Posts Tagged future-technology
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: 15% [?]
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% [?]
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% [?]
Whisper Deck: Voice Controlled Augmented Reality
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on December 22nd, 2009
Wonderful proof-of-concept integration of voice recognition, web search, and FLARToolkit on a Vuzix+ARCam HMD. Certainly makes me drool for a commercial see-through HMD with an iPhone/Android level of operating system. His system also points in the direction of voice-command for HMDs until we can get good motion detection.
Go to Craig’s website for more information and get him to the next ARDevCamp, pronto.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Augmented Reality Car System
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Steal This AR Idea!, augmented reality on December 14th, 2009
Mobile computing devices are wonderful for bringing the world of information to our fingertips anywhere we go. Hurtling down the highway in one ton vehicles while trying to access our maps or find directions is not the safest way to drive.
This video shows an augmented reality street view using a Windows 7 notebook, Royaltek GPS, webcam, and an arduino board with 2-axis compass module.
The final intent of this garage-made system is unknown, but it certainly opens up possibilities for augmented reality car systems. Projection units could easily put these views onto the windshield and voice-command for GPS to keep it hands free is nothing new.
Speaking of GPS, did you know that you can get a TomTom GPS system with Snoop Dogg’s voice on it? Here’s the video to prove it.
How hard would it be for an AR GPS maker to have dual cams mounted on the dashboard with a projector blasting the screen information on your windshield? The car dimensions are fixed and the GPS is known, add in some object recognition for the occasional readjustment of geospatial location, and an AR car system could draw yellow lines on the road to follow and highlight points of interest along the way.
The technology exists and only needs someone to put the pieces together. I wouldn’t be suprised to learn a nimble startup had already started creating one. And even if such a project was started today, one could be on the market by late this year or next.
Popularity: 15% [?]
10 Games That Could Be Made with Layar 3.0
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Steal This AR Idea!, augmented reality on December 4th, 2009
The new Layar 3.0release brings more functionality to the reality browser. To help people envision what the service can do, Layar touts five new use-cases:
Five Layar 3.0 Use-Cases
1) Architecture Showcase – Visualize the final building at a construction site.
2) Storytelling: Beatles Tour – A visual tour of forty-three locations in London involving the Beatles. Each stop must be followed in order.
3) History Comes Alive – See the past reconstructed before your eyes with facts and 3D models.
4) Art, Messages & Fun Objects – Weird objects placed in unexpected places.
5) B2B & Personalization – Useful for businesses and social layers, enabling interaction with Twitter (take that Twitter 360!) and Foursquare services.
While these five use-cases expand the Layar reality browser (and more info on them can be seen here), I think they’re missing a huge use-case that’s now possible with 3.0. After reading through the Layar Developer Wiki, I found these functions that should help make Layar games possible.
Two Layar 3.0 Functions
* User added 3D objects – 3D objects up to 5000 polygons can be created with any 3D program (assuming it can create a Wavefront)
* Auto-Triggered Actions – POIs can trigger a URI (audio, video, webpage, etc) which can allow for additional programming aspects to happen. By utilizing functions within a webpage, most programming tools can be utilized within the Layar framework.
These two simple functions can add a lot of versatility to the program to make games. And while the 3D graphics are still pretty limited and animations aren’t yet possible, think back to the dawn of gaming when text based games like ZORK were all the rage, or simple 2D lines and text created time-sinks like Wizardry. Even simple sprites doomed many a night I should have been studying with Lemmings! The key to these games is that they should be locative, otherwise, what’s the point?
10 Games That Could Be Made with Layar 3.0
1) Capture the Flag – Instead of capturing flags on your opponent, hide flags in the city and capture your friends flags by visiting their locations.
2) Choose Your Own Adventure – Who didn’t read these cheesy books in grade school? Be a fun way to host a weekly bar-hop.
3) Simple RPG- a city based RPG that used locations as the “action areas.” Any math or combat resolving could be done through a URI webpage call and then reveal the 3D model (win=dead creature/lose=gravestone). Go into Joe’s Pub and kill a goblin for 5xp and then drink a pint to celebrate your victory.
4) Hidden Treasure- Clues and visual markers only seen through Layar can lead you to finding “special points” in the city.
5) Avatar Battles- Customize an avatar that does battle with others for control of locations. Think Foursquare crossed with Pokemon.
6) Economy Game – Buy and Sell real properties with virtual money. Must visit the location to purchase, can develop it with special actions (putting special 3D models in the area) and mark it with your sign.
7) Mystery Games- In a randomized Clue-style game, participants are given clues in different locations they visit and can ask questions using the URI webpage (pull down list) to figure out the daily murder.
8 ) The Hidden Story – A mosaic story could be told through the location in the city. For those that visit all of them, they can piece together the whole narrative that involves history, places and interesting people while the occasional 3D object might illustrate the narrative.
9) Planet War- Mine resources at locations, purchase tanks and other warfare equipment that can be places in areas you want to control. The website resolve winners and you see your battle regalia in the location. Take over your favorite eating establishment with a load of Panzers.
10) Lemmings!- I don’t really know how to do Lemmings! with Layar 3.0, but I’m sure someone much more creative than I can do it. It is the greatest game of all time, right?
Popularity: 35% [?]






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