augmented.org

Maybe you are sick of iPhone or android augmentations for the moment? I can definitely relate, since they are eating up your battery and it not yet socially accepted to scan your RL chat buddy with your smartphone all the time. ;-) With HMDs out of consumer reach for the time being, there has always been an alternative to weak portable devices or glasses: projected augmented reality - or spatial augmented reality (SAR). Like Oliver Bimber I’m a big fan of this approach, since it really augments your real life objects without the need of special glasses, an extra screen to look up to or any kind of handheld device. The augmentation really appears where it should be: on top of the real furniture, etc.

I’ve posted a couple of examples before (e.g. on animating buildings or the augmented GO game (posted on augmented.org’s facebook page last friday)), but here again is another great example of how to enhance a given existing scenario nicely with AR.

Samuel Jordan and Michael Greenspan from Queen’s U did a project on spatial AR showing a neat AR pool assist.

Of course this is another use case than a location based approach of the mobile devices. But I always enjoy these projector approaches, for the simplicity and the non-visibility of technology. In a controlled environment it is easy to augment - even without a marker in front of a webcam. So, if you play pool not often enough to remember the physics or rules, this could help you out a lot… but then again it’s just theory and hopefully the cushions work well to get the angle right.

I’d love to collect some more projects that are heading this direction of SAR. So, if you have something up your sleeve (or your University Lab) please let us know in the comments or by mail! I’d love to compile an overview of good spatial AR 2010 for you guys! :-)

David Arenou from the design school from Nantes, France, wrote his diploma on video games and immersion and did a pretty impressive job writing an action game to be played like the Wii combined with Microsoft’s Natal. As a design student he wanted to focus on the concept and design of course - not on the hardware implementation of a new infrared or time-of-flight tracking system. And that’s where Augmented Reality comes in handy! He uses markers to integrate real life furniture into the game (making them obstacles to take cover behind), define buzzers (a button to be pushed to open a door, etc.) and to track his own position. But now take a look:

DIPLOMA : Immersive Rail Shooter from David Arenou on Vimeo.

So the actual game is an immersive virtual reality game with different controllers (Wii and marker), so AR is “only” in there to set up the playground. But maybe in a later version this idea could be extended to get a more accurate representation of real life objects to further mix the two worlds. A camera is connected easily to show it in AR (as David does during the setup), but for this gameplay concept the augmented mirror doesn’t make too much sense. It’s better to shoot through a window (like it is done here) than onto a mirror. I just love the game. David? If you read this: could you drop me the binaries, so I can try it out? :-) I got my Wiimote and my markers prepared!

Check out his rendered concept video, too!

… and let there be multi player! :-)

Dear readers,

just quickly another note towards the next AR meeting in Europa, starting today in Graz, Austria. The Technical University is welcoming all AR enthusiasts to take part in their conference styled meeting on AR, discussing the fresh technology and also enjoying a bit of skiing in the snow. Unfortunately I’m going to Dublin tomorrow and couldn’t make it, but Rouli should be there, blogging the latest news regarding the WARM event. A short snippet from Graz’ website:

We welcome presentations on all topics related to AR and Ubicomp including but not limited to:
- Tracking including sensor fusion and computer vision
- Mobile augmented reality
- Ubiquitous augmented reality
- Smart environments
- User interface techniques and interaction methods
- Applications
- User studies
- Future directions for AR research

We are curious what will be presented, I know that metaio is present, too, showing another new prototype. (Maybe the junaio android beta?)

In other news…

I always enjoy a close interaction in AR, combining a natural physical movement having effect on the AR objects, like posted before regarding the Rubik’s Cube or the one on true interaction and manipulation. It gives the best results and (marketing speech) user experience, as it allows a real physical involvement, that is more integrated than just “I hold a marker on top of my hand”. Sorry, I’m getting repetitive, but we had some nice examples, e.g. the skating Santa Claus, steered through paper tilting.

