I’m back and the book is out

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

It’s been awhile since my last blog. Finishing the Augmented Reality Browsers for Smartphones book took a lot out of me. For a while it was difficult to even look at a computer screen let alone find the energy to type something. The good news however is my batteries have been fully recharged courtesy of 2 weeks sitting on a beach in Brazil and the book has finally been released. If you’re looking to get up to speed with Layar, junaio and Wikitude development then look no further.

I have been asked to write another book, I swore that I’d never do it again but I have to admit that I am becoming tempted.  I wanted to write an Augmented Reality for Dummies book but there is one of those in progress already so it looks like it will have to be another developer book. String looks pretty interesting as does the Parrot AR Drone SDK. I have a couple of ideas and waiting to see if the publisher is interested in my proposal.

Since getting back I have a full inbox of AR projects, games, and platforms that you guys are asking me to announce. I’ll be trying to clear that back log over the next few days.

Second International AR Standards Meeting

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

If you are attending Mobile World Congress next month, and you have an interest in augmented reality, you should make plans to attend the augmented reality international standards meeting  taking place on 17th – 19th Feb in Barcelona.

This is a must attend if you are in the augmented reality space.

In the information below you will find the details on how you can register and how you can submit a paper. I look forward to seeing you there.

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE

In What?

Face-to-Face working meeting on the topic of standards for AR

Why?

Contribute to the community focusing on the future of open standards for the widespread adoption of Augmented Reality.

Work together to rapidly advance sharing of knowledge about requirements and solutions, discussion of proposals, development of resources for the inclusive, global initiative and establishment of liaisons with other standards bodies with value to AR.

When?

Start: Thursday February 17 13h30
End: Saturday February 19 12h30

Who?

Public meeting of experts, evangelists and dedicated people. AR experts as well as those with knowledge of related fields.
All contributions from standards organizations, companies, research institutes and industry bodies are welcome.

This meeting is receiving support from sponsors including Khronos Group, PEREY Research & Consulting and Telefonica I&D Barcelona.

Where?

via Augusta 177
Barcelona, Spain

Meeting host is Telefonica I&D

Meeting format?

• Plenary sessions and breakouts

• Invited speakers, group knowledge creation and facilitated discussions

Preliminary agenda http://www.perey.com/ARStandardsFeb2011MeetingAgenda.html

Registration

Information about registration and the link to registration form is available http://www.perey.com/ARStandardsMeetingFeb2011.html#Registration

More Information

For more information about this meeting, please visit http://www.perey.com/ARStandardsMeetingFeb2011.html

Call to Action
1. All experts in AR and related subject areas are encouraged to prepare and submit on or before January 17, 2011 one or more position papers following the guidelines http://www.perey.com/ARStandardsPaperInstructions.html

2. Please forward this announcement and invitation to your colleagues and those who you believe are interested. If you prefer, use this LinkedIn event page: http://events.linkedin.com/International-AR-Standards-Meeting/pub/491974

3. To receive periodic announcements regarding the International AR Standards meeting and community, join public mailing list http://ARstandards.org/mailman/listinfo/news

Any comments/questions may be addressed to Christine

Germany’s First Augmented Reality Music Video

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

Followers of the blog will have seen a few media agencies blend augmented reality with promoting bands. AUGMEDIA in Germany are the latest agency to dabble and have produced Germany’s first augmented reality music video for the band, Saint Aside.

Being the latest in the AR music genre, AUGMEDIA have done a good job with creating an engaging music experience. But like all music its best experienced, so, kick back, turn up your speakers and watch the video.

Saint Aside The AR Video

Try it out

If you want to try the demo, just follow these simple steps.

1. Go to http://ar.saintaside.com
2. Print out the marker, activate your webcam and hold the marker in front of your webcam
3. Experience Augmented Reality!
4. Leave a comment and click on the ilike-button
5. Share it with all of your friends

Cheers to  Daniel for the heads up.

Kafkara for Android

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

Some of the first mobile augmented reality applications I can remember (excluding browsers) were applications that let you add hats, beards, moustaches and other assorted paraphernalia to photos. Defacing your mother-in-law as she snored through a football match you were trying to enjoy was strangely therapeutic. Their augmentedness was always questionable however.

