My last blog here was to say Wrox Press had published my Augmented Reality for Smartphones book. It’s actually doing really well with sales. Not that it will ever earn enough to buy a villa by the beach, but it is rewarding nether the less. At the time of writing the last book I swore I would never do it again. Writing a book is a lot of effort, especially a technical book. Compiling sample code is hard enough but what hurts the most is screenshots, its so time consuming.

Still, despite saying I would never do it again I have started on book II. This will be another augmented reality book but rather than focusing on location based AR, this is focused on image recognition technologies and will be aimed at iOS developers.

So far I have submitted 2 chapters to the publisher for review with another 4 due by the end of the month.  Some of the writing is slow process as most of the SDKs I am working with have such poor documentation. I wont name names but trying to write about how ‘easy’ it is to build an AR app using a particular SDK when all you have to work with is a sample project containing 500 lines of undocumented code is more than a challenge.

As a result of the new book project I have had to learn iOS development and have been trying to get to grips with Xcode. For an ex-microsoftie like myself it makes me appreciate just how good Visual Studio was. Not that I have anything against Xcode but double clicking a button and having the event handler created feels like such a luxury.

If all goes well then the book will be released later in the year. 2 chapters down, 30 more to go.

Apart from writing, last year we (Augmented Planet) ran the UKs largest augmented reality event in London. Planning is taking place to deliver another event later in 2012. We are trying to nail down availability with the venue and will announce that shortly.

If you’re a fan of AR. Keep your eyes out for that one.

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.

The AppToyz solution is a gun shaped holder for your mobile phone. There is no electronics in the device, instead the trigger controls two rubberised fingers (for want of a better word) which tap the screen. Of course games will need to be designed specifically for the AR gun to ensure that the fingers tap in the right places. In the video below you can see the gun in action.

I’m not sure about this one, I worry about my expensive phone flying through the air in the heat of an AR battle. It will be interesting to see if developers begin to build compatible games.
From what I understand the gun will be priced around £15-$20 ($25-$30) mark.

The AR Gun in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=N64IQN1MtdI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGd9DkwNUw4

The new junaio channel works in conjunction with a popular German TV show called ‘Galileo’. Viewers watching the show are able to interact with the program by using the junaio client and by pointing their smartphone at the TV screen.

During the Galileo program questions are displayed on the screen. Unlike most interactive programs that require you to SMS an expensive number and wait several hours for the result, when the junaio enabled program asks the viewer a question the viewer simply points their smartphone at the screen. The junaio channel which uses natural feature tracking recognises the question; it is then transferred to the viewer’s smartphone. Once on the smartphone the viewer can select the answer without having to send an expensive text. In addition real-time feedback can be provided so it’s great for interactive TV quiz shows. For example, play along to who wants to be a millionaire at home and get instant feedback, even compete with other players watching the same show.

As Peter Meier, CTO of metaio points out, it’s not just about quizzes. The same technology could be used to enable viewers to receive recipes as the chief is making a dish. It’s definitely an interesting idea to enable views to interact with the TV. Take a look at the video of the solution in action. (Video Link)

What TV program would you like to see made interactive this way?

Announcing the 2010 winners

Every year at Augmented Planet we ask you, the augmented reality community to vote for your favourite augmented reality applications of the year. For 2010 we focused the awards on augmented reality for mobile devices.

Before we get to the winners, congratulations to all the nominees who were entered. The winners will each be receiving the highly desirable Augmented Planet Readers Choice Award Crystal Plaque.

Best Augmented Reality Browser Of 2010

This category was always going to be a three-way fight between junaio, Layar and Wikitude. However, notable new entries included in the category were mTrip and DroidAR who were top of the voting outside the big three. In 2009 the Best Augmented Reality Browser Award went to Wikitude. In 2010 we are pleased to annouce that you have voted:

Winner

• Wikitude

‘Here at mobilizy we are proud and excited about retaining the Wikitude’s crown for the Best Augmented Reality Browser. We dedicate this award to our community who keeps providing the support and the feedback we need to continuously improve our products.

Stay tuned – Q1 will bring even more exciting features and partnerships to strengthen Wikitude’s perception by our community and the readers of Augmented Planet.

CEO, Martin Herdina.

Runners up

• Layar
• junaio

Best 3^rd Party Content For An Augmented Reality Browser

This category focused on the best content developed by an independent 3^rd party developer who builds content for junaio, Layar or Wikitude. Almost all these entries are direct nominations by the community.

Winner

• Webcams.Travel

Runners up

• Qype
• Compass & Navigation AR

Best Mobile Augmented Reality Game

The best game category was fiercely contested with voting very tight. However, you have voted the best augmented reality game of 2010 as:

Winner

• Zombie ShootAR for Symbian (Metaio)

Runners up

• Space InvadAR for Android (Zenitum)
• Urban Golf for Android (Anton Pirker)

Best Augmented Reality Campaign

During 2010 we have seen augmented reality used in number of ways to market goods and services. Note that this category was not exclusive to mobile devices.

Winner

• The Gorillaz Plastic Beach (PIAS)

Runners up

• Hotels.com
• Tissot Shopping (Holition)

Thats it for another year, thank to you everyone for voting and to Samsung for providing the prize. The winner incidentally was Ryan Garratt.

Good luck for 2011.

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

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

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hb9szYBzOc

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 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

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

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI2KpZZF_Hw