Posts Tagged outdoor AR
Maxcware AR Glasses Project
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Industrial AR, augmented reality, digital singularity on July 21, 2010
A few months ago Staffan Dryselius made a splash on Team Hack-a-Day with his DIY data glasses. Since then he’s been working with a team to improve his design and would like to form a larger partnership with anyone interested in working on or owning a pair of AR glasses. Having a working HMD for augmented reality would help the technology gain wider use. Currently, we’re stuck with magic lens or web cam AR if we want to play with our favorite technology, though both have come a long way since early 2009.
The group is calling the glasses Maxcware (website not fully functional yet, but contact Staffan below if you want to join.) If you’re not familiar with the reference in the name, I’ll give you a hint. The name is from a science-fiction novel from this decade and if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it (and it’s in the AR reading list.) If you’d like to contribute to the group, contact him at staffan (at) maxcware (dot) com.
So to learn more about the project, I sat down to interview the man behind the vision (pun intended), Staffan, and since we’re talking about a visual medium here, I’m going to show you the glasses before we get to the interview.
Tom:
Interest in commercial HMDs has increased with spread of
smartphones. Why did you decide to tackle this problem that the glasses
makers have failed to deliver on?
Staffan:
I had more or less despaired about any non-heinous, high-resolution
see-through HMDs emerging in my lifetime when Vuzix showed off their
new Wraps at CES 2009. When all they finally delivered to the market
turned out to be an opaque lump of plastic, I had finally had it. I
started to suspect that the public would continue to be spoonfed
incremental yesterware more or less forever. No single maker would
have the guts to make their inventory unsellable by launching anything
really nice and new unless forced at gunpoint. I would never get the
glasses I wanted unless I made them myself.
I first got excited about HMDs some time around 1995. There was lots
of interesting research done at the time, and also quite a few
companies advertising products “soon to appear in a store near you”. I
think it was around -96 something that Sony actually launched their
Glasstron model, and there was also the “Olympus Eyetrek” soon
afterwards. I however decided to wait a bit, great things seemed to be
just around the corner. Especially one company, Digilens had an
awesome idea for optical see-through AR-type displays using switchable
Braggs gratings in 98-99… I was very excited at that one especially
(the company has by the way resurfaced as SBG Labs with yet another
vaporware design).
Then the dot.bomb exploded, and everything digital died. “Virtual
Reality” became “Definitive Nonexistence”. The headsets by Sony and
Olympus were phased out, and the Digilens homepage died shortly after
they decided to do fibernet switching chips rather than HMDs… That
was more or less the situation for many years, and I was very
disappointed and soon promised myself to try and forget all about
HMD:s until I saw an advertisement for something really good I could
actually buy in a shop.
Since then, I have read several science fiction books featuring HMDs,
seen the developments in smartphone AR emerge and again felt
frustrated about the non-existence of useful HMDs.
Enter 2009 and CES. Vuzix were showing their new Wraps. Wow! At last!
I couldn’t wait for the release date for their fabulous new optical
see-through displays! The disappointment was what made me do it. Even
though I didn’t really know how, I had to give it a shot.
Tom:
From the picture, the screens appear to be non see-through. Is there any
possibility of making them see-through so true augmented reality can be
accomplished?
Staffan:
Yes. And that is the plan too, of course. The first step is to add a
camera to the glasses to feed the display ambient video blended with
digital content. It is much neater not having to point the camera of
the phone itself around to use AR applications in the glasses, as must
be done today. As soon as possible we will also want to add
accelerometers and magnetometers to the glasses.
The top half of the glasses will continue to be completely clear.
There is no need to expand the physical screens any further, only the
virtual screen estate. Those two are quite separate entities, but it
is only when keeping the optics sufficiently close to the eyes that
this becomes really obvious. It’s like peeping through a keyhole: Keep
your eye close enough and the aperture lets you see the whole room.
From the beginning I saw the “see-around” (or rather “see above”)
design combined with “really near eye” optics as just a pragmatic way
to make something useful with available technology. However, a very
nice aspect of the “really near eye”-design is that the physical
movements of the eyes can actually become useful instead of being just
another engineering obstacle. It is especially useful that the eyelids
work as natural shutters, switching to the view that is most
appropriate for the moment. When looking straight ahead or upwards,
the lower eyelids completely block the screen so that light from the
displays doesn’t disturb the natural vision. When looking down, the
upper eyelids block lots of the ambient light that may otherwise
bleach the screen.
