augmented.org

Popcode

In mixed news I’d also like to point to the neat popcode demos, done by young UK company extra-reality. They generated a spin-off of University of Cambridge Research to bring us popcode: with a mobile AR tool, using marker and markerless tracking, overlaying interactive CG content to your texture. The tracking looks pretty stable and works smoothly in the shown demo. Neat!

Interviews with the Pros

If you feel like listening a bit more to two of the Augmented Reality Pros and their visions, check out the below interviews. First one features Robert Rice (Neogence) talking about the Future of AR and mobile systems.

Interview Robert Rice on vimeo (part 1)

Secondly, we have a short snippet on Ori Inbar (Ogmento and of course the great gamesalfresco). A bit on ARE 2010, ARNY, state of the art in industry and a quick demo on Put A Spell:

Interview Ori Inbar on youtube

Speaking of Ori, he just added a long and extensive blog entry on Why games are AR killer apps online, be sure to read the full story on his page.

Conferences

For more hands-on AR there are the great conferences all over the world. If you didn’t happen to be in Santa Clara in June, you have missed the Augmented Reality Event (ARE). A nice collection of AR demos has been compiled on youtube for our viewing pleasure:

So, if you are around in Europe you definitely want to check out metaio’s open house conference to see their latest inventions. It will be on September, 27th, 2010 in Munich, Germany. And again it features the Oktoberfest afterparty. ;-)

Bullet points so far include:

• Keynotes & Workshops
• Live-Demonstrations & Futures Parlour
• Success Stories & Business Models
• Latest Developments & Announcements for 2011

… and for the grand finale there will be the ISMAR (International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality), this year going East to Seoul, Korea. Be sure to check back to their website www.ismar10.org for latest news. I’ll also give updates for sure. ISMAR 2010 will take place 13-16th October 2010.

So, a lot of cool demos to be expected for the last part fo 2010!!! :-)

Whew, this has been a long summer gap of 10 days. There is loads of AR, promotional ad-AR going on and some reports hit the web (as Gamesalfresco lists nicely), but I’ve been too busy. Now back on track, I’d like to start with some vision:

ViewNet Augmented Reality Mapping 3D

The ViewNet project is a collaborative R&D projected in the UK. Funded by TSB and EPSRC. I like their concept video on where AR could make a difference for security, forensics, etc. Afterall it’s about information overlay, that otherwise needs to be looked up annoyingly on your palm, laptop, etc. The instant access to data in your surrounding world is shown again nicely:

Besideds, T-Immersion is working heavily on their head tracking and the marketing of the very same cool eye catcher. See it put up for JumboScreens in a stadium. Adding a smile to each face during half breaks joking around with markerless augmentations.

… and finally see some more head tracking fun from the beloved Woody and his Toy Story friends from TS3-Immersion.

Keiichi Matsuda created this neat video on another day in an augmented tech society. Just great to watch. Quoting the tube: “recently presented at London’s 3D Film Festival at the Barbican. The architecture graduate and filmmaker has imagined a future world overlaid with digital information, whose built environment can be transformed at the touch of a few buttons. ‘The architecture of the contemporary city is no longer simply about the physical space of buildings and landscape,’ says Matsuda. ‘More and more it is about the synthetic spaces created by digital information that we collect, consume and organise; an immersive interface may become as much part of the world we inhabit as the buildings around us.” Enjoy!

I especially love the moment, when the first guy switches off the augmentation and his office/home turns back into the public space. Be sure to have your anaglyph glasses ready! Awesome!

In other news:

SR Engine turned to the new release 2.0 and offers an SDK

metaio is holding its annual InsideAR fair on September, 27th. Sign up now.

Interaction

A lot of research flows into the visualization and the automatic segmentation of body volumes in CG. Takehiro Tawara published his latest paper called Interactive Volume Segmentation and Visualization in Augmented Reality. The focus lies on the automatic segmentation, the region growing after setting a seed in 3D space – but what I wanted to display here is of course the AR part.

The combination of a cheap Wiimote and an attached marker cube is a winning combination for an interaction device. In this case, the virtual skull appears in AR on one marker and the device can be used to cut through the layers of the skull. Wiimote comes in handy due to some more interaction control through the buttons. Interaction by moving your hand to move the clipping plane is again a perfect mapping for AR scenarios. I love it.

The paper from Takehiro Tawara and Kenji Ono can be found on the web, along with more docs and videos. There is another great AR interaction video for wave simulations. Check it out.

Siggraph

Siggraph featured some AR again. Take the tour and get an impression from youtube:

Rouli goes into detail on three AR demos at Siggraph, so check out his report.

More

If you want to get an impression of how AR would look like on an ipad – if that thing had a camera – you can go here and watch the concept.

Gamesalfresco has another interview on DIY-HMDs.

GOODMagazine put up a funny video on how HMDs with the right technology could allow us to photoshop our reality. Be sure to get a proximity alert for approaching cars and lamp poles! Really neat!