Posts Tagged Ori Inbar
Augmented Reality Year in Review – 2009
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, Industrial AR, augmented reality on December 27th, 2009
The year 2009 has been an important milestone in the development of augmented reality as an important future technology. While markers and marketing campaigns captured the early interest of the year, the bigger story was the porting of augmented reality to the various smartphones in the second half.
But those two generalities aren’t the only thing that happened in 2009 in regards to augmented reality. I’m going to take a look back at the year, month-by-month, to remember how the year unfolded, so we better understand the direction of the future.
January
Back at the dawn of 2009, all the augmented reality news you needed to know was in one place – Games Alfresco. Hope was high and all the pieces seemed to be clicking into place.
Biggest News of the Month – Metaio releases its Lego AR boxes
* By a long shot, Metaio’s release of the augmented reality Lego box was the biggest news of the month. When you can get Angela Merkel and the Govenator to pose with your product, you’re doing well.
Coolest App/Video – iPhone App Helps Solve Rubix Cube
* This app portents of things to come in the future as products like Google Goggles amp up the possibilities of reality-search. Using specific algorithms (agents) for specific tasks, there will be an app for everything you want to do in the future.
Best Article / Interview – UgoTrade Interview with Robert Rice
* Though Robert hasn’t delivered on his promise of a Neogence product by mid-year (though the Apple video API has stymied their progress), the rest of the interview is full of great quotes and nuggets about augmented reality.
* Notable quotes from Robert that show how much he understands the industry:
But yes, I’d say that the next 18 months are going to be very interesting with a lot of money being thrown around, new ventures, and plenty of content/applications. I expect most of this will be centered on single user AR experienced through a mobile device with a screen (iPhone, android, etc.). I expect that there will be a significant boost after Vuzix releases some of their wearable *transparent* displays, putting Microvision back into the “has potential but is too quiet” position.
Remember, one of the biggest risks that AR has, is being branded as “novelty”, which means “cool for five minutes but ultimately a waste of time.” I think we have a ways to go before something is truly useful, but as 2009 progresses we should start seeing some effort here. I’d guess 2010 before something really useful comes out…at least something practical.
Now, having said that, I should say that I expect entertainment and games to take the lead (as usual), although there are a few companies really trying to leverage AR and video/graphics compositing for marketing (brochures) and location based methods (kiosks, large screen projections, etc.)
Other notable things that happened in January – The Augmented Times is born and Rouli Nir begins a great year of chronicling the happenings of AR.
An auspicious quote from Rouli:
This blog is about Augmented Reality (AR). It is my firm belief that AR will be the next web revolution (the so called Web 3.0, and forget about that semantic web nonsense). In the next few years, stronger devices and better algorithms will enable us to merge the real world with cyberspace. Using your mobile phone (at first) or head up display (later on) every real object will be augmented and achieve a web presence. Tourism, shopping, advertisement, entertainment and education are only a few areas that will never be the same.
This blog mission is to document this revolution as it happens. We welcome you, and welcome our augmented future.
February
This month is relatively quiet due to it being handicapped by fewer days than the other months.
Biggest News of the Month – Augmented Reality in Flash Now Commercially Available.
* Making the nuts-and-bolts tools of AR available for commercial use is always a good thing, especially when its paired with flash.
Coolest App / Video – “Sixth Sense” MIT Device.
* Patty Maes unleashed this phenomenon on the web early last year and it still gets links and mentions today. While projection based AR is probably not medium that we’ll all eventually use, the video showed tangible use-cases that help the non-initiated understand the embryonic technology.
Best Article / Interview – This comic from the Abstruse Goose sums up a lot about the future of ubiquitous computing (via Augmented Blog.)
Other notable things that happened in February- I started the Future Digital Life blog, which upon reading my early posts, makes me cringe a little. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Also, Rouli starts the Weekly Linkfest, the best place to find the round up of AR news each week.
March
In like a lion, out like a lamb. Augmented reality starts to get rolling in March with lots of goodies and promises.
Biggest News of the Month – Metaio and Vuzix Team Up to Create AR Goggles.
* While the year has been mostly disappointing regarding HMDs, this was the one tangible piece of progress in the bunch. The video Ori captured at the GDC portends to greater things. While no companies have released products for the Vuzix+ARCam, we’ve recently seen an impressive project from Craig Kapp with his Whisper Deck.