Apart from a convenient way to keep alive when traversing a street, it
also means that camera see-through becomes practical. At first, the
mere thought of camera see-through made me shudder. Although that
solution can more or less immediately be used together with Layar and
all the rest of the applications for smartphones, both limited field
of view and latency are fierce problems to combat without a
possibility to momentarily switch to complete see-through. The latency
may not seem too bad at first, but try and navigate while walking at
any speed using only the viewfinder of a video camera. Fixing a camera
to the glasses is far worse and reacts to every jerk of the head. To
keep the screen from bobbing about, you have to take it real slow… If
motion sickness is not enough to make a person reconsider, then the
inevitable robotic choreography should inspire second thoughts about
testing the concept in public.
Tom:
How do you envision the use of these glasses? Hooked up to an iPhone or
Android (or whatever smartphone you use) to project the screen realtime? Or
some other usage?
Staffan:
All that is needed is connectivity and some basic sensors. They’re all
there in today’s smartphones, so yes, the glasses will hook up to
them. As many different makes as possible and as easily as possible.
As for uses… Wow! Where to start?
…Humanity is a little like the first amphibians. We’re popping our
heads above the surface of the primordial soup right now. There is a
completely new digital world in the making out there. We are just not
very well adapted to take part in it, and the interfaces we use today
are laughably inadequate for interaction. With AR glasses we may at
least get up from our asses and shut the door on the cubicle. Reading
company spreadsheets can be done just as well on the way to the beach.
The best ideas may come to our mind when we are in the supermarket,
only today we forget before we’re back at the computer. No more so. A
digital post-it or email is quickly edited in the corner of the eye.
But work and “productivity” is boring… Instead Google should be there
with us when we see a new butterfly in the park. Getting lost in the
city in the age of GPS? –That’s laughable! Directions should be where
they belong, as AR overlay. No more getting scammed in a shop. The
barcodes should trigger balloons with user tests and best prices on
the go. Blogger? -Updating the skateblog should be done when we are
actually up and rolling, complete with action footage and biometrics.
Why make do with just the normal senses? Nightvision? –No problems.
X-ray vision may come in handy while sharking by the pool, just pop
out the IR-filter if you are so inclined. Bad-hair-day? –Put on a
digital wig and a happy face. Bored? –Just connect to a robocam in a
Tokyo bar. Going to a meatspace party? Bring your avatar buddy along…
Starting to sound outlandish yet? SciFi? I say all this is very close
at hand, and we just need to light the match to set the digitality
ablaze. It is long overdue…
Tom:
You mention on the hackaday post that the image is doubled on the two
screens. Have you figured out how to split the image to get the true 1280
width?
Staffan:
More or less. We will probably want to device a completely new
graphics card instead of doing too many hacks on the original MyVue
PCB, but it is doable even on that one. I’m just afraid that we may be
wasting valuable time going down that alley too far. I think it will
be better to put something together that doesn’t require un-human
soldering skills to work. I want to put together a more manageable kit
instead so that as many people as possible can get involved. The Kopin
displays are however well documented, and there is no magic involved
in interfacing with them. I have a friend working on it, but don’t
want to push it. In the Hackerspace groups I also mention, we are
getting better organized. There is now a webspace up and running (for
our internal purposes as of yet), and we are putting together a
“to-do”-list allocating work-packages for the different members. The
front-page of Hackaday gave some new contacts too, and I’m having
serious pangs from my conscience for not handling them yet! I’ve been
lazing away with the family doing things like sailing and the like…
Tom:
How much would it cost if someone wanted to make their own pair?
Staffan:
A pair of MyVu glasses cost about $150 on eBay. Add some Fimo putty
and a pair of oversize-sunglasses (the kind that fits over regular
glasses) plus a couple of days work (depending on skill), and you have
a crude but passable pair.
If you want something better, you may download the meshes for the pair
I have and order better frames from an online prototype maker. I don’t
have the figures for how much that would be, but that is a quite
expensive alternative. Better then to wait until I can fill an order
with a Chinese factory. A box with a 100 pairs will cost about $100 a
pair.
There is then the video card, better battery and case… No figures there yet.
Tom:
Why are you going about this as an open source project?