Kafkara is application for the Android that takes that concept a bit further and is most definitely an augmented reality app. Here instead of adding features to a 2D photo, a person’s face is texture mapped onto a 3D avatar and shown in augmented reality. In essence, you can map a face on to a 3D object like a bee. The best way to describe Kafkara is it’s like the Ironman or Transformers demo from Total Immersion but without the huge production values.

You can create the faces either by taking a photo of a person, or by grabbing their picture from either Facebook or Twitter. Once you have the picture, the application also uses the Google Text To Speech Engine and will animate the person’s lips speaking whatever you typed.  Finally to complete the package, the app has a radar feature that shows what other Kafkara avatars have been created near you.

Kafkara is also completely free, so iIf you have an Android and you fancy a bit of 3D face manipulation fun be sure to take a look. If you’re a 3D model expert then get in touch with the developers as they are looking for some assistance with creating new avatars and I’m sure would appreciate your help.
Get it from the Android Market Place or use the QR Code

Mosimo Camera – What If Camera

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

Android owners have a super cool application call Mosimo Camera on the horizon. Mosimo Camera developed by Japanese start-up AITIA enables the user to add computer generated effects to the video/camera window.

Effects can be themed, eg snow, music or birthdays and applied to the video feed. The application also has sophisticated facial tracking functionality to overlay video effects in the correct places.

Mosimo Camera

Unfortunately the application isn’t available just yet as there is an API restriction that prevents developers from adding real-time animated effects to videos. (According to MobileCrunch)

Augmented Reality at the Science Museum

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

GR/DD has developed an innovative interactive augmented reality exhibit for the London Science Museum to enable visitors to understand the science behind climate change.  The exhibit located in the science gallery present the visitor with a way in which they can manipulate a scene to alter the amount of carbon that was being released into the atmosphere. By placing a series of augmented reality markers on a special board which represents an island, visitors can add cement factories, farms, roads and other objects. The markers the user added are read by the camera which then enables the interactive to accurately place digital versions onto the on-screen island, complete with animation, sound and further science information. Visitors can add as many or as little objects as they like to their island and move them around at any time to customize it to their hearts content. Through augmented reality users are able to see the effects that each of the markers has on the island.

In addition to the main exhibit, two other interactive exhibits have been created by GR/DD. These include ‘Past Climate Change’ a time travelling journey exploring the different eras of Earth’s life, and ‘Greenhouse Effect’, a fun arcade style game that demonstrates how the greenhouse effect works.

ARTags for Android

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

Over the last year we have seen a few augmented reality and art mash-ups hit the iPhone. TagDis, ARStreets to name a few. So it’s good that the Android has now got its own flagship app in the form of the new ARTags and the jump on iPhone users.

ARTags is a drawing application for the Android platform that provides the user with a number of drawing tools that can be used to create works of art and then left in cyberspace. Artwork is geo-coded with the creators current location and then viewable in an augmented reality browser. Where ARTags differs from other similar applications is they haven’t tried to reinvent the wheel by developing their own augmented reality browser engine. Instead they focus on the drawing tools, once artwork has been created and submitted they are viewable with either Layar, junaio or Wikitude. ARTags artwork is viewable with any of these browsers so it one of the first cross-browser products that I am aware of.

ARTags is currently only available for the Android, iPhone users for the time being will have to be content with viewing the art.

If you enjoy creating art and want to share your masterpieces with others then ARTags is definitely worth a look.

ARTags in action

Get it here.

Fight against domestic violence with AR

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

It’s good to see augmented reality being used for social change as well as selling products.

The latest campaign to use the junaio browser is from the German agency brand.david who have launched a campaign to bring the subject of domestic violence to light

The campaign reflects the two parallel words that the victims live in and is designed to shock and reduce victim hostile prejudices.

A video of the campaign can be found here:

Machine Infers Persons Interest From His Eye Movement

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

For those of you that are eager to get your hands on augmented reality glasses and see what the future holds for facial recognition. Here is an interesting announcement from Aalto University with a rather neat video showing the system in action.