Coolest App / Video – Blair MacIntryre’s GA Tech team – Zombie Attack and Pit Strategy.
* The videos showed what polished AR games can look like.
Best Article / Interview – I’m going for a two-fer on this one because its hard to choose between Ori’s talk at WARM09 and Robert’s Decade of Ubiquity post.
* If you haven’t watched Ori’s talk, I highly recommend it. Even though I’d seen the video, I made a point of hearing him live at ISMAR09 because I think its such a well thought-out call for human-based technology. Robert’s vision is a bit more expansive and covers the whole of augmented reality. I’ll leave you with another Robert quote:
We will break away from the desk, we will throw away our monitors, and our children will laugh at how large our IPhones are. They will struggle with how we ever managed to get work done with “windows” “webpages” and keyboards. They will be unable to fathom the concept of vinyl disks, typewriters, and landlines. But it all starts, and accelerates, during this next decade. Imagine everything that happened in the last decade, and multiply it. You haven’t seen anything yet. The next decade will make the last one pale in comparison.
Other notable things that happened in March – Topps released augmented baseball cards and ISMAR09 begins calling for papers.
April
Biggest News of the Month- Rouli and Ori team up on Games Alfresco to create the AR hub for all AR related news.
* The move allowed Ori to focus more on his company and gave Rouli the helm on the daily AR newscasting. Looking back at the great job that GA has done, I’d say it was a good move.
Coolest App / Video – Marco Tempest’s AR card trick video.
* The video hit the web in April and showed us how AR can change our perception of reality.
Best Article / Interview – Tim O’Reilly talks Web 2.0
* Augmented Times identified the best quote from the video:
RFID is an evolutionary dead-end … semantic web or RFID is things “wearing name-tags”, and web 2.0 is learning to recognize things … We’re getting to that kind of augmented reality, where our computers will have senses that are as good as ours or better … they are going to recognize faces, they are going to recognize objects, they gonna have immediate recall. If you ask me “what’s the UI in five years”, it’s a pair of glasses … I’m gonna have some kind of little heads up display because I’m gonna look at something, I’m gonna walk around at a meeting and it will go “that’s Joe, you met him three years ago”.
Other notable things that happened in April – Georgia Tech fear of heights video (another peak into the future of augmented reality as a perception changer), Rouli’s call for marketers to stop using AR to sell cars, Lester at the Augmented Planet gets his blog started, Nokia point and find is out and a couple of articles about brain-computer interfaces: Honda controls robot and the brain-twitter breakthrough.
May
Biggest News of the Month – Metaio releases Unifeye design demo.
Coolest App / Video – Useful AR from the US Postal Service.
* Using FLARToolkit, the US postal service shows us that not all AR applications have to be novelity ones.
Best Article / Interview – Tish interviews Ori Inbar about mobile augmented reality.
Ori: Just like with every emerging technology in history, people never bought the technology, they bought the content, the apps, the benefits that came on top of the technology. Whether it was VHS winning over Beta Max, or BluRay winning over HD. It’s always because of more/better content. Look at the video game console war: Xbox, and Nintendo did better than Sony just because they had more and better games. Even Windows was a success thanks to its applications. People bought it for the applications not the OS. The content is the first to drive demand.
Other notable things that happened in May – My post about the Path to Augmented Vision, Programmer Joe talks AR at LOGIN, and 11 Industries to be Reinvented with Augmented Reality.
June
Biggest News of the Month – Layar is online.
* The biggest news of the month by far. Layar was the first big product release that got a buzz bump.
Coolest App / Video – Zugara Social Shopper.
* The video showcased the use of motion capture to help eliminate the burdensome need for keyboards and mouses when you’re using augmented reality. Zugara later put the technique into practice for their Cannonballz and Fashionista products.
Best Article / Interview – UgoTrade Interview with Blair MacIntyre
* No surprise here. Tish Shute continues to get great interviews with everyone important in the AR field.
The problem with the mobile phone as a AR device is that problem of awareness. If I have a head mount on and I walk down the street and there is bunch of probably-not-useful-but-potentially-useful information floating by me, that’s a good thing, because I may see something that is useful or makes me think of something else. But if I have to hold up my phone to see if something might be interesting nearby, I will never hold up my phone because at the time there is a high probability that there won’t be anything particularly important there. You might imagine you can get around this by using alerts or something like that, but then you overload whatever alert channel you use.