Staffan:
Further, those who do understand say I’m either mad to disclose
everything on the net and to loose an excellent business opportunity,
or call me names for destroying the patentability for others. I
usually retort that the industry hasn’t moved at all for a decade, and
why do they believe I would fare any better? I also try to line out
the difficulties with classical innovation processes. I’ve been there,
on both sides of the fence. As inventor and as executive in a joint
industry-governmental innovation system. I know how bad it can be.So
much time and creative drive can be lost in anger over incompetence,
greed and dishonesty that you simply don’t want to think at all about
your project.
I believe that instead of getting entangled in patenting processes, VC
negotiations, hunting for (competent!) technical consultants,
marketing and manufacturing partners, it would be far better to copy
some applicable concepts from open source software development. With
the glasses, I want to perform an experiment. I would so much want to
put together a really nerdy team of developers that are driven by the
fun of problem solving and a feeling of contributing to a community
rather than for direct economic benefit. Not that there may not be a
chance to make some cash one day for everyone involved, only the money
should not be the driving force.
Here is a good clip to illustrate what I mean:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
Naturally, hardware is much more difficult to develop in a community
than software. However, I believe the time may be ripe for a test of
the concept. If any project can succeed, I think AR glasses is it. The
time should definitely be ripe for technologically inclined people to
want those for themselves. I know I definitely do. The basic concept
is also in place, and both PCB:s and plastic/mechanical components are
quite cheap to manufacture these days, even in singular quantities.
Many of the potential combined early adopters and developers will be
able to make their own glasses and feed the loop.
I can see an emerging ecosystem where different participants can
specialize and even start to make some money from selling
non-complicated sub-systems. There is also potential for spin-off
projects and services that will benefit from AR-glasses. There are
many angles to this experiment…
** End of Interview **
Whew. I agree, Staffan, the time is ripe for a technologically savvy group to tackle the AR glasses problem. And given the importance of this little piece of hardware to the overall AR ecosystem, I think it’s worth our time and hopefully worth your time to join this project if you have something to give in the way of knowledge, expertise or time.
So stop by Maxcware or contact him at staffan (at) maxcware (dot) com if you’d like to contribute. Or at the very least, sound off your encouragement at Games Alfresco.
Popularity: 12% [?]
10 Cool Things Going On Right Now in Augmented Reality
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, augmented reality on May 3, 2010
Augmented reality has come a long way in a years time. Last year I got excited by research projects and gimmicky AR webcam advertising, but that quickly faded on the tenth plus iteration. It wasn’t until July that we starting having real AR products in the form of apps. Nearly a year later and still early in the development of the AR ecosystem, we’re seeing a more diverse use of the technology and that has me excited again. So I want to take a moment to go over ten cool things going on right now in augmented reality.
1. Battle of the AR Browsers
Wikitude, Layar, Tonchidot, Junaio, TagWhat and others hope to be the standard for the AR browser market. Layar has recently upped the ante with an AR content store and TagWhat takes it in a new direction by combining lessons learned with Foursquare and Twitter. I suspect one of the big boys like Google, Twitter or Facebook will eventually either create their own or co-opt the ideas from these early browsers into their current products. I’m not sure which horse to bet on in this race, but in the end we customers are the winners.
2. DIY Portable Augmented Reality Headset
Using an Eye-Trek video headset, the guy at Tailormadetoys made a pair of AR glasses. I love the DIY culture and while they’re not see-through, I think all the right parts to make one are out there. This post from Team Hack-a-Day proves that the DIY makers are getting close, so why can’t one of the big makers get it done?
3. The AR phone – Ouidoo
The specs on this Ouidoo QderoPateo smartphone are in the WTF!? zone. While the phone won’t be out until the fall, the company claims it’ll have a 26-core CPU capable of 8-gigaflop floating point operations and include 512MB RAM, 4GB ROM, 28GB of built-in storage, microSD expansion, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, built-in 3D map, accelerometer, digital compass, 5-megapixel camera with flash, 220 hours of standby battery life, and a sharp 3.5-inch 800 x 480 screen. Whew.
While I’m not completely believing the hype, and it could end up being vaporware, it certainly looks promising. Though it’ll have to work hard to compete with the likes of the iPhone and Droid.
4. Eyeborg
Bionic eyes and augmented reality. It’s like peanut better and chocolate! Rob Spence is putting a camera into his eye to make movies with (and because its just plain cool.) And he’s also interested in combining augmented reality with his eye camera. They’ve come up with a promotionalAR eyeborg t-shirt in the meantime.
