Intelligent computing meets augmented reality: Brutus guides you through the Ohio State’s Campus

As promised last week on our junaio Blog, we decided to provide you with more information on the incredible application ‘Find Brutus’ created by Bradley A. Henry, Software Developer/Engineer at Ohio State University. The app helps students to explore the Ohio State Campus through their mobile Android devices. Named after the school’s mascot, Brutus Buckeye, the augmented reality application cleverly uses voice recognition, geolocation, artificial intelligence as well as intelligent tutoring systems to provide the service to the campus community.

In an interview given exclusively for metaio, Bradley A. Henry is speaking about the idea behind, the technical facts and the ongoing working processes.

What actually is ‘Find Brutus’?

In technical terms: Find Brutus is an Intelligent Mixed Reality (IMR) application using a Virtual Tour Agent (VTA – patent pending) framework. An Intelligent Mixed Reality (IMR) application is the inclusion of Augmented Reality (AR), voice-recognition (VR), geolocation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) into a mobile accessible user experience.

In broader terms: Find Brutus is a Mobile Virtual Tour Guide designed for incoming students and visitors to the Ohio State University designed specifically as a graduate research project. A user will explore campus through pre-defined target locations on campus. As the user approaches the location 3D Brutus will appear in mobile view as the indicator that they are approaching the first target. When the user identifies the location, as seen through their mobile device, the user will prompted with a few questions, including hints, about the target to answer. As the user answers each question they will then move to the next target. Version 2 is where VTA gets really exciting, see below.

Is it already a working application and in which context did you create it?

Yes, the beta version is complete. We used the free version of the Metaio SDK for Android. We are going to begin working on the iOS application over the summer as well as for Google Glass. Because the most exciting news is that this project is also part of the Google Glass Explorer pilot. We will be using Google Glass with the application to study student interactions and cognitive processing. The design of this version is study the affect of an incoming student to the university. The goal is to increase the students knowledge of the university campus and resources while acclimating them to their surroundings. If successful this should increase the students experience their first year attending The Ohio State University.

How many people were involved in the development on the application?

‘Find Brutus’ is the framework for my PhD thesis. But nevertheless a lot of players are involved: It is truly a community of engineers working on this application. I have counted over 80 people that have touched this project to some degree, currently over 8 of the Colleges and 6 departments at the university. To me this is what it looks like when organizations and people work together.

Included was also the College of Engineering Capstone project, which just won the CETI best in class project. This was a pretty extraordinary surprise, considering the level of competition. I have been blessed to work with some of the most amazing individuals. I was overwhelmed that the project was selected.

Virtual Tour Guiding has been a dream of metaio for a long time now and we are sure to bring the concept of the ‘Augmented City’ into real life. In which fields do you feel a real value for VTG?

Long-term objectives for it is to use the framework as a mechanism for navigation of locations, and buildings and as an educational device that will include simulations that work within real-world environments. Example, educate professionals or students, such as nurses or doctors in their work environment. How this would work, using an emergency room, fully equipped, a learner would wearing a pair of Google Glasses and would be required to resolve simulated problem-based scenarios that interact with the environment. A doctor would interact with a virtual nurse using to perform surgical procedures.

Could you think about other examples of using AR and Virtual-Tour-Guiding in educational environment?

Another example could be the Thompson Library Foundation Stones Tour (Submitted idea in the OSU AR Hackathon): A student would view the foundation stones through their mobile device. The stones would provide information, such as origin, ethnicity, world regions, and text and voice translation capability. The student could tour the stones, seek information on specific origins, request information such as publications, videos, research that is available through the OSU library or tour the library. An additional concept idea submitted by the University Archives includes a historical view of the campus through time. Using AR a user can explore the campus in any given decade using Glass. Example, you can be on the oval wearing Glass and prompt the VTA to view the campus in 1850. As your line of site moves images, and information, of the campus in 1850 would appear in the glasses.

What future projects are already in the line?

We are also putting on a one day display at the Columbus Museum of Art, fellow students, the Ohio Film Commission and Columbus Fashion Week will are also participating. We are currently discussing a fall project. In addition, we are also discussing a live DJ event with augmented reality later in the year. I work with a very creative group of people.

Thank you Bradley for the interview!

Website of EduTechnological

Version 1 capabilities:
• Mobile accessible
• Augmented reality
• Geo-location notifications
• Includes the first approved 3D Brutus Buckeye through OSU licensing.
Version 2
• Voice activation (Siri type functions)
• AI/Intelligent computer interactions (Collaboration with the University of Memphis FedEx Institute of Technology)
• Geo-location direction service (ask for specific outdoor directions from your current location)
• First scanned 3D Human Agent
• Web Accessible Agents (Collaboration with the University of Memphis FedEx Institute of Technology)

Internship at metaio offices in Munich: Sebastian tells about one of his best weeks in his life

My name is Sebastian and I did a one-week internship in the Munich offices of Metaio. Since I have been interested in Augmented Reality (AR) for a long time, I discovered metaio because I already enjoyed their app, Junaio. My main advisor and “personal coach“ was Matthias Greiner, who was extremely hospitable, showing me the company and explaining everything that they do at Metaio. From the first day, I had my own computer and workplace where I could explore different Junaio channels. Especially in the beginning, I was very happy that Matthias spoke German with me, but with most of the international staff I had to speak in English, which was a good chance for me to practice my language skills.

After these “first contacts” with Metaio and Augmented Reality I got my first tasks and was really part of the team. I was allowed to use, for the whole week, the very powerful software Metaio Creator and learned more and more about this program and its potentials. As time flew by, I learned a lot about tracking and finally I was allowed to create my own channel. Eventually, on Friday my channel had been published in the Junaio AR browser.