Other notable things that happened in June- Ori asks us all about our favorite AR games of all time, Noah breaks onto the scene with his Touchless Glove Interface, and Goggle presents their paper on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (which later becomes Goggles).
July
Biggest News of the Month – The AR Consortium Announced.
* While its still unknown if the consortium has accomplished anything through cooperation, the intention of cooperation is a start. Here’s to hoping we’ll see more fruit from this vine in 2010.
Coolest App / Video – AcrossAir Tube Finder.
* At the time it was released we weren’t sure if it was a real product, but eventually we learned the truth and for a time, AcrossAir became the top selling AR app on the iPhone appstore.
Best Article / Interview – UgoTrade Interview with Ori Inbar “Reality Reinvented”
Ori:You are so right. It’s multiple elements in the industry that have to come together. You have the technology companies like Imagination and Metaio, then you have content companies like what we’re trying to do; the hardware vendors and the large content providers. Those brands that we’re trying to go after and educate them about the potential of AR. All these pieces need to come together for this market to ignite.
Other notable things that happened in July – James Alliban’s business card goes viral and AR Avatar toys are released at Comic Con.
August
Biggest News of the Month – Yelp Introduces AR Monocle via Easter Egg
Coolest App / Video – Bruce Sterling’s Layar Keynote – At the Dawn of the AR Industry
* Bruce released an AR-infused novel Catyadids in 2009, so it was only natural that Layar asked him to speak about the fledgling industry. The speech is memorable with too many great lines to pick from for quoting here.
Best Article / Interview – Thomas Wrobel’s Proposal for an Open AR Network
* Easily Tish’s best interview because it turned into more than a reflection of past events or hopes for the future. Tish and Thomas have since rallied AR professionals and amateurs to join the AR Wave collaborative effort. They seek to use Wave as the platform for an open AR network and have recently been testing code.
Other notable things that happened in August – AR Strippers!
September
Biggest News of the Month – Vuzix 920Wrap Will Not be See-Through
* The biggest disappointment of the year was the news from Vuzix. Good see-through AR glasses are supposed to release us from the tyranny of the “magic lens”. Hoping 2010 brings better news, but I’m really waiting until 2011.
Coolest App / Video – Augmenting Aerial Maps with Dynamic Information
Best Article / Interview – Gene Becker’s Design Strategies for Magic Lens.
Other notable things that happened in September – No more Gamaray - Death of a Browser, Int13 and Total Immersion getting into bed, and the augmented reality reading list.
October
Biggest News of the Month – News from ISMAR09, News from ISMAR09 #2 and UgoTrade ISMAR09 Coverage.
* I was lucky enough to attend and speak at ISMAR09. The energy of the participants was exceptional and I came away from it more jazzed about AR than I was going in. Hopefully the ISMAR committee will be releasing the videos from the event soon.
Coolest App / Video - 2D sketches become 3D reality.
Best Article / Interview – ISMAR09 HMD Review
* I think I summed up the current state of HMDs for AR pretty well. I’m hoping 2010 brings a suprise for AR HMDs.
Other notable things that happened in October – AR Wave discussion on UgoTrade, Wikitude for the iPhone first look and Giant Hand Torments City
November
Biggest News of the Month – Junaio hits the app store.
Coolest App / Video – Interactive Entertainment Using AR
* The videos about the Disney experiences were similar to what Mark Mine showed us at ISMAR. They really show us how technology can transcend our perceptions of reality.
Best Article / Interview – Augmented Planet’s Head-to-head browser test (and part 2)
* Lester broke down the various browsers in this excellent hands-on challenge. Read both parts to find out the winner.
Other notable things that happened in November – Business Week’s Article about: Getting Beyond the Hype and Robert Rice’s reply.
December
Biggest News of the Month – Goggle Googles is released.
* The giant has awoken. Goggles has many implications for Googles ideas on the AR market. This won’t be the last time we’ll hear from them about this technology.
Coolest App / Video – Layer 3.0.
* While Layar has since pulled the app from the app store and had to issue and apology, the version 3.0 still holds lots of promise.
Best Article / Interview – Augmented Reality in 2010: Predictions (10 part series)
* A wide swath of the AR blogosphere had the opportunity to participate in the predictions series from Games Alfresco run by Rouli Nir. More interesting, snarky, and possibly-true predictions that you can shake an augmented stick at.
