SmartAR
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Sony's unorthodox take on AI is now open source
When it comes to AI, Sony isn't mentioned in the conversation like Google, Amazon and Apple are. However, let's remember that it was on the forefront of deep learning with products like the Aibo robot dog, and has used it recently in the Echo-like Xperia Agent (above) and Xperia Ear. Sony is finally ready to share its AI technology with developers and engineers to incorporate them into their products and services, it has revealed.
Sony shows off PlayStation Vita's augmented reality chops at GDC, leaves the AR marker cards at home
The PlayStation Vita's current augmented reality mini-games may be anchored to a handful of marker cards, but it doesn't have to be that way. Front and center at Sony's GDC booth was "Magnet," a developer tech demo that shows off the next generation handheld's markerless chops. The application maps out the texture and patterns to create its own marker, which would allow developers to create more natural AR experiences that won't burden players with the hassle of carrying around marker cards. Sony says the tech demo won't be evolving into a full game, but hopes it will inspire developers to build something new and exciting for the handheld. Although staff on hand couldn't say for sure that this is an off-shoot of Sony's SmartAR technology, we think it looks awfully familiar.
PlayStation Vita's slick augmented reality demoed in Reality Fighters, we go hands-on (video)
Back in January, we caught a glimpse of a hilarious PS Vita title dubbed Reality Fighters, and as the name suggests, it's a Street Fighter-like game that makes use of the device's augmented reality feature. Well, SmartAR, to be precise, which has already been proven to deliver slick AR in large space without the need of a marker, and that's exactly what we experienced earlier today at TGS 2011. What happens in this game is that you can first create your own fighting avatar -- not only does it let you map your face using either camera on the Vita, but there's also a whole range of body shapes, facial features, weapons and fashion accessories to add to your character. Once you have your fighter ready, you then have three options: use the current surroundings as your battle backdrop, or use one of the many default backdrops (and the final version of the game will allow players to create their own backdrop), or use a marker. We only managed to try the first two AR modes with the brief hands-on time we had, but both worked seamlessly for us -- see for yourself in our hands-on video above. Surprisingly, this game only uses just one of the four CPU cores on the Vita! But then again, we've already seen SmartAR running smoothly on the Xperia Arc, which goes to show how relatively little number crunching power is required for SmartAR. Expect to see this funny game to come out in February.
Sony's SmartAR demoed live, raises the bar for augmented reality (video)
Remember Sony's SmartAR? The markerless AR technology that promises reality augmentation without the need for unsightly tattoos? It's back again, showing itself once more after an all-too-brief 48 hour layoff. A new live-demo shows Sony's markerless object recognition system focusing on posters, tables, books, and coffee cups in lieu of the traditional AR card -- allowing it recognize multiple objects at once. Focusing on objects rather than markers allow augmented entities to interact more naturally with their environment. For instance, bouncing AR balls plummet off the edge of a table, and realistically ricochet off of a book placed in their path. Objects don't even need to remain on screen, as demonstrated by an AR pop-up menu that remained viewable even after the object-marker that spawned it left the viewer's field of vision. Sony seems to have built the groundwork of an augmented reality system that might actually be useful -- pair this up with a set of swank AR glasses (or better yet, holographic AR glasses), and we'll have a vision of the future we can really look forward to.
Sony SmartAR delivers high-speed markerless augmented reality, blows minds (video)
Some may agree that over the years, augmented reality's been slowly losing its appeal given its sometimes laggy and unreliable performance -- most implementations require a weird marker to be in clear sight, and the graphics rendering speed on your handheld device would rely on your slow and steady hands. As such, we were initially skeptical when Sony's SmartAR announcement came along; but as you can see in the video above, said technology took us by surprise with its super slick responsiveness, and the markerless object recognition makes a compelling hassle-free selling point. What's more, the same clip also shows off SmartAR handling large 3D space with ease -- notice how the virtual objects continue to animate even when the original anchor object is out of sight. Sony hasn't given any dates here, but there's no doubt that once SmartAR is available to game developers and advertisers, it'll rake in some nice pocket money for the electronics giant.