Eyeborg’s New AR shirt in action! from eyeborg on Vimeo.
5. ARE2010
Bruce Sterling, Will Wright, Marco Tempest, and the list goes on. It pains me to say that I won’t be able to make the inaugural event. I had a work conflict with that week, so I have to bow out of hosting the panel on AR glasses. But for the rest of you, I hope you’ll be able to make it. With AR on the rise and viable business options a-plenty, it’s a good time to network and see what everyone is doing with the nascent technology. This is the “can’t miss” AR event of the year.
6. ARWave
Our favorite interviewer Tish Shute and longtime commenter Thomas Wrobel have been sheparding the AR Wave project and collaborating with people all over the globe. While it’s still too early to tell, this could end up being one of the most important AR developments out there if they can truly create an open source way of using AR. As they’ve been telling everyone, they’re trying to make a system that:
* Anyone can make content
* Anyone can make a browser
* Anyone can run a server
7. iPhone OS4.0
It almost pains me to get excited about an iPhone update that promises video access to make real AR work on that smartphone. We got fooled last September with the OS3.1. I’m hoping we don’t get fooled again (unless you’re the Who.)
I’m not even entirely sure if haptic floors fit into the augmented reality spectrum, but it’s so crazy weird and true, that I had to include it. I seriously doubt we’ll be seeing a commercial product anytime soon though (or ever.)
9. AR Drone
While the news on the AR drone is a stale few months old, I still think it warrants inclusion because it was a great product. The hovercraft alone was worth the price of admission, but the AR added a creative twist to it. I have no idea if it sold well, but it sure did capture the imaginations of a lot of geeks.
10. You choose!
Let us know what you think is the coolest thing going in augmented reality right now. Whether it’s a product only hinted at or one currently residing on your smartphone, we’d like to hear it. So let us know over at Games Alfresco in the comment section (pointing the conversation over there to keep the comments together)!
Popularity: 45% [?]
Augmented Reality Year in Review – 2009
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, Industrial AR, augmented reality on December 27, 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: 100% [?]
X-Ray Vision Utilizing Surveillance Cameras
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on September 16, 2009
In comic books, Superman had all his powers naturally and Batman got his through gadgets and sheer force-of-will. Using the equipment (altogether not very portable for superheros) shown in the video, you can have Superman-like powers with Batman-like gear.
This amazingly cool gadget comes from Yoshinari Kameda, Taisuke Takemasa and Yuichi Ohta from the University of Tsukuba. To pull off the trick, they use wireless LAN, cameras, GPS and an inertia sensor. It does require a little setup, but as more data collectors (i.e. cameras) are made digital and hooked to the Internet, this becomes a possibility without all the prework.
It appears (though someone could confirm for me) that this group will be presenting their paper at ISMAR09. If they do, I’m sure it’ll be a fascinating presentation.
Popularity: 6% [?]
6 “Nearest X” Augmented Reality Apps and 5 Ways to Improve
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Steal This AR Idea!, augmented reality on September 13, 2009
Now that the OS 3.1 is upon us we’re seeing a few more augmented reality apps and some of them are in the category of the “Nearest X” variety. I’m not saying these apps are necessarily a bad thing, but my fear is that they’ll crash the market as a gimmick and not try to solve any problems. This will make it more difficult to differentiate the good from the bad. I’m not the only one out there with concerns about slapping AR onto these apps and calling them improved over the previous versions. Read these posts from Rouli and Joe to see I’m not alone.
Also, as we can see using the RIM scale for augmented reality, these apps aren’t stretching the technology much as they fall into the (2,3) location. Meaning they use minimal flat graphics (Perceived Reality) and just GPS/direction (Reality Recognition) for finding their location in the world.
I’ll break them down one-by-one, highlighting the good parts and the unfortunate bad parts and see if we can learn something.
1) Toyko Underground for train stations and restaurants
This iPhone app comes from Ipodtouchlab. It’s a standard “Nearest X” type application with two views: a forward view requiring holding the iPhone up in picture taking mode and a more elbow friendly footpath view with a nice fat arrow and distance to target. Having spent my fair share of time getting lost in the underground malls and train stations in Japan this app seems like a useful endevour. One advantage the AR version of this type of application has is that Japan train stations, especially the ones in Toyko are extremely crowded. So having a see-through screen while you walk can keep you from bumping into anyone. The downside to this app is it only works in the center of Tokyo.
