Archive for January, 2010
Robert Rice Speaks At MOMA
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on January 31, 2010
Robert Rice, the CEO of Neogence Enterprises and blogger of augmented reality on Curious Raven, spoke in June at Mobile Monday. His speech targets the intermediate developer of augmented reality. If you’re new to the technology, most of this speech will go over your head.
The video is long, but if you’re serious about augmented reality and the future of mobile, the speech hits major points about the industry. And at 40 minutes, I’d give it a good five minute buffer if you’re going to watch the whole thing.
“Mobile is dead,” said Robert to begin his speech. He goes on to explain it should be brought back to life in a different format. Reincarnated, if you will. The point-to-point communication that we use right now will need transform into an immersive, predictive, meta-enviroment and can’t just be another way to access the internet.
Robert briefly explains the history of communications and tells us that if we do augmented reality correctly, it’ll join the pantheon. If we can remove the excess hardware of keyboards and screens in our mobile devices and convert to sunglasses, then the computer can become a buckle or a watch, conspicuous computing. We need to get away from the 2D mindset of flat screens and create 3D spaces where we can throw a YouTube video to another person through our AR enviroment, or send an SMS as a paper-airplane.
Augmented reality needs more than graphics over video, Robert goes on to explain. Should move past being even interactive and more dynamic and meta. It should answer the who, what, where, when, why and how. Computers have been vague points of demographic data because multiple people can use them, but mobile is an individual thing which allows us to break away from aggregate statistics and start answering questions for individuals.
Robert goes on to talk about venture capital, which he believes doesn’t get AR yet, and smart cities, and give suggestions to developers to keep the tagging of the world in mind, so we don’t have to go back and retag later.
Overall, I have to say I enjoyed the speech, though I was hoping Robert would get into specifics about Neogence Enterprises and their recent Mirascape announcement. And having spoken to him at length at ISMAR09 about the details of augmented reality, I thought he might elaborate on his anecdotes about furries and micro transactions. But maybe those weren’t appropriate for MOMA, anyway.
(edit note: this video was taken back in June and posted on GA.com but its still very relevent. Enjoy.)
Popularity: 16% [?]
Apple’s iPad Camera Fail
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Writing / Publishing, augmented reality on January 27, 2010
Unless you’ve been living in a box today, you know that Apple finally unveiled the tablet iPad today. The biggest surprise about the announcement was the lack of a camera on the lap sized PC. No camera, really? If you don’t believe it, check the official spec page.
Besides the implications for augmented reality, which I’ll get to in a moment, the iPad not having a camera is a giant fail. I actually expected the iPad to have two cameras. One forward-looking so the iPad could function as a giant Polaroid and the other user-facing so videos could be recorded. We could forgive eliminating one of them, probably the forward-looking one since its so big, but not having the user-facing camera is inexcusable.
The series of tube we call the Internet has moved beyond simple text. People want to record and upload videos straight to YouTube without having to yank out their dust-covered hand held or use Skype to call their friends while they’re watching the game.
The Apple iPad not having even one camera is like hooking up satellite without DVR. Sure you can do it, but why?
Of course, I’m being overly melodramatic here.
The real point to the iPad is competition for the Kindle, eReader and the Vook. Apple wants to revolutionize the way we read magazines, books and newspapers. Functionality for augmented reality isn’t even an afterthought. How many people are using their camera lying in bed reading an interactive book?
And is this a major setback for augmented reality? Not really. A giant-sized magic lens would add a fun new canvas to play with, but really wouldn’t be a game changer. Additionally, Apple isn’t expecting the tablet market to come even close to the smartphone market in sales.
So in the end, the iPad is a fail for augmented reality, but will probably give Jeff Bezos nightmares for months as he wonders how he’s going to compete against a Pentium 286 when he’s selling a Commodore 64.
And maybe, just maybe, Steve Jobs is still working on a see-through AR-enabled HMD. Then I’d say, all is forgiven Stevie, I’m coming home to Apple.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Weird Augmented T-Shirt Game
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on January 20, 2010
Training the Visual Way
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on January 14, 2010
Homo sapiens are visual creatures. We receive 75% of our information through our eyes. Explaining how to do something can be tedious and inefficient. Augmented reality offers a visual medium for explanation. This quick demo on how to assemble a LEGO tower using ARToolKit illustrates how effective this technique can be. If you don’t believe me, give a friend a pile of LEGOs and then try to explain how to create the tower in the video. Time your result and compare it. I’ll guarantee the AR method will win.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Hallmark Launches AR Greeting Cards
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on January 12, 2010
Not a big surprise that Hallmark would get into the augmented reality game with a line of AR greeting cards. It makes a lot of sense to add content to a static piece of cardboard. I would suggest they consider adding free smartphone apps to view the cards so people can check them at the birthday table, but it’s a start.
Hallmark Launches Webcam Greetings with Augmented Reality
New cards combine the physical and virtual world
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Jan. 12, 2010) /PRNewswire/ — Hallmark Cards, Inc., today announced the release of webcam greetings, new cards that use augmented reality technology to bring the card to life on a computer screen.The person receiving the card can visit www.hallmark.com/extra and follow the directions to be able to view a 3D animated feature by holding the greeting card up to the web camera. The technology breathes a digital life into the card. The animation tracks with the movement of the card, so no matter which way the card is moved, the animation will rotate along in full 3D. In many cards, various scenes appear as the card is turned in different angles in front of the webcam for a range of digital experiences.