Other notable things that happened in December – AR Wave FAQ on UgoTrade, Enkin acquired by Google, ARDevCamp, Wikitude Teams Up with Lonely Planet, 10 Worse Uses of AR in 2009, and Nexus One News and Implications of AR.
What It All Means
Whew. After reviewing hundreds of articles and videos, I’m sure I’ve missed a number of important happenings from the year 2009. If I have, please make sure to comment and I’ll add it if I have overlooked it.
What does it all mean? That is entirely up to you. The year has brought many advances to augmented reality and the ceiling is sky-high for 2010. There will be surprises, excuses, apologies, releases, re-releases and more. Money will be pumped in, not all where it should go, and progress will be made. We’ll laugh at the videos, smile at our favorite products and complain when it does work as expected. Either way, it will be a year more interesting than the last and I’ll be here to watch it all unfold.
Popularity: 87% [?]
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.
Popularity: 12% [?]
ISMAR09 HMD Review
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality, digital singularity on October 21st, 2009
The biggest barrier to true augmented vision is an HMD that can handle all the requirements. I had the oppertunity to experience what Microvision, Vuzix and ORALab/EvoOpticks had to offer. I’ll try to relate their talks and my experiences with their products and let you know if any of them have achieved augmented vision.
Microvision – Ben Averch
Ben started the presentation during the Industrial section of Workshop Monday. The first AR-style model Microvision tried was the Nomad which tried to be a hands-free automotive maintenance model. The unit was plagued by poor ergonomics and eye strain. It only used the red spectrum and they retired the product line in 2006 only two years after release.
Microvision then changed their plans to achieve an AR enabled HMD by leveraging their military contracts. The plan is to sell their Urban Warfare model (Ultra-vis) to the government and then use what they’ve learned to create a consumer model.
They see a big market for a consumer HMD display but need to solve the remaining issues before its ready for the public. I had an opportunity to try out their prototype HMD. It wasn’t a full unit, but a bulky monocle on a stick. While it didn’t give me an idea how it would function as a pair of sunglasses, it did give me a feel for the graphics. I was impressed by the clarity of the color in the monocle. The big problem I see for the first generation of HMDs will be the field of view. This prototype only had a ~25degree field of vision. The limited view will mean our early HMDs will only mimic our computer screens and not release the full spectrum of hands-free AR.
Ben has written about his experience on his official Microvision blog and has said they expect a commercial product by 2011.
It’s clear from the discussions I had with various industry members that a see-through wearable display that meets people’s expectations from both ergonomics and display performance is the big, obvious missing link in the AR solution story. We at Microvision are working hard to fill in this gap and create a technology solution that can allow this new market to take shape.
Ben also showed off their projector which at the time didn’t excite me much from an AR point of view. However, after the key note speech from Mark Mine from Disnery Imagineering, I learned that the projector had a lot more going for it than I realized.
Vuzix – Paul Travers
Paul gave us a nice history of HMDs including the failed hype of VR which has made getting money for HMDs harder to come by. On a good note, Vuzix has a good track record of selling video glasses which gives them a good base to work from once they master the AR HMD. Currently they’ve sold around 200,000 video glasses by marketing them the same way a HD TV would be sold. This might mean that augmented reality’s best bet for widespread use is to be a Trojan horse within another accepted technology (similar to how Yelp gained AR eyeballs through their Monocle easter egg.)
Unfortunately, Paul had to apologize a few times for misleading on the AR community about the “see-through AR HMDs” everyone thought were right around the corner with the 920Wrap. He hopes they can reach market by 2010, but like Microvision they still have challenges to solve.
I did get to try their video glasses, which were interesting, but I would have preferred to try out the glasses Ori tried at GDC. Paul did say that see-through AR glasses would be priced from $199-349. This sounds like a great price point that would help gain wider audiences. I know I would buy one.
ORALab/EvoOpticks
This presentation delved into more historical and technical realms rather than commercial usage. Not a lot to pass along, but I did get to try their see-through HMD. The view port was around 20 degrees and seen through two reflected mirrors on the screen rather than a laser created image. They have no current plans for commercial production.
And for the history buffs, the first patent for an HMD was by Albert B. Pratt in 1916.
I wish Lumus had also attended ISMAR, but no such luck.
Overall, I was disappointed that no HMD maker had a surprise announcement that they had a product ready for release Q1 2010. Release dates of 2011 sound more like appeasement than real schedules. Having experienced the products myself, I also realize the field of view will be a problem for early developers. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be happy to have a HMD right now, even with a 15 degree field, but the small width will limit creativity. Hopefully when they solve the lighting and weight issues they’ll also figure out how to achieve a 40 degree field of view.
