Posts Tagged Apple
Dell Tablet Mini 5 For Augmented Reality
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on February 27th, 2010
While the Apple iPad Tablet announcement last month was disappointing for augmented reality developers and enthusiasts, the details about the upcoming Dell Tablet will make you salivate.
The Mini 5 will have a five inch touchscreen with both front and user facing cameras allowing full augmented reality capabilities. WiFi and 3G connectivity allow enough bandwidth and the 1.0 GHz Snapdragon Qualcomm processor will give the Mini 5 the juice it needs to power resource-expensive AR apps. It’ll run the latest version of the Android OS which gives it AR credentials right away since there are many apps already made for that system.
The price plan will affect the market that it’s trying to fill, though Dell says they will price it “competitively”. But I don’t think I could have asked for better features from a tablet for augmented reality. The weight of the device might impact AR since holding it up will be harder than a smartphone and since it’s a touchscreen, will you want to hold it with one hand and navigate with the other? I hope some AR developers can incorporate voice commands into their games and products.
And while the screen might be too small in this version, they have eluded to a suite of tablet products so maybe a larger iPad sized version might come out in the future. Personally, I already have a free smartphone from work, so a tablet that does different things on a bigger screen would be appealing to me.
Will this be a killer device for AR? Probably not. But it’ll give developers a bigger landscape to play on and increase the number of AR devices on the market. The front facing camera certainly makes is a no-brainer for video conferencing. Just add some facial recognition and you can talk to your kids while out on the road with bunny ears attached to your head.
[Via Wired]
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Apple’s iPad Camera Fail
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Writing / Publishing, augmented reality on January 27th, 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: 14% [?]
Mr. Jobs, Tear Down This AR Wall!
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on November 8th, 2009
Reagan famously said, “Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall!”
While arguments can be made whether Reagan’s challenge had any affect on the end of the Soviet Union, it still marked an important time in history. In that same speech, Reagan referenced some crudely spray painted words on the wall–”The wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.” These were probably the more important words that he said on that fateful day.
These words hold true for the current problem facing augmented reality smartphone app developers. Beliefs have become reality for the VCs that any important AR apps must be made for the iPhone. As Robert Rice, CEO of Neogence Enterprises, paraphrased what he’s heard, “We are only interested in deals that are… running on the iPhone….”
The problem with this is that Apple isn’t giving up access to the video stream from the camera. Current AR apps are either using the non-visual sensors like the GPS and accelerometer, or using single frames as a reference which make apps laggy and unreliable. Once again, Robert Rice opines about this problem in his post–The Candy Apple Conundrum:
But I am continually perplexed by Apple’s refusal to open up the undocumented APIs in their SDK to allow augmented reality researchers and developers access to the video stream from the camera. This is a critical element for any type of visual tracking (markers, feature tracking, and markerless tracking). Some people figured some work arounds to make it work with the 2.x version of the SDK which is nice, except that this automatically disqualifies any applications from distribution in the app store. What really kills me though, is that on one hand, Apple made a play for welcoming AR applications with the 3.x version of the SDK, but only provided access to the overlay, while at the same time completely changing where the undocumented API calls were located, further obfuscating things and handicapping all R&D.
It’s clear that there is a high level of frustration within developers and Robert’s not the only one to notice. Kim-Mai Cutler from Venture Beat talks about how, “[apps are] still being held back because they don’t have the right application programming interfaces for manipulating live video.” And back in July, Ori Inbar posted an Open Letter to Apple.
Why isn’t Apple opening up the video stream to developers? Is it for the Machiavellian reason that they are developing their own secret AR master take-over as hinted by their patent filings? Does any of this matter?
If we look at the Q2 2009 smartphone sales by Canalys, we see that the iPhone only holds 13.7% of the market. While Symbian dominates with a whopping 50.3%. What gives?
The iPhone has done a wonderful job of controlling the branding space of future smartphones, but the reality is that they are only number three. In this case, beliefs have become reality. While I’ll be the first person to crow about augmented reality on the iPhone if they do ever release the video stream, I also don’t think we should be holding our breath any longer. I find it sadly ironic that their iconic TV commercial from 1984 can be applied to them now.
Mr. Jobs, I am a small press blogger, but I sense the slow churn of animosity towards the iPhone. The apps are what make the iPhone sell, and if AR takes off while you’re still sitting behind your wall, hype will drive them to a Symbian or Android smartphone that does support augmented reality.
So tear down that wall, Mr. Jobs. Or we’ll find someplace else to go that doesn’t have any walls.
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