Now another demo hit youtube, shown below:

Actually, we’ve seen this on the iphone (without AR) and I know, that a couple of students did a similar project (including me ;-)). It’s just a neat concept, IF you offer more than reality does! On the iPhone/Android it’s just a simple rip-off of the old wood maze game, but in this simple demo above it already shows the potential: to integrate animated objects, that wouldn’t work in a wood construction! This is what I like so much about these concepts: using an old simple real-life concept of (e.g.) a game, but extending it, making it bigger - into something that wouldn’t be possible without AR. Also the interaction is easy and flawless. Another step would be to further extend this non-possible ideas: teleports, more layers / floors, animated enemies. But keeping it simple, based on the wood game. Love it! :-)

Over a year ago, I posted about Julian Oliver’s Cube AR game, where tilting and rotating the cube would lead to movements by the small game figure, projected over the cube, as if it were inside of it. A great concept for an AR game - to be frank, still one of the most compelling, talking about Webcam-based AR. It’s just so intuitive and stable, you have a full haptic feedback and you get a perfect overlay fitting to that haptics, since the AR cube is always as big as the real one. Kudos again! :-)

Now I’ve encountered another AR Cube concept, where I’m not so 100% sure about the rules yet, but it also uses tilts of the cube to move an avatar. But here comes the most interesting twist: the Cube is actually a Rubik’s cube (or Magic Cube, etc. - don’t want to start a war on copyrights), with printed markers to each field. Once you turn the cube elements, you will affect the projected gaming world. Good concept.

Unfortunately I don’t understand much about the rules in the youtube video (Imagine Cup interview doesn’t reveal too much either), hopefully we get more information on it. The first part, moving by tilting, is a bit slow, but the second part has really great potential with an awesome input device - if combined well with the story. It gives me the idea of searching for (natural) sources below the surface (the surface projected, the “drilling” done by your hands below the green (But this might be a bit off, thinking of the OLPC donation. ;) )), somehow combined with a memory game of three-in-a-row. It seems like a really neat idea, but compared to Julian Oliver’s idea I think a bit of potential might get lost. I would prefer to see the action happen again inside the cube or somehow around it, but still see the physical cube completely. Otherwise (like here) you start acting blindfolded. A brain/riddle game where the patterns have to be rotated according to the projected VR scenario would have a bigger impact, imho. A more intense mixing of the two realities - not hiding the real world - would bring an interesting twist into it. It could even become an AR Rubik’s cube solution walkthrough for the lazy. ;)

But that’s just another option. Right now, AR is not really used for augmentation here, but rather as an input device (which has a great approach!). You don’t see the on-top markers and the lower ones are partially covered by your hands. So it’s getting tricky to track. A visual analysis of all small cubes would be great, maybe even handling hand-occlusion correctly, having scanned the cube once, allowing for a full cube magic game. I’ll definitely check back on this one. :-)

Busy days. So, today just a short one on interaction.

I’m always fond of new mixed reality, VR and AR interaction metaphors or devices to make the human and the machine work together easily. A mouse and a keyboard is just not the right input for AR scenarios. Last time I posted on this, was regarding marker interaction to manipulate the virtual objects. Now we have a video from diginfo showing a ToolDevice from Ritsumeikan University. Nothing too scary to see here, but I like the research in this field. It’s completely intuitive with a grasp and cut/sew metaphor and if you replicate actual tools from the real (tool) world, you can have a perfect training scenario (for engineers, doctors or for your next BBQ). :-) Enjoy!

(via dev memo)

Make-Up artists beware! A new demonstration in Japan shows augmented reality make-up, where you scan your head and have a magic mirror concept to immediately show the results of a possible do-over, without sitting there with an actual brush and patience.

To be frank, I can’t really tell the difference before and after in this video, but that might just be me. The idea is neat and if the head tracking is stable enough, it’s a great point of sale / virtual marketing progress. We’ve seen this before with T-Shirts, clothings and sneakers and even hair. But this one seems to be ready to hit the retailers.

