Posts Tagged AR Games
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]
Popularity: 7% [?]
What the Movie Avatar Can Teach Augmented Reality
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on February 6th, 2010
The biggest news about the movie Avatar has been the 3D experience and the way its blown the doors off the previous records. The movie has garnered huge success because it pushed the boundaries of technology and told an interesting story.
I loved the movie and the way 3D helped give more perspective to the enviroment. My own Star Trek loving mother didn’t even realize the Na’vi were CGI. She thought they were people in blue suits (really… I’m not joking.) And though storytelling will become important to later advanced augmented reality applications, it’s not what I wanted to point out.
James Cameron is part art-dude and part tech-geek. He waited for years for the technology to ripen enough to do the movie the way he wanted. One of the innovations that he created for the movie was the Fusion camera for the live-action sequences. Normally, scenes are filmed before a green screen and then the CGI is added afterwards. The actors play a game of make-believe and the director has to guess at how the enviroment will unfold around them. CGI movies tend view flatly because the emotions are added later by the special effects guys and not the actors on the scene. Cameron has changed all that.
The Fusion camera system is an augmented reality viewport into the CGI world. When Cameron was filming the actors, he was able to direct them and see the results. When he looks through his camera, he can see them interacting with the world Pandora as the nine foot Na’vi and help them tell the story. The camera itself wasn’t even a real camera in the sense that it filmed the action. The camera allowed Cameron to see the action being recorded by multiple sensors and cameras. Once the action was recorded, he could go back and reshoot the action from a different perspective, even with the actors gone.
Facial expression was another hurdle they had to jump to make the movie work. So they added little cameras hanging on people’s heads to capture their range of facial expressions and then tweaked algorithms to get them to react correctly. Even now we can pull off this trick.
Together these systems are similar to an immersive augmented reality world. While we don’t have the HMDs, complete camera access and processing power to pull off the world of Pandora now, time and continued improvement will make lesser versions possible.
If you look at the Fusion camera system, the camera is essentially the HMD display, albeit a large and bulky one. Multiple cameras, RFIDs and tracking markers help the computer understand the world, and complex and powerful computers put all the pieces together. I can only imagine that this system could be turned into a mind-blowing game in an empty warehouse with the proper HMDs.
Essentially, the movie Avatar teaches us that augmented reality has sky-high practical possibilities. All the components of his Fusion system can be ported to the commercial world (not now, but in three or four years) and used to make complex and believable environments overlaid our own world.
In the future, you too can be a nine-foot tall blue Na’vi and you won’t even have to have your soul sucked through a fiber-optic tree.
Popularity: 14% [?]
Weird Augmented T-Shirt Game
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on January 20th, 2010
Vuzix Wrap 920AR Video Eyewear at CES 2010
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, augmented reality on January 9th, 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: 23% [?]
10 Worst Uses of Augmented Reality in 2009
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, augmented reality on December 20th, 2009
Tis the season to reflect and review the year that’s about the scuttle its caboose into 2010. It’s been a huge year for augmented reality after decades of R&D, finally hitting the public’s awareness. Unfortunately, not all applications of the nascent technology showcased its possibilities. Instead, some slapped it into use without careful forethought and understanding of why augmented reality will be one of the most important technological aspects of our collective futures.
So I present what I believe are the 10 worst uses of augmented reality in 2009. I’m only looking at the commercial applications of AR, because R&D should be given the freedom to test code without stringent use-cases to guide its development. And often the commercial AR was bad because it was rushed onto market in a lame attempt to cash in on growing hype.
10. Hangman
While I never found an actual release of this game, the demo alone at the Tampa Internet and Technology Summit 2009 made me grimace in pain. Hopefully HD Interactive scuttled their AR plans after this demo and redrew their strategy. When I first saw this video, it inspired me to write this post.
9. Firefighter 360
The “360″ in the name is appropriate because you’ll be spinning in circles putting out fires. This app is similar to many others released that have a live camera feed, but don’t actually connect to any real world objects. The fires and firetrucks are reached through a console controller style interface. To really be AR, I would expect players to have to move around.
