Google Street View-like technology to create a virtual reproduction of an actual race track, and pair it with some real-time data as the race is happening to let anyone that wants to take part in the race from the comfort of their home. While the current state of things still seemingly leaves a bit to be desired (check the video at the link below), the folks behind the game say they could be ready to hold their first race sometime next year -- assuming they're able to line up all the necessary rights and broadcast issues, that is. In the meantime, you can take the non-real time demo version for a spin. [Thanks, Bryce D]
Esquire hopes augmented reality will trick people into reading
Remember that time last year when Esquire embedded an E Ink display in its front cover and everyone you know rushed out to buy one, and how the scheme saved the once-doomed print magazine market? Well, it appears that the periodical (and the industry as a whole) are again in need of a dramatic technological sales boost -- this time in the form of augmented reality. When the mag hits the newsstand on November 7, readers (and their webcams) will be have a chance to scan some QR codes fiduciary markers and partake in the technology that's been known to teach children about architecture and help jaded club kids party underwater -- except this time the unsuspecting public can look forward to seeing Robert Downey Jr. emerge from the front cover to spew what the AP calls "half-improvised shtick on Esquire's latest high-tech experiment for keeping print magazines relevant amid the digital onslaught." With that kind of content -- alongside a computer-animated snowstorm and a dirty joke or two from Gillian Jacobs -- can anybody doubt that traditional media will soon be back on its feet?
Ghostwire augmented reality game coming to your creepy motel room, DSi in 2010
Majesco's just announced an augmented reality game for the DSi, Ghostwire: Link to the Paranormal. While the Ghostwire title had been previously unveiled, Majesco has apparently just signed on to publish it. The game makes use of the DSi's camera and microphone so the player can hunt for ghosts in their surrounding, actual environment. Once the ghosts are detected, the player will have to track down objects to bribe them into peacefulness. Ghostwire is expected sometime in 2010, but until then, we'll just keep walking with our own ghosts.
