If Augmented Reality, Then Perform!

In the last months I have seen so many AR “campaigns” that I can not list them here – anyway there might be a list with the top 10 top 50 lists out there. Quite a few gave me “kinglike content”, “a unique (gaming) interaction / sharing function” or “at least a stable and robust AR product experience”. Thus I wouldn´t have a too long list because most of them are underperforming in some or all the essential and crucial criteria a good AR marketing measure is made off. And last but not least: the optical reference is created especially for the microsite. It´s an extra piece of paper! I think, that as long there is print out there – and this will not change too soon – we can enhance existing products, flyers, books, magazines or whatever with an augmented reality experience. On top. You should use it to connect print products with websites and have elements for conversion. Well, you need a good feature tracking for that, unless you don´t want barcodes as a full page design element. (Of course I do exclude putting the print reference ALSO as a PDF on the site, for the online-only people.)

But back to the technical part, that´s more our playground… Please, and I mean, PLEASE, consider Shockwave the next time you are selling web based augmented reality to your customer! You have a brilliant, native renderer. You can create appealing, high-resolution content people are willing to see, just like a quicktime, that is clicked, although people have seen a movie before (don´t come with that novelty-only approach, AR is a medium, nothing more, but nothing less). You have all the capabilities of the Director and can get in physics engines, your own game scripts or all the other existing Xtras. And most important: the application will perform well. There´s hardware rendering for smooth and high-speed and there´s a stable tracking. The engine won´t moan, it will purr. Compare FlashAR with Shockwave AR and you will know, what I mean.

For your evaluation I can provide you with the latter technology, as a movie directly here and as the tool, right here.

 

metaio Is Fair

Just wanted to share the latest coverage from our technology fair this year. Of course it is not like ISMAR, but we had 180 guests from around 25 countries, 30 live-demos and a lot of interesting new ideas and projects coming up. Maybe see you netx year …

Augmented Kingdom

Once upon a time, there was this information kingdom, ruled by hype cycles and catchy videos. Speed was the currency, quantity was the drug and image was everything. It was the time of virtual birds, twittering the news and rumours in a 15 seconds of fame (and attention) pulse through the venes of the newswires. Some even called it a war when it came to a certain point where the world as it has been known was on it´s way to change. I mean, the way this world was seen. In these times even the most deliberate knights, the warhorses of this visual battle were forced to use the ultimate measure: a demo video !  (drum roll, rolling thunder, pathetic music). And this is the story I want to tell you today…

iLive and iPlay

Let me introduce my charming colleague Katha and two of our iPhone apps to you. While the latter are available in the app store, it was only Mihai Corlan who had the pleasure of a live-demo at this years Webinale…

http://vimeo.com/5016374

Have a nive day!

Magic + Magic = ?

Marco just sent me his augmented reality card trick movie and I immediately had to cover it. I think he did a great job. Exactly that is what I mean, when talking about ideas in 2009 and following. These days you will not develop the wheel or be the first to cook a meal with fire, but you can combine existing things in a new way. The augmented card trick is an invention and I am sure when it is implemented into the fascinating (commercial) show programme it will become an innovation, proven through market entry. And this is not magic, this is inventive talent.

Before The Game Is Over

Here´s a very interesting work by Cati Vaucelle from MIT, done together with artists Shada / Jahn . Fully aware, within their intro and documentation, that there are addicted WOW players out there – and this is not common sense talking about a life threatening addiction rather than “played a little too much recently” – they have designed “an immersive architectural solution for the advanced WOW (World of Warcraft) player that provides and anticipates all life needs.” The WOW Pod is a very creative, playful but still serious approach to gaming, because it deals with the materialistic resources of gamers. Their avatars – individually designed, powerful, ultimate fighting and travelling machines – never get tired or hungry. So do the people on the other side of the screen. But lunch breaks can break the neck of your level 78 paladin, because untill now the system is mostly unaware of its most important component, the human being. Awareness beyond keyboard input is one of the most interesting topics of the future. Especially keeping in mind, that real and virtual worlds are on their way to melt together…

One nice idea dealing with this big issue of system awareness presented, is the snack packs (see foto with barcode o the pack), which can be scanned and cooked (!) within the WOW Pod. Finally there is an alert within the game, that lunch is ready (no triangle, no Mummy yelling, but a cool slogan by the character) . “When the food is ready, the system automatically puts the character in AFK (‘Away From Keyboard’) mode to provide the gamer a moment to eat. ” And maybe you could even go one step further, that there is a decent period in the game where (virtual) you are in a blue glow while (real) you are eating and can´t be harmed. You shouldn´t cheat, just eat, of course

The toilet within that WOW Pod maybe is not the best idea (can not be implemented to productive and sexy systems) but the project obviously is not intended to be marketed or whatever. It`s mind opening to the many challenges and chances for developing immersive experiences. Usability experts, game designers, sociologists, parents, gamers, almost everybody can and should be integrated to this discourse. It is not only about polygons, performance and power. Real-virtual-augmented-immersive-world-games-one-day-concepts will have to be more aware, than the old school. What needs are there, how can we track them, how can systems react … Maybe the term serious games should be implemented also to the ”pure fun” games, thus taking all this basical needs-stuff more serious. Nintendo is on a good way, when the system asks you for a little break from time to time when you are playing it.

“Please, do not use me for an hour or two”.

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.

Poke me baby one more time

An article about a reasonable but not ground-braking augmented reality application in engadget? No problem. Just add baby animals or sex (attention: do not mix it up!) and everybody will talk or blog about you. I am the living proof.

Actually, there´s nothing to ad to the article in engadget: “You can then, uh, manipulate her using the cybersticks, undress her, touch her, change her clothes, and, well, we’ll leave the rest up to you, you naughty little thing, you.”

Cyberwalk

The “Max Planck Institute for biological cybernetics”, the ETH Zürich and the technical universitites of Munich and Rome have produced a high-end device, giving you the opportunity to really (realy really) dip into the virtual world: the Cyberwalk. Once you wear a HMD (head mounted display), combined with an infrared tracking system you step onto that magnificent machine an walk through – let´s say – the old Pompeji. You can explore the whole city (which was virtually rebuilt by the programmers of ETH), in every direction and watch it from any angle. The AR system knows where you are and how you are orientated, the carpet magically moves under your feet. You go left, it goes righty right.

At the moment, the EU-research project is about finding out, how people, or better their brains, apprehend the pysical world. The research field is called “psychophysics”. One way to find out more about our reception of sense stimulations and their combined reaction is by analysing the sense-reactions of test persons while moving through a virtual world with their own feet.

But for some people involved in the project this is only the beginning. They are talking about firefighter-training, strolling through ancient rome in a museum or about architectural scenarios. Of course the costs of this device are a little drawback (only the hardware for the cybercarpet is approx. 300.000 Euro) but maybe version 2011 will go productive. For theme parks, gaming (do you remember “laser tag” by the way?) and many other places with mixed reality opportunities this could be a great step forward. Not to mention Second Life…

 

Lasers AR back!

Every time I see something with “a laser”, Mike Myers comes to my mind. Threatening the world in “Austin Powers” with “a laser” might be a little old fashioned. But if you think of it as a user interface, it makes a lot of sense – and fun. What comes to your mind, when you think about virtual objects in real space and in real time combined with a laser pointer / shooter / painter … ? Behave!