If you are having video conferences quite often, this one might save you some time on your daily routine. We are virtually getting closer to avatars as in all the current genre cinema (e.g. Surrogates or the silly Gamer), though they actually re-use physical bodies (real or robot ;-)).

(via japentrends)

A long time ago there was the first try of an augmented reality version of the all-time id classic Quake. Performance was low, quality was cr*ppy, but it was a nice first attempt - even with occlusion by the real world’s objects (through hand-modelled real world 3D architecture duplication). Now this video hit the world on youtube “Augmented Reality Game Example - Future of Augmented Reality Gaming”.

It nicely shows a fast paced action shooter, of course first-person style. It appears to be a live demo, since the crowd is waving into the camera and the virtual soldiers appear among them. It comes with a toy-gun to shoot those enemies and a great looking real-time keying for the occlusion by real victims/extras. There is nothing more to say. It’s just a stunning demonstration of how we could have the next level of military training, gaming or complete other scenarios with mixed and augmented reality.

For now I couldn’t find the source of it (fake, real, …). It seems to have been shown on a R&D summit in Isreal 2008 and T-Immersion is listed in the tags. I’ll investigate. If you know more, please let us know in the comments!

Today I’ll offer a small collection of mixed news.

• YDreams uploaded a new video of their little AR mascot program. You see a little virtual play buddy running around your room, reacting to your actions and fully occluded by the room’s geometry. Unfortunately we don’t learn if there is an AI controlling the little fellow:

• The ConceptLab in New Zealand shows a new way of digital, mixed reality tracing paper. Easily mix the two worlds if you are an artist and want to stick to real paper, but like to have the advantages of the computer era:

  Drawing in Mixed Reality from Marcel van Heist on Vimeo.

• In February there will be the next WARM in Graz, Austria. It’s the fifth event, starting of Februar, 24th, with workshops for two days and another two days for skiiing. :-)

  Quoting the introduction from their website:

  The fields of Computer Graphics, Augmented Reality, Computer Vision and Ubiquitous Computing have the potential to be synergistic. However, the overlap and mutual contributions of each area has yet to be expressed and understood. The specialist, immersed in his or her own discipline, struggles to see the “big picture”. The core of the workshop is Augmented Reality and Ubiquitous Computing and we are soliciting presentations from members of each community that illuminate the interplay between the different disciplines and AR.

• Another team-up has been defined in the MIRACLE project: the HITLab from New Zealand and the German Fraunhofer institute (FIT) build a research project called Mixed Reality Applications for City-based Leisure and Experience. Location based services, mobile device visual tracking and applications in AR to come!

Spatial Computing and new paradigms for HMI, i.e. human machine interaction, are a huge field of research, that became more and more popular (or let’s say: became more coverage in media during last years). Starting with hand-gestures and iphone-tricks, leading to Windows 7 and multitouch, Surface tables and 3D-cameras for Project Natal… it all comes together as a keyboard and mouse-killer application concept. Combining these more-natural-input ideas with augmented reality goggles could really, really have the biggest impact on the computer world since the internet. Well, even bigger maybe.

I’m also working on HMI optimization for VR environments and that’s why I’m ashamed, that I missed this neat concept video from Phedhex. Thomas at Gamesalfresco dug it up and I must show it to you, too.

It actually is the 2nd part of Phedhex’s series on spatial computing, this time covering shopping as an application example, using AR goggles. He does a great job of postproduction, giving life to his concept. There have been demos before and there is software out there (that e.g. decorates your living room with virtual about-to-buy objects), but this nicely combines glove/gesture interaction with an AR experience and an actual industry scenario. It’s great how the furniture drops to the ground and how easy-to-use the interface appears.

So again… let’s hope for a near-future release of good HMD goggles. :-)