This past May, I predicted true Augmented Vision would occur around 2015. After the demonstrations on Monday, I’m not going to change my prediction. While I heard many quote Moore’s Law in regards to AR, I’m not buying it yet. Moore’s Law is fed by billions (with B) of dollars which pushes the technology as fast as it can go. AR is still languishing in VR’s dead space and has to catch a few wins of its own before it can start generating real cash to take advantage of Moore’s Law.
Even if Microvision or Vuzix or Lumus release a commercial product in 2011, the software and apps to make the experience fulfilling won’t be available. I also expect the first versions of the AR HMDs will only be bought by the early adopters. It will take a few tries to make them lightweight, eye-strain free and with enough field of vision to keep people from having to rotate their head constantly. I’m all for being wrong on this one, but I expect the road to widespread acceptance will be paved with a few missteps. Cellphones took twenty years to go from the bag phone to the ultra-sleek smartphone, and while technology moves faster these days, I’m still sticking with my year 2015 prediction.
Popularity: 67% [?]
The Augmented Reality Reading List
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Stories, augmented reality on September 21st, 2009
Earlier this month, Ori Inbar posted on Games Alfresco about why people get excited about augmented reality. Ori mentions Vernor Vinge’s Rainbows End as inspiration and it got me thinking about other novels that use augmented reality.
I’m making this list, not only because these novels and stories are great reads, but also because I find it fascinating how fiction, especially science-fiction, can inspire real inventions. Who would have thought the social-media-karma concept of Whuffie from Cory Doctorow’s novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom would be made real (will it work is a whole ‘nother story)? Or how Google’s super-nerds Larry Page and Sergey Brin have taken notes from Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash for their Google Earth project? The afore mentioned Rainbows End has frequently been called upon in the realms of augmented reality.
Without further ado (because when do you actual have ado?), I present, in no particular order, the augmented reality reading list (updated 9/21 and 9/22):
Novels
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom – Cory Doctorow
The novel is set in the 22nd century when death has been cured. While the jacket cover may baffle you by combining such concepts as Disney World, ad-hocracies, Whuffie and the Bitchun utopia, the story was nominated for a Nebula Award in 2004 for Best Novel, so that should tell you something for the quality of the writing. This is the only one on the list that I’ve read (besides Virtual Light), but its been one of my favorites for the last decade. The augmented reality concept within the novel is the HUD. It’s not quite the “shared reality” that true AR brings, but it definitely combines social-networking, the Internet and a HUD for the everyday man, woman or child.
Rainbows End – Vernor Vinge
This novel is frequently cited among knowledgeable augmented reality enthusiasts as an inspiration for their work (along with Denno Coil). While many of the other stories in this list have only tantalizing connections to AR, Vernor has specifically written this novel with the technology as the backbone for society. It won the Hugo Award and Locus Awards in 2007.
The Caryatids – Bruce Sterling
Our prophet of augmented reality, Bruce Sterling, is no stranger to this illusionary science. Long ago he helped pioneer the original cyberpunk revolution and has had elements of AR in his short stories and novels (i.e. Holy Fire) for some time. In his most recent novel, The Caryatids, he unleashes the technology in the form of Spex which are a form of head-mounted displays. Cory Doctorow gives a glowing review of the book on BoingBoing.
Spook Country – William Gibson
Gibson’s novel brings us geolocative art that can only be seen with VR helmets. It’s not entirely AR, but its close enough to draw similar conclusions. In a quote I like, which sums up the transition from cyberpunk to post-cyberpunk to augpunk (or whatever it should be called) Gibson says:
If the book has a point to make where we are now with cyberspace, is that cyberspace has colonized our everyday life and continues to colonize everyday life.
The novel was nominated for a Locus Award in 2008. You can read more about the novel in this SF Net Review.
Halting State - Charles Stross
The novel’s plot centers around a bank robbery in an MMORG and is written in the second person. The AR in the novel is based on the usage of Specs, the same goggles in his novel Accelerando, that are a form of HUD. The novel was nominated for both a Hugo and a Locus in 2008 and has a sequel entitled “419″ due out in 2010.
