3D Book Wrap-up

After a prolific discussion over the last weeks about the concept of an augmented reality pop-up book, here´s a little wrap-up of the echo in the bloggosphere. There are some critical voices, but most of the people like the idea of blending print media with 3D content. And it definetely inspires the commentators…

 

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/10/im-in-yur-physi.html

http://www.geek.com/articles/blurb/new-books-will-feature-augmented-reality-20081029/

http://www.genbeta.com/2008/10/29-metaio-trae-la-realidad-aumentada-a-los-libros#to-comments

http://www.ohgizmo.com/2008/10/29/metaios-augmented-reality-books/

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20081029/augmented-reality-pop-up-books/  

Have a nice weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A colleague also tried the configurator. Wants to stay anonymous…

Augmented Sales

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

As mentioned before, the field of context aware product presentation is as fascinating as vast. There are so many products, which can be visualized way better in their future deployment scenario than as a solitaire. Nevermind the best 3D-configurators or brilliant movies – some products need the visualization within the usage context. Especially online. Think about furniture - where sendback costs are amongst the highest in e-commerce - or shoes (I think Adidas came up with a virtual mirror in a flagship store, but there you also can try it on for real)  or … glasses! Of course. Personally speaking: only 0000.2 % of all glasses on this planet do not make me look like an idiot. So check out some of the latest examples in augmenting online shpos. Click here for the Virtual Mirror by RayBan, or here for the ZEISS try on. And by the way: if the people of RayBan would integrate a “Buy” button and link their database to the application, they could increase their conversion rate…

They are out there!

Here´s some breaking news from the Frankfurt Book Fair. The first consumer product with augmented reality features in the publishing domain is ready to market. And for german readers: these pictures were relevant enough for the Tagesschau (right after Orhan Pamuk!). Knowledge Media (Bertelsmann Group) and arsEdition, two renowned german publishing houses use the software of metaio to bring their books to life. The blending of print media with 3D content is a fascinating and very intuitive user experience, giving “readers” the opportunity to flip through an immersive, interactive world map for example. Or showing young explorers, how the future could look like. Hopefully these guys, stay in their own dimension:

Augmented Reality Check

I completely agree with the statements made by Blair MacIntyre in this article. No miracle, he is one of THE experts for augmented reality from the beginning. And, also opposite to me, a developer. He really knows what he is talking about, when he states that object recognition, accessibility or processor power are bigger issues, than they appear from a hype point of view. It reminds me of a lunch talk with one of our mobile AR developers, where he drawed my attention to the problem of the very thin lines of a barcode and the interlacing in a live-video. The real world reference is an established standard, OK, but he doesn´t want to be the one to deliver a robust tracking within a mobile (low resolution camera!) consumer application (very robust, very safe, very “I push the button and it works”) within the next year. So, a video like this for example will perhaps win the “AR Mock-up Fake and Post Production Award” (ARMFPPA) – established right at this moment, so no problem in case you don´t know – but it has got nothing to do with reality. Not even in an augmented sense. The problem is: they get press, they get blog entries and they are creating a hype wave, whereas the really cool developments and small but safe steps get owerflown. I hope that we can nevertheless create islands where the good demos can live a happy life and grow up until they lead to bigger and better applications. There we´ll wait until the deluge is over.

If you see this sign (Razzie Awards Icon Halle Berry) on a demo, beware! It could be on the shortlist for the ARMFPP-Awards…

Can touch this

Here´s a little interlude. One of my favourite demos of our recently held technology fair. It combines blending of print media with 3D-content, feature tracking, touch interaction, and thus: a nice product experience for visitors at industrial trade fairs for example.

Nitendogs In Your Living Room?

If this quote:

“We spoke to a source close to Nintendo — a software developer, for those who are wondering — and he confirmed that the company is indeed working on secret new hardware to replace the DS. What’s more, he stated that he has seen the new device, and could describe some of its features. The first thing he noted was that the prototype has saw had larger and higher-resolution screens than those in the current generation device. It appears to him that the company will be sticking with the same 4:3 aspect ratio, rather than opting for a wider display. However, he said that the new prototype DS had some features not currently included on the current model, most notably a camera. He told GameFlavor that the camera was of fairly high resolution and pointed away from the player. He and his colleagues had fun pointing the camera at background objects so as to make it appear that the screens of the DS were transparent.”

is authentic – and hey, I wouldn´t just copy and paste anything I find on nintendo-online – we will have something to blog about for the next months. Imagine a player like Nintendo entering the arena with a mobile AR device. Wooo, built-in camera and a somewhat transparent and larger display. Like a window to the augmented world? Well, the question about processor power remains, but maybe we will get answers in the next days…

P.S.: to step out of the box with wii control was one of the best strategic decisions in this market domain ever. I wouldn´t wonder if they had another brilliant product before the others even notice what is happening.