A method developed in Aalto University retrieves information to data glasses about people and objects a person is looking at. Equipment including an eye tracker implements machine learning methods and infers from context and gaze direction what the viewer may be interested in, to learn more about. Following that the machine displays additional information on viewer’s data glasses. For instance, a researcher may learn about scientific results of a researcher passing by and singles may see on their data glasses the relationship status of a person they meet. By following the eye-movement the machine also infers when additional information should be displayed.

In the test versions of the augmented reality (AR) method displayed information is retrieved from a database with information keyed in beforehand. However, the method can also be set to retrieve information from internet and social media. In this case searches – using Google among others -- can be made by looking through the data glasses only.

The equipment recognizes persons looked at. It requires that images of the persons to be recognized have been inserted into database earlier. At the moment, it is not possible to identify totally unknown persons.

Our basic research on machine learning methods has made it possible to create new advanced user interfaces in which the machine infers without direct human commands what the viewer is interested in, tells professor Samuel Kaski from Aalto University.

As a result of our research we have created a prototype that has been successfully tested in laboratories. However, there is still a way to go before this can be commercialized, reminds researcher Jorma Laaksonen from Aalto University.

Study about the new machine learning methods is to be published in the Virtual Reality journal. The research results have been reached with funding from private companies and organizations to Aalto University’s MIDE research programme.

Information about the research consortium:
http://mide.tkk.fi/en/UI-ART

Preprint version of the article to be published in Virtual Reality:
http://research.ics.tkk.fi/mi/papers/vire10.pdf

System in action

Tissot AR Watches Mark II

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

Early last year we were lucky enough to have Holition, a leading provider of online interactive marketing and retail solutions at an Augmented Planet event in London. At the event Holition showed off their augmented reality campaign developed for Tissot that enabled users to try on high value wrist watches.

The campaign was being run in conjunction with Selfridges where passers by could try on their very own Tissot watch courtesy of a marker, webcam and the magic of augmented reality.

Tissot were so happy with the results that they have now extended the application to support a range of ladies watches. If you missed the campaign the first time around, or want to see some of the new range then take a look at www.tissot.ch/reality The watches are very impressively detailed.

Tissot campaign in action

mTrip AR Travel Guides Now For Android

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

I know many of you are Android users and you feel neglected when I mention the iPhone all the time. So with great pleasure I can tell you that the mTrip augmented reality travel guides are now available for Android devices.

mTrip is an augmented reality browser specifically developed with tourism in mind. It is without doubt the most compressive travel guide out there and regardless of your views on augmented reality, an essential application for the traveller.

Not only does mTrip enable you to navigate and find useful things in a city, the application downloads all the POIs to your phone and thereby eliminates all the roaming fees associated with travelling.

Like with the iPhone (sorry) the application sports an augmented reality view that enables you to see POIs in the camera window. Perfect for trying to identify those famous landmarks.

Features include:

• Automated Trip Planning -- Create your personalized travel itinerary with mTrip’s exclusive technology.
• Navigation & Augmented Reality -- Get directions and view the city through augmented reality
• Get expert content with ratings updated daily on your Android, iPhone or iPod Touch
• Trip Sharing -- Share postcards with family and friends on Facebook & email

mTrip in action

mTrip is available for the following cities

Europe

• Amsterdam
• Barcelona
• Berlin
• Dublin
• Istanbul
• London
• Madrid
• Moscow
• Munich
• Paris
• Rome
• Venice
• Vienna

North America

• Chicago
• Los Angeles
• New York
• San Francisco
• Washington DC

Asia

• Beijing
• Shanghai
• Singapore
• Tokyo

Money Talks with AR

Posted by augmentedplanet under General

They say money talks, thanks to a fun augmented reality application from Harmonypark and Sam Hare it really does have a voice.

Chatterbucks is a new iPhone application that uses natural feature tracking to identify £5 and £10 banknotes from the UK. Once identified a speech bubble appears giving Her Majesty the opportunity to deliver a personalised message to the viewer.

The application is a bit of fun that demonstrates the power of natural feature tracking for mobile devices. Developers have been surprisingly slow to build natural feature tracking applications for the iPhone so its good to see an app appearing finally. Sam and the guys at Harmonypark are working on a application that will recognise Japanese Yen and US Dollars so overseas readers will get to have some money fun soon.

Chatterbucks