2) Nearest McDonald’s
The Nearest McDonald’s app from IGPSD can find the nearest McDonald’s, Starbucks or Pizza Hut. The video doesn’t give us much to go on but the major problems I see with it are the limited targets, the poor looking interface and no elbow saving view option. I also think using McDonald’s, Starbucks and Pizza Hut as the targets is tacky. I realize the video says demo, but this is our first impression of the product.
As Rouli says,
It’s amazing how a couple of months make all the difference between innovator and late-comer.
3) Cheap Gas!
David J. Hinson brings us his Cheap Gas! AR app demo. My major worry about this app is how it will be used with driving. I guess the viewport helps make the driver safer compared to a regular app? If we could project the iPhone screen onto the windshield I might feel a little better about any of the “Car Apps” out there.
4) Acrossair Nearest Tube App
The Acrossair app was the first one to catch the public’s interest with over 300,000 views on YouTube. I like that this app has both the foot view and the straight ahead view. I think this modality should be the standard. They even stack the far-away tubes in the upper region of the viewscreen giving you a natural way to use the interface and have released tube/subway finders for other major cities.
5) Nearest Satellite Finder
This app from dailymobile is a bit different than the others, but I think its one that really uses the visualization of augmented reality well. When you set up a satellite dish its extremely useful to know where the satellites are and if any trees are in the way. A top down map view doesn’t do anything for finding the right satellite to point the dish at. This app has limited functionality, but for what it does, it does well.
6) WorkSnug – Best Location to Work
I covered this app last week and while I initially couldn’t find much that augmented reality added to the app that a regular 2D version couldn’t do, Richard Leyland from WorkSnug helped me understand why they chose to use AR in their app:
Appreciate your comments. We decided to use Augmented Reality for our app for a couple of reasons. The first is that it presents a nice way to cut through the complexity of the city lay-out (”oh yeah, it’s that way”). So in that sense it does offer more than just a Nearest X type app. The second reason is that it was fun!
I take your point about AR apps though – We shouldn’t get carried away about the delivery method. We hope the value of our app is in the content, which we pounded the streets to capture ourselves.
Good point, Richard. Shiny toys don’t matter much if the content behind them isn’t worth much. A point all the Nearest X apps should pay attention to.
To make a good “Nearest X” app, the important parts are to have good content behind the shiny graphics, give us intuitive interfaces that mimic our normal gestures and don’t cause tendinitis of the elbow. The bad part is that most of these apps aren’t really taking advantage of the possibilities of augmented reality. It is still early, but I think the app designers could stretch their imaginations and programming skills a little more and make some innovative products.
To help, I’m offering some free suggestions on how to improve “Nearest X” apps:
1) Follow the Yellow Brick Arrow
Give us street level markers that show the directions beyond a flat box.
2) Customization
If we’re looking for restaurants or other locations that involve personal tastes, I’d like to have the app notify me of places I’d want to go before I have to scroll through menus. Have it default to what I like best or maybe even suggest something nearby within my taste standards.
3) X-Ray Vision
Sometimes the arrow pointing us in the right direction is blocked by a wall. While full rendering of what’s beyond the wall isn’t possible right now, give us a taste of the path using a 3D mini-map or project the path onto the view screen (similar to #1.)
4) Add a Dash of Mystery
Why do we need to search for something we know we want? Can’t we ask the iPhone to show us nearby landmarks, or to notify us (using voice!) of interesting nearby locations. When we hold up the phone it should tell us about it (including wiki access.)
If I’m walking around New York, I might want to hit my iPhone and have it show me the nearest locations of movies film sets, or locations of famous pictures, or landmarks (beyond the obvious ones.) Give me what I didn’t expect, not what I want. I can get that anyday.
5) Reduce My App Clutter
I know you’re all competing, but I’d like to see a few “Nearest X” app makers get together and make the different apps work together so I don’t need to download a different one to find coffee than for a laundry mat. The hard part is the content, so let’s not have to have fifteen different apps just to find all the places you need to go.