“As Hallmark embarks upon our next 100 years in business, it’s important to continually identify new ways to help amplify the emotions our consumers feel when experiencing and sharing our products,” said Monic Muldrew, associate product manager. “With the experience available through these cards that come to life with a webcam, we hope consumers will fully explore and interact with this fun new way to connect.”
The augmented reality enhancements in webcam greetings are unique to the greeting card industry. Ten cards currently are available for Valentine’s Day and, as the year progresses, the company will roll out additional webcam greetings. Most webcam greetings retail for $2.99. Some webcam greetings include a sound clip that plays when the recipient opens the card (clip is audible without going online). These cards retail for $5.99. All webcam greetings are available wherever Hallmark cards are sold.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Vuzix Wrap 920AR Video Eyewear at CES 2010
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, augmented reality on January 9, 2010
The Vuzix Wrap 920AR aren’t the sexiest of specs, but they do perform the function of AR glasses. I got a chance to see this setup at ISMAR09 which they’re now showing at CES 2010.
The specs for the glasses look like:
The stereo camera pair delivers a single 1504 x 480 side-by-side image that can be viewed in 3D stereoscopic video, while the video eyewear provides an unprecedented 67-inch display as seen from 10 feet. The Wrap 920AR also includes a 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker, which allows for absolute accuracy of roll pitch and yaw and also X, Y and Z positioning in 3D space
Vuzix Wrap 920AR Specifications:
• 1/3-inch wide VGA Digital Image Sensor
• Resolution: 752H x 480W
• Includes 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker
• Frame rate: 60 fps
• Dynamic range: >55dB linear; >80-100dB in HiDy mode
• Shutter efficiency: >99%
• ADC Resolution: 10-bit column parallel
• High-speed USB 2.0
• PC and Mac compatible
• System requirements: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows7, Mac OS X 10.4.9 or higher
• MSRP: $799.99
They probably won’t be worn in public anytime soon, but some creative programmers could create interesting house-only interactive avatars or AR spaces. While some might scoff at this idea, see this video from Georgia Tech last year to see how even semi-cheesy graphics can make augmented reality immersive. Having played the old VR game Dactyl Nightmare in the 1990s, the head-tracking really creates the illusion of reality.
We haven’t seen any developers put together a product that takes advantage of these $800 glasses, but hopes are that exposure at CES 2010 will bring more interest. The only thing I’ve seen using the setup is the Whisper Deck from Craig Kapp. Maybe later this year we might see some products that would entice the hard core AR enthusiast to fork out the cash for these un-sexy specs.
Popularity: 34% [?]
The AR Reading List Review – The Caryatids
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Stories, augmented reality on January 5, 2010
Last fall I posted the Augmented Reality Reading List which highlighted the science fiction novels and short stories that have featured augmented reality technologies in their texts. I wanted to take that one step further and review each book, not only for the technological content, but also as a novel. I started with Bruce Sterling’s The Caryatids because I received it as a gift for Christmas and because he’s the most logical beginning point given his blog that frequently covers AR – Beyond the Beyond.
Review of the Novel
Post-cyberpunk novels tend to employ the shotgun, blow it out your eyeballs approach to action, descriptions, and especially human-tech ideas. If you’re into that sort of thing, which I am, the Caryatids is filled with cloned humanity burning-the-candle-at-both-ends on the other side of a world-altering climate meltdown in which the future isn’t quite a sure bet anymore.
While I tended to get lost on why anything was happening, I decided to strap on the seat belt and enjoy the poetic ballistics.
A second shot hit the museum. This shock was much bigger than the first, an endless, churning, awesome, geological catastrophe. The museum reacted with a roller coaster’s oily grace and speed, ducking and banking. They were suspended in limbo, an epoch of reeling and twisting, rubbery groans and shrieks for mercy.
The novel tells the story of four of the Caryatids, cloned superhumans from a Balkan warlord, who wrangle their pieces of shot-up humanity. The Caryatids act as the focal point of the story as they careen off their surroundings. Mila’s personal soundtrack and artistic rezoning of Los Angelos with a giant city wrecking mech-robot entertains while bordering on absurd. While Sonja’s jaunt across the Chinese dust bowl with her barbaric warlord husband reminds me of the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Together the four clones examine the roles of near-future technologies in a nature-nurture novelistic experiment.
Technology of the Novel
The world the Caryatids live in is ripe with ubiquitous computing in the form of sensorwebs, especially for the tech-collective Acquis. The island Vera rebuilds has been saturated in these “sensorwebs” data collection equipment which are advanced versions of a Pachube. They access the data through a neurological network that allows them to read each other’s mind (only if you’re also wearing a neural helmet), and rework failed landscapes with mech-like bonearmor. They use augmented reality to superimpose important information on their techno-utopias. Augmented reality is definitely a minor cast member in this smorgasbord of tech-heady meals, but really, we’re here for the story, the use of AR is just a nice spice.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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