Thomas K. Carpenter » PlayStation

Triple AR Gaming Goodness

Tom Carpenter — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 23:43:11 +0000

Playing games is intrinsic to our nature, so naturally, gaming is a great introduction to augmented reality. Below are three different ways augmented reality is being used to get our gaming fix.

AR Invaders

Shooter games were the first breakout, relatively speaking, for the nascent technology. Yet I haven’t yet seen one that eliminates the “floating target” problem and makes the game feel immersive. Let’s hope AR Invaders gets us further along that path.

Eclipse AR Card Game

The video could use some production value and the game play appears to be a little clunky, but they have the right idea. I still believe Magic the Gathering and a console maker like PlayStation should team up to give their game a little 3D magic, but maybe that’s just me. Check with Mo0n-Studio if you want to learn more about their game.

World of Warcraft Armor Project

Let’s face it, WoW is a force of gaming nature with around ten million paying subscribers. Giving players a way to embrace their character just a little more interactively just makes sense. You can guarantee that if AR glasses were viable and widely sold that Blizzard would be selling the service for a pretty dime. Go here for more information.

Augmented Reality’s Console Upgrade

Tom Carpenter — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:10:42 +0000

I’ve been watching the news from E3 with keen interest. First off, I’m a gamer, if you can’t tell. But I’m also wildly curious how augmented reality will shape the future of gaming. Now I haven’t seen any games that strictly use AR, but the direction consoles are taking shows how AR is shaping them.

Microsoft’s Kinect

The formally named Project Natal previews have shown how the dual camera system would allow for gesture based gaming. The concept doesn’t change with the new name, but we have more information about it. One of the cooler parts of the system doesn’t even deal with gaming. Gestures and words will now access the interface like Minority Report.

While we’re a long way from invisible AR systems that travel with us and connect us to the world in new and unique ways, the Kinect system certain raises the bar on how machines can see the world. The AR smartphone gives us a tiny magic window into the data driven world, while the AR console brings the magic to our living room.

The announced games for Kinect are pretty limited to a racing game, an adventure game involving white water rafting, sports, and dancing. The only brand name was a Star Wars game that seems like a perfect fit for Kinect and a virtual pet game Kinectimals that gives us the only true augmented reality experience like the PS3 EyePet. The system is due out in November, just in time for the holidays.

Playstation Move and EyeToy

PlayStation is rightly packaging the Move controller along with the EyeToy (for promotional as much as technical reasons.) While it doesn’t quite compare to the gesture based Kinect, it is a step forward. However, if I were buying a system for its AR inclusion, the Kinect wins hands down (pun intended.)

Virtual Sandbox (Sim City Meets Augmented Reality)

Tom Carpenter — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:49:26 +0000

A group of students at the National University of Singapore has developed an AR game similar to Sim City using VRML and ARToolKit.

Virtual Sandbox is an educational software targeted at kids between the ages of 4-6. It provides children with an interactive learning environment for the learning of English vocabulary. By combining the concepts of Sim City, Flash Cards and Augmented Reality technology, we demonstrate how the bene?ts of both tangible and non-tangible interactions can be merged to create a fun, game-like learning experience for young children.

As a University project it gets high marks. The controls wouldn’t be suitable for an older age group since using a PlayStation or Wii controller is more natural to kids these days. But the younger crowd is more willing to move things around with their hands. These types of games will need to move to gesture based controls like the EyePet if they want to be commercialized.

Facial Augmented Reality from Playstation Eye

Tom Carpenter — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:53:10 +0000

Engadget and Gizmodo have both reported this morning on the facial recognition technology called the Vision Library from Sony.

It’s called the Vision Library and, once a face has been analyzed, the machine can tell it apart from others, determine orientation, identify gender, tell what expression that face is… expressing, and then superimpose some big-eyed anime head right on top of it real-time. We fear this might take some of the fun out of cosplay night, but could make life rather more interesting for freaks with bovine fetishes.

The video shows amazing stickiness to the AR face. If they can do this for the PS Eye when it comes out, then we’ll be seeing this technology and others like it spreading faster than originally anticipated. If this kind of work can be done by smaller machines (i.e. - smartphones) in the future and AR glasses become reality, then expect to have your latte served to you by a Wookie at your local Starbucks.

Eye Pet Game Trailer

Tom Carpenter — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:40:11 +0000

My first thought after watching this video is: I wish I had a PS3. I think the console use of AR will help popularize the technology. While Sony’s motion sensing was one of the hot topics at E3, I think augmented reality should have had a more prominent place (of course, the Eye Pet requires some motion sensing). Hopefully, Ori will bring us news from the floor soon.

Couple of notes from the video. That is not a concept video but actual game play. Also, the game will require purchase of the PlayStation Eye, which I assume will come packaged with the game. I’m sure this game is only the first in a line of console AR games and I’m excited. Unfortunately, there is no listed release date yet.