Augmented reality is all about illusion.  Most applications project graphics on the real world.  But this HoloToy creates the illusion of a real space within iPhone or iPad, similar to the LevelHead game from last year.  The game has a number of modes including a Scarab Attack game, floating planets and a pet robot to interact with.  Most of them can be seen in this video.

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]

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.