The Commonwealth Saga and Void Trilogy – Peter F. Hamilton
This arc of books starts in the near-future, then jumps forward 300 years before making its final jump to a period of 1200 years later for the void trilogy. Not all the books are finished (the last is due out in 2011.) The AR contained stretches a bit further than the others on this list with an interstellar network of computers called the Unisphere. While the others on the list are post-cyberpunk novels, this one is an epic space opera with elements of augmented reality.
The Golden Age Trilogy - John C. Wright
This trilogy is set 500,000 years into the future when everyone is immortal and wealthy. The elite Manorials rely on AI to do all the trivial day-to-day work for them while they interact with each other using the Mentality (their version of the Internet.) They commonly travel by telepresence (or augmented reality.)
Lady of Mazes - Karl Schroeder
The novel is set in the far future similar to the above Golden Age. Post-humans have gained god-like powers and utilize AR to change their surroundings. SFSite gives a review of the novel here.
Virtual Light – William Gibson
The plot centers around a young bike messanger who steals a pair of innocent-looking glasses from a man at a party. She doesn’t realize what they do, nor does she realize what dangerous information they have on them. The “virtual-light” glasses are obviously AR glasses (upon my 5th reading twenty years later), but its interesting how the data is very localized. The use of AR is limited (most of it doesn’t come until the end), but captures the essence of the technology. The novel was a finalist for the Hugo and Locus Awards.
Uglies Trilogy - Scott Westerfield
While this trilogy technically falls into the YA section, it’s not just for teenagers and I highly recommend it for everyone. Like Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, the main character is in her teens and the far-future technology is second nature including hacking her interface ring and hoverboard. Augmented reality isn’t a main component of the storyline, but the privacy issues surrounding the Internet of Things is visible throughout. Even if you don’t care a lick about AR, I’d pick up these books. The story had me so completely in its grips I read all three books over a period of five days.
Short Stories/Novellas
Dogfight - William Gibson and Michael Swanwick
Deep Eddy – Bruce Sterling
Taklamakan – Bruce Sterling
Bicycle Repairman – Bruce Sterling
(These three Sterling stories are collected in A Good Old-Fashioned Future with a few others)
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away – Cory Doctorow
Accelerando - Charles Stross
Sagan’s Law - Thomas K Carpenter (yes, that’s me! shameless self promotion.)
Special thanks to Bruce Sterling who was kind enough to take a break from opining about pink hoodies and the strange names of augmented reality to help me populate my meager list, especially the short stories. If you don’t read his blog on Wired, then you should. He posts more about augmented reality than is probably healthy for a human being.
Also, thanks to D. Cahill (Hamilton), Mike (Stross – I can’t believe I missed that one), Mike Scott (Schroeder), Blair MacIntyre (Gibson), and Johannes (Wright) for the other suggestions.
And if I’ve missed any books or short stories that involve augmented reality, I’ll be happy to update the list. So please comment here or send me an email.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Around the ARNet
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, Industrial AR, augmented reality on September 8th, 2009
This past month the specter of augmented reality, which in the past had been mostly research papers and speculation, has slowly been turning into real products. With a nice long three day weekend to relax, I thought I’d reflect on the more important happenings of augmented reality.
Augmented Reality Apps
Yelp
The hottest topic for augmented reality apps was the easter egg in the iPhone app Yelp. With three shakes of the iPhone, the Monocle application would be unlocked allowing camera based AR. The impact of this application on the news can be seen in this technorati tag tracker:
Wikitude Drive
Wikitude, the creators of the first reality browser, gave a preview of their augmented reality navigation system for the Android. The navigational system called Wikitude Drive overlays point-to-point directions on the camera view. Some concerns were expressed about safety for the driver, but this application is no different than any navigation system already on the market. And for you iPhone junkies, don’t worry, they’ll be releasing it on that smartphone as well.
And while I’m on Wikitude, they also released Wikitude 3.0, an enhanced version of wikitude.me. Read the article for more details.
Layar 2.0
Competing for the mindshare of future “reality browsers”, Layar has done a good job of getting its product noticed even though it came six months after the Wikitude app. Layar is already onto version 2.1, making improvements to its browser like linking within Layars and sharing screenshots.
Put-A-Spell
Living up to his promise of AR education games for kids, Ori’s company Ogmento brings us a demo of their Put-A-Spell game for young children.
iPhone OS 3.1
Of course, this operating system isn’t an app, but its precursor to an assumed flood of AR apps we’re expecting to see when 3.1 finally becomes live. Expected in September, grumblings of delays have been speculated based on progress in beta. When it finally does drop, expect to see a huge spike in augmented reality articles.
