Archive for May 21st, 2009
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.
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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.
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