Archive for May, 2009
Webcam Help
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on May 31st, 2009
I’m currently using a Creative Webcam NX Pro and its woefully outdated. Looking for any suggestions for a good cheap webcam to purchase that works well for augmented reality. Looking forward to your comments.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Augmented Reality Bikini
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on May 31st, 2009
In this video an AR bikini is pasted over the model showcasing a manually selected marker. The video isn’t doesn’t show much new, but I’m curious about the software kit shown. It looks like user-friendly AR software in development since the title is called BubbleGum Tattoo v0.1. If you recognize the software, please comment, or send me an email. I’d be interested to learn more about it.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Rat Basketball
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality, digital singularity on May 29th, 2009
Coincidentally, after I finished my post yesterday, I had an email in my inbox from a friend with a link to this article from The Daily Galaxy. The article discusses a University of Florida study about using a BCI combined with learning algorithms to teach rats how to do a successively harder task.
The computer, on the other hand, was programmed to earn as many points as possible by figuring out how to help the rat. The closer a rat moved the arm to the target, the more points the computer received, which helped the computer determine which brain signals lead to the most rewards. The computer then knew how to streamline the process to make it more efficient and ultimately easier for the rats.
This type of work could have interesting implications for augmented reality. Using visual cues, any number of programs could help you improve at a particular task. Analyzing your arm motions and mental state, calculating the distance to the net and giving visual cues through AR goggles; a computer algorithm could help a person, or maybe even a rat, to become a better free throw shooter.
Popularity: 3% [?]
My Mind Has A Mind Of Its Own
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality, digital singularity on May 28th, 2009
Sometimes I wonder if thought controlled computers would be a bad thing. During a business meeting daydream would I accidentally surf porn?
Fortunately the technology doesn’t work like that yet.
But the technology for mind controlled computers (or brain-computer interface) is coming along. Already three products exist or will soon exist on the market: the Emotiv, the NeuroSky MindSet and the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator. While the last one has the least imaginative name, its the only one current only the market (at about ~$100), though the NeuroSky MindSet is promising pre-order ships by late July 2009 (for $199).
These BCIs work by responding to neural processes in the brain that generate motor movements and cognitive processes that modify motor movements. Basically they translate brain activity into computer signals. Once the signals have reached the computer, then the results depend on the creativity of the developer.
What does this mean for augmented reality? It offers another tool in the control toolbox for hands-free manipulation. The downside is its another peripheral that will add to the cost of a complete augmented vision system. Assuming the Vuzix VR920 that’s coming out in the fall is around $200, an iPhone is around $200 and a reliable BCI might be $200, then a complete system would be pretty pricey at $600, not including software add-ons.
While BCI systems may seem years down the road, these videos have convinced me mass-market use may be closer than I originally thought.
NeuroSky ABC7 Segment
Playing Unreal Tournament3 using the OCZ NIA
EPOC Emotiv Systems @ tweakfest 09
Its easy to see how simple mouse movements and clicks using a BCI could allow augmented vision systems to be hands-free. This would keep us all from looking like we’re doing hand stretches before a Happy Hands Club meet.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Steal This Idea – Fan Movies
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Steal This AR Idea! on May 27th, 2009
Most people have never seen a fan movie, nor had they ever considered that armies of rabid fans would spend their time and hard earned money to make a film as homage.
But they do.
Some use games like World of Warcraft to stage their movies and others use animation and the really serious use amateur actors and shot it like a real film. This ambitious group make a 40 minute Lord of the Rings fan movie called The Hunt for Gollum. Over a hundred volunteers were used in the film. Below is a trailer though you can see the full version here.
THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM – FULL Trailer 1 from Independent Online Cinema on Vimeo.
While the film makers and enthusiasts involved have tons of energy, creativity and passion for their craft, they don’t have access to high end special effects for their films. This is where augmented reality comes in.
A simple suite of fantasy and science fiction objects (since these seem to be the most common genres), and the ability to add other objects from user created files, along with proper shadows and occlusion could be a powerful tool in the fan movie creators hands. These tools would enhance their ability for storytelling without breaking the bank.
So this week’s challenge is for an AR developer to put a simple package together for fan movies to use. The package could be used from the short spoofs on YouTube to the extravagant spectacles as the Hunt for Gollum movie. Remember, millions of people upload clips to YouTube on a regular basis, so that’s a large potential market for AR devlopment products.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Ghostwire AR Game
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, augmented reality on May 26th, 2009
The Swedish Game studio A Different World has brought the award-winning AR game Ghostwire to the Nintendo DSi. The move to the platform of the DSi should help bring AR games to kids and gain a wider audience for the technology.
While this seven month old video shows the game on a cellphone, the concept should be the same for the DSi.
