AR2D2 - Shoot Down Tie Fighters in Augmented Reality

AR2D2 - Shoot Down Tie Fighters in Augmented Reality

Post update - the original video was pulled down, but luckily was uploaded again, and some of my questions were answered (in red)

I have so many questions about the next video, and no answers -
Is it real? yes.
Is it an official Star Wars game? probably.
How can I get it? On the Appstore somewhere in mid November. Look for "Falcon Gunner".



I acknowledge that this game is probably not much better than the lurid Firefighter 360, but I feel compelled to try it out, attracted by some mysterious force.

Weekly Linkfest

Weekly Linkfest

After a short break, here's another weekly linkfest:

• "AR is not going to work well for most things but it’s going to be very good for certain uses. Right now I’m very keen at trying to understand what those things might be". Tish Shute interviews Chris Arkenberg.
• Zugara: Defining Virtual Property Rights In an Augmented World.
• Layar is one of TechCrunch's top 30 applications for Android. Which is not surprising, since after all you can use it in order to see wild safari animals around the Netherlands.
• One of my favorite AR projects, the Artvertiser, is featured New Scientist, and here's a video interview with its creators.
• Dennō Coil to be adapted to a multiplayer online game? (via @kurakura)
• Small Screen / Big Story, another look at the possible future of augmented reality.

Just in time for Halloween, the French game company Momorprods released a new iPhone game called "Ghost Blasters", which puts you in the role of a ghost buster blaster. Writes Jerome Moreau:

I realize we've done nothing truly original so far. We have plenty of ideas for updates tough, but we tried to get a basic version out of the door in time for Halloween. This was really our first try at making an iPhone game and as you'll see in the credits there's definitely not too many of us on the team :p

In future updates, we plan to improve the monsters and weapons, etc., but more importantly add geolocation and social network-oriented multiplayer.

The game is free and available here, so why won't you give it a chance?



Have a treat of a week!

Weekly Linkfest

Weekly Linkfest

First, and foremost, I owe an apology to Total Immersion which I criticized for having an invitation only event (AR-Immersion). They have kindly reminded me that their event is free of charge, unlike other similar events. Anyway, you can ask for an invitation here.

Now that this is behind us, here are other things that happened in the AR-sphere:

• Congrats to Mobilizy, makers of Wikitude for taking their first funding round.
• Augmented reality almost at the peak of inflated expectations, according to Gartner.
• And if AR is almost at the peak, is it ready for the trough of disillusionment? Chris Arkenberg covers offers some survival tactics for the fledgling industry.
  
• More advice come from O'Reilly Radar: "how augmented reality apps can catch on". Skip the video, but do read the interesting comments.
• Pope Benedict goes against augmented reality, "risk of indifference towards real life" (via @sergecell)

This week's video proves that augmented reality can be annoying at times, like a virtual fly you can shake off. Created by Michele Cirulli, this was apparently a video installation at the Live Performers Meeting this year.



Have an excellent week!

Weekly Linkfest

Weekly Linkfest

ISMAR 2010 is just a couple of days away, and in the meantime, here's this week's linkfest:

• Google Goggles is finally available for the iPhone. To be frank, I haven't tried it yet (what kind of AR reporter am I), and I'm rooting for the underdogs.
• LightSpace from Microsoft Research - augmenting a room with projectors and 3d cameras. As I've said earlier, it's amazing how a technology that would have looked like magic just four years ago, is quite banal these days.
• Layar awarded Most Disruptive Innovator at Deloitte Fast50.
• Zugara's Jack Benoff ponders whether mobile AR is not just sexy, but also practical.
• Now Total Immersion are having a one day AR event. It's November the 9th in LA. Sadly, it's an invitations only event. They should learn something from their beer loving competitors from Germany.
• A British company wants to augment your curriculum vitae. Cheesy or acceptable?

Today's video is coming to us straight from ISMAR 2010. It's a presentation of the results achieved in the paper "Build Your World and Play In It: Interacting with Surface Particles on Complex Objects" by Brett Jones and other researchers from the University of Illinois. The paper presents a way to map virtual content on 3d physical constructions and "play" with them. For more details check out Jones' website. I think that Angry Birds would be prefect on such a platform:

Build Your World and Play In It: Interacting with Surface Particles on Complex Objects (ISMAR 2010) from Brett Jones on Vimeo.

Have a great week, and the lucky of you who get to be in ISMAR, take some videos, please!

Olympus's AR Walker - Good Reason to Move to Japan

Olympus's AR Walker - Good Reason to Move to Japan

I'm a firm believer that the first commercially available head up devices will be sold to joggers and bicyclists.

Imagine going on an augmented run, where instead of just listening to music or podcast, you do that, and play a computer game for the extra motivation. Every now and then you'll have to pick a virtual coin, or avoid some virtual danger. Think of Sonic the Hedgehog, where you are Sonic. Or you may run against a virtual competitor, which may very well be non other than yourself, as recorded on a previous run. At the very least you'll be able to constantly see you heart rate and the number of miles you've already completed.

Now meet AR Walker from Olympus. It's a simple HUD (and not available commercially), but it's a good start. Once AR takes hold among amateur sportsmen, it will have a real chance in entering our daily lives.



CrunchGear has some more details about it.

The Great Disappearing Act

The Great Disappearing Act

If you thought that augmented reality can only place virtual object in real environments, think again. AR can also be used to 'delete' real object, making them transparent.

Case in point, Francesco I. Cosco's work presented at ISMAR09 (which reminds me that ISMAR 2010 is less than two weeks away!). In this work, Cosco and other researchers from the University of Calabria, Italy and the Rey Juan Carlos university in Spain, tried to add haptic interaction to an augmented environment. Problem is, haptic devices are visually not attractive, and aren't really a part of the scene. The solution they came up with was quite 'magical':



More details on Cosco's home page.

Cosco F. I., Garre C., Bruno F., Muzzupappa M., Otaduy M. A. "Augmented Touch without Visual Obtrusion". Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality 2009.

Highlights from Metaio's insideAR

Highlights from Metaio's insideAR

So Metaio was nice enough to upload all of insideAR talks online (wish that the organizers of ISMAR10 will follow suit). However, most of us don't have a day to spend watching all the talks, so here are some of my favorites (note that I'm a tech head, so your mileage may vary) :

• Peter Meier, Metaio's CTO on some future directions the company may pursuit (part 2 is even more relevant)
• Fabian Doil, a researcher from Volkswagen, on how AR is used (in some surprising ways) in Volkswagen.
  
  
  

• Intel's Horst Haussecker, director of interactions & experiences research on optimizing visual search algorithms.
• Selim Ben Himane, gave a talk on Metaio's research, which he's heading:
  
  
  

• It wasn't just a "Junaiofest". Layar got the center stage when Remco Vroom, Johanes La Poutre of TAB Worldmedia gave a talk on how they used Layar to create exciting AR games and applications.
• Ken Blakeslee of Web Mobility Ventures on why he finds AR exciting as a business.
  

Sadly, no videos of Metaio folks drinking excessive amounts of beer in the Oktoberfest, but I keep my hopes high for next year.