The “Nearest X” app category is probably going to get cluttered soon as its an easy and quick way to incorporate a new technology that’s catching people’s attention. Designers should consider that the only way their going to succeed is to innovate beyond what’s already been done. Otherwise, they’ll just be another “Nearest X” app.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Augmenting Aerial Earth Maps With Dynamic Information
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality, digital singularity on September 11, 2009
The Georgia Instituite of Technology will be presenting at ISMAR09 on “Augmenting Aerial Maps with Dynamic Information from Videos.” They have released a video and a website on their project. Their stated their goals are:
Abstract
We introduce methods for augmenting aerial visualizations of Earth (from tools such as Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth) with dynamic information obtained from videos. Our goal is to make Augmented Earth Maps that visualize the live broadcast of dynamic sceneries within a city. We propose different approaches to analyze videos of pedestrians and cars, under differing conditions and then augment Aerial Earth Maps (AEMs) with live and dynamic information. We also analyze natural phenomenon (clouds) and project information from these to the AEMs to add the visual reality.
I find this paper and the video absolutely fascinating and altogether troubling. As we start bringing live camera views into the datasphere, we open ourselves up to many wonderful possibilities and also to new problems. The technology, as presented in the paper, is a long way from a ubiquitous environment of cameras being translated to the datasphere (to be then analyzed), but it shows we are on that path.
I may be overstating the dangers, because when it comes to collecting data, what can be measured can be improved and improving society is generally a good thing. But as cameras can begin to identify individuals and that can be tracked to social media, we have to make decisions about the ownership of personal data. I don’t mind if this data is used in an aggregate sense, but if my individual tastes and habits are tracked, then I think a line has been crossed.
This is a topic that will need more discussion as the technology improves.
If you want to hear more on the project and you are attending this year’s ISMAR. They will be presenting their paper on Tuesday afternoon between 1:00-1:50pm (subject to change).
Popularity: 17% [?]
Another Astronomy AR App
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on June 29, 2009
Similar to Sky Map, this iPhone 3GS app (needs the compass to function properly) gives you complete knowledge of the night sky. Though technically you can use it in daylight or in your living room and get the same results.
While some might not consider it AR (I do, but only tenuously), it does interact with your environment to give you real world information including Wiki access, moon cycles and an object finder. N0 matter how you might classify the app, it still looks pretty cool.
Popularity: 2% [?]
More Nokia “Point and Find”
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on June 16, 2009
A few months ago, Rouli brought us a video and some information about Nokia’s “Point and Find.” The product at the time could scan movie posters or bar codes to give the user more information.
Today they released more information about “Point and Find” world-building.
I believe the world building product is targeted to other companies wishing to build branded AR tag layers. I could imagine a Disney World creating their own “Point and Find” layer for their theme parts so you can easily get information for any store, location or products in the park. The intial world building would require purchasing the service from Nokia, but access to the world’s data can be open to anyone.
I’m not entirely sold on the corporate version of world-building. Open source movements are more powerful in this day and age. I think something like the SREngine will end up being more prevalent. To fill the cloud, you’ll need to leverage the crowd.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Snowflake Demo
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on June 14, 2009
If you’ve ever been skiing, then you know part of your time on the lift is spent figuring out where you are on the mountain, where you’re going to go next and hoping you don’t lose the rest of your group on the way there.
The demo shown in this video will help paint the ski trails with correct difficulty level on them, show you the rest areas and lodging–and the most important feature–show the other members of your group (assuming they have the software) in their correct location on the mountain.
Hopefully in the final version it looks as nice and has all the functions shown , because I believe this would be a must-have app for ski trips.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Link-a-palooza
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on May 21, 2009
I’m typing this post on my kids computer since my motherboard crashed on mine. I had some more in-depth posts planned, but until I can get my computer up and running (new MB is currently installed and now partitioning the hard drive), I’m just going to throw out some interesting links. Hopefully tomorow I can get some more meat up on the page.
But before I do that, I’d like to thank all those that read and commented on my Path to Augmented Vision post which surpassed my previous top post Automating the Digitalization of the World. Special thanks to Rouli who helped clean up my draft version of the post.
Which leads me to the New SREngine video from Rouli/Ori’ssites. The updated SREngine is fascinating and is an impressive piece of work for one man. I can’t wait to see it on the iPhone.
The next link is from Shepherd’s Piabout his talk “Instrumenting the World” and his recent experiences discussing Augmented Reality with various government groups including the DoDIIS (Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems).
Lastly, Jan at Augmented Reality Blog brings us a usability test of “Unifeye Design”–an augmented reality programming tool for non-programmers. I didn’t get a chance to try it out, but I’m sure I will once I wrangle my new computer into submission.
Popularity: 2% [?]
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