Weekly Augmented Reality Linkfest

Weekly Augmented Reality Linkfest

To my many readers coming from Japan - my heart goes to you, and I hope your families are safe. It's difficult to discuss "augmented reality" in the face of "tragic reality", but I'll do my best with this week's linkfest.

• Technology Review: Turning augmented reality into an open standard - on Georgia Tech's Argon.
• 2011 is the year of the tablets. yawn. 2012, though, may be the year of facial recognition.
  
• Zugara wins DEMOGod award for AR webcam social shopper
• Feng Shui made easy with mobile an augmented reality app.
• Sims creator Will Wright dipping into augmented reality?
• Drums lesson using projected AR.

This week's video is a call for help to create the first crowed sourced AR music video. Led by students of Tokyo's Temple University, fans of the British band Songdog are invited to contribute their own clips featuring an AR marker. According to their site (where you can find more details) "Augmented Reality is used to symbolize all that one can remember, but that is lost forever - you can see it, but you can't touch it". A beautiful idea that I hope will come true in spite of the unexpected challenges facing it.


Have a good week!

Weekly Augmented Reality Linkfest

Weekly Augmented Reality Linkfest

You've been waiting for this the whole week - here's the weekly linkfest:

• Augmented Planet has a round up of all the coming AR events this year.
• Interesting piece on New Scientist - Augmented reality iPhone helps police track suspects.
• Chris Grayson published a very good presentation on face tracking and face recognition. Pity there's no video recording of him presenting it.
• Don't tell the secret services, but artists used Layar to virtually infiltrate the White House and the Pentagon.
  
• Blair MacIntyre discusses Georgia Tech's Argon, "the Augmented Reality Web Browser".
• Augmented reality used as a gravitational wave interferometer tool. I don't have a clue what that means, but it looks like a virtual pendulum.

Only a few weeks ago, we reported on Virtual Master Reel, an augmented reality game whose aim was catching virtual fish with an augmented fishing reel. Seems that augmented reality fishing games are trending right now, because Nintendo got one for its Nintendo 3ds platform. Video doesn't do it justice, because the whole 3d display thingy is lost, but it still looks good. You can read more about the planned AR games for 3ds on Wired.



have a fantastic week!

Weekly Augmented Reality Linkfest

Weekly Augmented Reality Linkfest

As always, here the augmented reality news stories and tidbits, I didn't have the time (or will) to cover this week:

• ISMAR11 call for papers is online, abstracts due May 11th
• The Guardian asks what is mobile AR for, and whether we should look for an augmented reality killer application.
• Georgia Tech's Argon, "the first augmented reality web browser" is now on the Appstore.
  
• Qualcomm announced their AR challenge (and $125,000 ) winner.
• Metaio and Ericsson are optimizing tracking capabilities in the Mobile World Congress.
  
• Route 66: A new twist on augmented reality navigation aid - you just need to follow the virtual car ahead of you.
• AC130 is an AR shooting game that uses dollar bills as markers. What was once an innovative idea, is quickly becoming a standard.

This week's video is a neat meshup between the insanely successful indie computer game Minecraft and augmented reality, by one Scott Kronick (or at least I think that is his name). Kronick, an artist by trade, came to the realization that it would be great "to hack away at and modify your city or school made of cubes". The result is "RealCraft":



Have a nice week!