No word on the actual release date, but it can’t be too long since the game exists on the Nokia, my guess would be fall 2009.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The Marketing Friction of Gimmicks
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Uncategorized on May 22nd, 2009
During the next year, we’re going to see a host of new AR gimmicks and websites that will claim that AR has been used to improve their business. In this post from webdistortion.com, the author claims that 8 AR marketing campaigns have been “used…to great effect.” Unless the desired effect was to print out lots of AR marker papers, I’m going to disagree. The main focus of a marketing campaign should not be website traffic, but reaching customers and increasing sales. The only way we can say these AR marketing campaigns worked was if they converted traffic into a sale, but my guess is most people were there to see the gimmick.
One of the problems with the AR gimmick, besides that people are mostly there to see a demonstration of the technology and not the product, is the friction of actually using it. To see the AR version of the product, one has to print out a piece of paper, get the webcam hooked up and hold it up to see it work. This is a lot of work compared to driving by billboard that says “Eat At Joes”.
All that work is the friction. There is a universal law that says, “the easier something is to do, the more likely people will do it.” The AR gimmick marketing campaigns are high in friction. They’ll work the first few times , but once their curiosity is satiated, they won’t bother. It’s too much work.
The purpose of this post is not to pile on the hate for these style of marketing campaigns. Instead I’d like to point out that marketing campaign developers need to move beyond the current situation. Once people are familiar with the technology, the desire to see a new gimmick is not going to be enough to overcome the friction of all that work. So to reach potential customers, you need to either make it easier to use or create a higher level of desire.
Find ways to make it paperless, add a coolness factor that others haven’t seen (make a purple cow), turn it into an iPhone app that people will use, make it interact with real world objects, make it educational, etc.
In other words, use your brain and don’t be like these guys from Seth Godin’s blog:
I recall having a conversation with the marketing folks at Simon & Schuster. I complained that I had just returned from a road trip and didn’t see the book in a single airport book store. I insisted that business travelers were the ideal audience. They came back to me with a simple request: tell me where you or Seth were going to be flying and they would make sure that the book was in the bookstore in that airport…
Popularity: 5% [?]
Screens
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on May 21st, 2009
People rent comedies to watch on TV as opposed to seeing a summer blockbuster like Star Trek on the big screen. The choice of screens will matter similiarly for augmented reality.
The type of screen sets the stage for the users experience. The viewport creates the space that we can draw our ideas upon. Will it be seen as a peephole through the theater door, a front row seat during a bombastic play or will you be thrown into the action like a civil war reenactment?

I will explore four types of screens. Each presents a different stage to be used in different ways.
Cellphone (the peephole) – Cellphones like the iPhone or the Android will give us a window into an AR world. Unfortunately, the window will be small. But like an ant that can lift an object a hundred times its weight, the cellphone will prove to be a powerful window because it goes where ever we go. The limited view and mobility means it will primarily be a window of information.
Personal Computer (the gimmick) – The PC is the lost child of AR screens. Too small to be useful in house, but too big to be portable. The static information contained within our rooms means the PCs function will be only as an gimmicky toy as we’ve seen with countless lame marketing AR products that don’t do anything.
Big Screen TV (the theater) – The Big Screen TV combined with a good console can turn the living room into a theater of imagination. As I’ve explained in previous posts about miniature games or roller coaster simulators, the wide screen and space to move around creates an experience the whole family can enjoy, much as the Wii has done.
Glasses (all the world’s a stage) – When glasses become available they will allow for the whole world to become a stage to create in. They can utilize the best features of the other three while trumping them with an experience only seen through glasses.
So as developers think about AR products consider the stage the it will play its part upon. Otherwise your product will get lost in the plastic scenery.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Link-a-palooza
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on May 21st, 2009
I’m typing this post on my kids computer since my motherboard crashed on mine. I had some more in-depth posts planned, but until I can get my computer up and running (new MB is currently installed and now partitioning the hard drive), I’m just going to throw out some interesting links. Hopefully tomorow I can get some more meat up on the page.
But before I do that, I’d like to thank all those that read and commented on my Path to Augmented Vision post which surpassed my previous top post Automating the Digitalization of the World. Special thanks to Rouli who helped clean up my draft version of the post.
Which leads me to the New SREngine video from Rouli/Ori’ssites. The updated SREngine is fascinating and is an impressive piece of work for one man. I can’t wait to see it on the iPhone.
The next link is from Shepherd’s Piabout his talk “Instrumenting the World” and his recent experiences discussing Augmented Reality with various government groups including the DoDIIS (Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems).
Lastly, Jan at Augmented Reality Blog brings us a usability test of “Unifeye Design”–an augmented reality programming tool for non-programmers. I didn’t get a chance to try it out, but I’m sure I will once I wrangle my new computer into submission.
Popularity: 2% [?]




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