8. Mosquitoes
The description for the game reads — “This fun game uses the compass and accelerometer for a super realistic ‘augmented reality’ effect.” If you have to use the word super for your game, then you’re probably not going to be successful. If the mosquitoes actually landed on me or I had to move around the room to attack them, that would be cool, but once again the only thing I’m getting out of this game is dizziness.
7. Arcade Reality
Another AR shooter that could be played in a virtual environment for the same effect as the augmented one. They at least get points for multiple game play modes.
6. Dodge Avenger AR Campaign
As Rouli has been chronicling, augmented reality for selling cars jumped the shark last spring. Dodge didn’t get the memo and released this PC based campaign last month.
5. Virtual Makeup
Games Alfresco found this scary gem of an AR video in its Not Ready for Primetime post. We’ve seen lots of compelling try-on kiosks for other products like shirts, hats and jewelry, but turning your customers into scary clowns probably isn’t a great idea.
4. Avon Perfume
I’ll be the first to admit I could be missing something in the translation, but didn’t anyone tell Avon that perfumes smell and augmented reality is primarily about vision? And how many people sit around posing pictures with their perfume bottles.
3. Twitter 360
This one is more about timing and scope than anything. The Twitter 360 app received much press including this spot on the Augmented Planet, but that same week, Layar came out with its 3.0 version which made Twitter layers possible within its browser. The lifespan of these narrowly focused apps are going to become shorter and shorter as the reality browsers and big name companies like Google get into the game.
2. Best Buy Campaign
I could have picked from any number of paper marker based augmented reality campaigns, there were a ton of them this year, but I chose Best Buy from last spring as the unlucky example.
1. Always Feminine Hygiene Ad
An epic fail for so many reasons. Besides being a typical paper-based marker campaign, the use of augmented reality had no tie-in with the feminine hygiene product. The usage was so bad I had to rant about it in July.
There we have it, ten of the worst uses of augmented reality in 2009. While augmented reality is on the rise and many applications are impressive uses of the technology, we still have quite a few stinkers in the bunch. Usually the culprit is misunderstanding of the technology or rushing it to the public without deciding if its actually fixing anything. Blake Collins from OneZeroThrice expanded on this trend in his post about Who is, and Who Isn’t Augmented Reality.
And because I’m a nice guy, if you made it to my 10 worst list or you want to stay off of it for next year, I’m offering up my post about the 10 Things Your AR App Must Have to Succeed to help you mend your errant ways. I wrote it in anticipation of the over-hyped iPhone 3.1 OS, but it can be applied to any usage of the technology. While its certain there are misguided plans hatching at corporate conference rooms all over the world right now that will make us groan and roll our eyes at their attempts at augmented reality, I’m buoyed by the knowledge that it only takes a few proper applications to change the world.
Popularity: 45% [?]
Augmented Reality App Review on AOTS
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on December 10th, 2009
I have a confession to make: I watch AOTS (Attack of the Show) almost every day and not just for Olivia Munn. If you’re a hardcore gadget and game nerd like myself, this show is crack. Though I was excited to see them discuss augmented reality for the first time, I thought they could have picked some better apps. They discussed Pocket Universe, Twitter 360 and Google Goggles. I agree with Goggles but would have like to have seen one of the older reality browsers shown like Wikitude, Layar or Junaio.
The spotlight on AR was nice, but I’m hoping they do some more in-depth reviews of the nascent technology in the future. I’d even lend them a hand with the research.
Popularity: 12% [?]
V2 Instituite for the Unstable Media AR Talk
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on December 10th, 2009
Both Wikitude and Layar spoke at this Ecosystem event for augmented reality hosted by V2 Instituite for the Unstable Media and PortalToYourDreams. First half of the video has standard AR talking points, but after halfway point, I like the idea of seeing a person’s “aura” comprised of their metadata. Would people act differently if you could instantly know they’d never given a dime to charity or cheated on their SATs? Instant-karma feedback loops.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Are These Games Really AR Games?
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, augmented reality on December 7th, 2009
Two new games from Slapdown Games tout themselves as using augmented reality. Are they really?
The video shows the player taking a picture with a marker to establish the coordinate plane. After that it loads and the the game is played on that picture (squashing bugs and driving cars.) Does this really count as an augmented reality game or is it a picture reality game (ie – not AR)?
Watch the videos then answer the poll.
Popularity: 17% [?]





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