AR Goggles
Lumus
While we’re still a ways from augmented vision, its still nice to track progress of augmented reality goggles. Ori Inbar gives us a peak into the progress of AR goggles in an interview with Zvi Lapidot, CEO of Lumus. While we can’t expect to see a commercial product from Lumus until 2011, mostly due to a lack of VC funding, we can take a look at this demo from them.
Vuzix
While we’re still waiting for the AV920 Wrap to be released this fall, Vuzix has updated their website with a page with an AR Education Group. This group will focus on training services for various industries from medical to military with both off-the-shelf training and custom.
Nokia
At the recent SDForum, research fellow Kari Pulli, talked about Nokia’s take on mobile augmented reality. They believe the future to be, not on handsets, but in AR goggles and are developing a prototype model. The slide show can be seen here.
Interesting Articles
Eight months ago, I could keep up with all the discussion easily. Now many new hats are being thrown into the ring. I’d like to point out my favorite articles from around the ARNet.
Games Alfresco, Ori Inbar – Why People Get Excited About Augmented Reality
Ori gives us a nice rundown of the influence of science fiction on technology and how augmented reality will bring us: x-ray vision, time travel and teleportation.
Ugo Trade, Tish Shute – Everything Everywhere: Thomas Wrobel’s Proposal for an Open Augmented Reality Network
Showing what a great discussion Thomas unleashed, the comment section was nearly as long as the article itself. As a frequent contribuitor on the AR blogs, it was nice to see Thomas outline his vision for the future of augmented reality.
Bruce Sterling – At the Dawn of the Augmented Reality Industry
This video was recorded at the Layar Launch Event. Bruce Sterling, a promenant sci-fi author who helped bring about the cyberpunk movement, gives us a rundown of down-market cheesy AR, who’s leading the AR development race, what to call augmented reality and other ramblings on a fledgling industry. Bruce is also writting regularly about augmented reality and other wired topics on his blog Beyond the Beyond.
Marshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb – Augmented Reality: 5 Barriers to a Web That’s Everywhere
The challenges to an augmented reality world are more than the sum of its parts. Marshall breaks down these challenges in five parts: Social vs. Real-Time, UX, Spam and Security, Interoperability and Openness.
Rouli Nir, Augmented Times – Looking for a Modern Day Chaplin
Rouli explains why we need more storytelling and mystery in our AR applications. As he says, “content not technology is the way forward.”
This hits a nice cross-section of my favorite articles from the last month. I also would like to point to the three articles on my own site that got the most traffic: Proposal: Augmented Reality Scale, 10 Things Your AR App Must Have to Succeed, and 10 Franchises That Need Augmented Reality.
I’d like to say that I discussed all the major happenings from the past month, but the volume of AR information coming out lately makes that impossible. For the items I have missed, I suggest checking out the Weekly Linkfest on Games Alfresco/Augmented Times (of course, most of my readers, also read that site, but for those that aren’t yet):
Lastly, if you’re still not on the augmented reality bandwagon, I present to you the most recent augmented reality trends graph on Google trends.
Popularity: 26% [?]
UgoTrade Interview #2 with Ori Inbar
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on July 28th, 2009
UgoTrade brings us another excellent interview with Ori Inbar and explains it will be the first of many with leaders in the augmented reality movement. Stop by and read the whole thing in its full-length goodness. Here’s a few highlights:
Ori: Exactly. In parallel to my blog becoming popular, it seems there’s a lot of activity picking up in the AR space. People are reaching out to us and are asking asking for help. So we started actually making that a part of our business. We help connect them with the right technologies if they need it or connect them with the right brands or companies and strategize with them on how to go to market and help publish their applications or games. So that’s becoming an exciting part of what we do.
An important part of augmented reality becoming a useful and integrated product with society is cooperation on standards and specifications. Its good to see industry leaders busy nurturing this new technology rather than battling over the details. A rising tide lifts all boats and augmented reality has seen a lot of growth so far this year as seen by the Google Trends graph below:
I think as Apple releases the iPhone OS 3.1 in September, which will allow a host of AR apps currently in development to hit the market, and with a few other products like the PS3 EyePet releasing around Christmas; we’ll see augmented reality start to crack the mainstream consciousness.
Popularity: 4% [?]
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