The picture shows Sebastians trackables of his business cards

Too bad that this was also my last day! I hated to go, but – if I get the chance and Metaio agrees to give a “bothersome” scholar trainee a second chance – I really want to come back for another internship in this great company.

This, unfortunately only for one week, internship was one of the best weeks in my life and that is not a lie!

Sebastian

Dear Sebastian,

We really enjoyed your company and were definitely amazed at how fast you grasped the Metaio idea! It was great to see how quickly you managed to work with the Metaio Creator and understood what is important to know. We hope you are proud about your own junaio channel and will surprise your classmates and teachers with it!

As soon as you are free to join the Metaio team we would be happy to welcome you again!

 The Metaio team 

South by Southwest 2013 – Vote for Augmented Reality!

Way more important than real voting. 

 

It’s that time of year again when voting begins for all of the panels everyone has submitted to South by Southwest Interactive. Even if you’re not planning on attending South by Southwest Interactive, you can still support metaio by making your voice heard in the community voting!

Take a quick minute to create a PanelPicker account (if you don’t have one) and then link straight to these two great panels that feature metaio projects and use-cases:

 

 

How A Virtual Pop-Star Sold Her First Car featuring Lisa Murphy of metaio! 

In order to engage with a younger, tech-savvier audience, Toyota launched an integrated marketing campaign for the 2012 Toyota Corolla that featured emerging technology like 2-D print activation and vision-based mobile augmented reality to leverage its existing yet scarcely-downloaded mobile app, the Toyota Shopping Tool. It also features an entirely digital open-source anime pop-star sensation named Hatsune Miku.

Toyota saw huge successes as a result: Corolla leads jumped 30% the week of the lauch; Toyota Shopping Tool mobile app downloads increased 600%; website traffice for the first week increased 167% and continued at an all time high for the next seven weeks.

In this proposal, learn how the interactive director of a multicultural agency and the project lead for an augmented reality company worked together to make this campaign a huge success for Toyota, culminating in a Multicultural Excellence Award.

 

 

Hot Housewives Getting Augmented At Home featuring a project developed with the metaio Mobile SDK! 

The lady of the house is often the one picking the décor and design at home. If she can see a ductless system in her house virtually, thanks to augmented reality, sales rise — and have they ever. Using custom mobile apps integrated with emerging technology, such as augmented reality and a custom app store, Mitsubishi Electric Cooling & Heating is revolutionizing the way its sales channel members do business. Tools in hand, Mitsubishi Electric is projecting an increase of $30 million in revenue next year, while simultaneously decreasing future costs for printing and distributing product catalogs by millions of dollars.

Mitsubishi Electric’s products can save homeowners 30-percent on their energy bill, but most just want to know, “What is it going to look like in my house?” Augmented reality is Mitsubishi Electric’s most visual tool in its custom app store that will deploy 11 new enterprise apps for a variety of specific needs in its sales channel.

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Voting starts today and continues to the end of the month, so tell your friends!

Share on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit, Digg, Myspace, Friendster, IRC….basically whatever you want.

While you’re at it, vote for anything else you think is cool!

Outside voting counts for 30% of the selection process, so help us get to SXSW so we can bring these great panels to life!

AR Services for the City of Basel at the ISMAR 2011

From October 26^th to 29^th, the city of Basel in Switzerland is host to ISMAR 2011, the international conference on research, technology and application in Mixed and Augmented Reality. Part of the conference is the very interesting AR-4-Basel project, organized by PEREY Research & Consulting and its partners.

Model by VirtualcitySYSTEMS

The purpose of this project is to establish a framework in which creative professionals can push the envelope of what has been done in Smart Cities with 3D data sets and to showcase the first generation of services that are available to the public with smartphones during the ISMAR 2011.

The project coordinates resources in the city of Basel and internationally for the purpose of implementing real world mobile AR services, and receives the support of businesses, government agencies, municipal service providers, private and public institutes of learning. In order to help build AR based services for people in Basel and visitors to the conference, the project provides datasets of 3D city models (see image above). This is an interesting challenge for researchers and developers in the field of Augmented Reality. We at metaio are curious to see what our colleagues will present.

Current technology is advancing rapidly. While having a readymade 3D Model available is certainly useful for projecting AR overlays correctly aligned onto buildings or street views (we have been using those lots of times), our current approach at metaio however goes a step further. We now have technologies which can in fact create a model of reality on the spot, dynamically and at the very instant the user looks at the world through his smartphone camera. By using very advanced 3D optical recognition and tracking technologies we are able to capture and reconstruct the environment around the user without having to rely on a prefabricated city model. 3D objects can then be directly inserted into this “live” three-dimensional space in perfect perspective, alignment and occlusion.

It will allow people in the near future to walk through any cityscape with their smartphones and benefit from correctly aligned digital overlays and useful Augmented Reality information services as a completely natural experience. We call this the “Augmented City”. You may have seen this video, but we show it once more to illustrate the point:

Get Out The Vote For South By Southwest Interactive AR Panels

South by Southwest Interactive 2012 might seem far off, but the voting deadline for panels is quickly approaching. I am happy to say that metaio is participating in four different potential panels, and we’d really like to see them get a great response from our followers. We’ve got some very cool topics in the works, so we’d really appreciate your support! You can vote for as many panels as you like, so please be generous. Make sure to create an account, it only takes a few minutes- just click on the titles of the panels below to go straight to the voting page!

The New Role of Advertising in AR Game Development
Brendan Scully, Business Development Manager

Augmented Reality promises the future, but who is actually building new things with it? How are they making any money? As new projects demand six-figure budgets, can privacy rights, humanistic design and fun coexist with user metrics, brand messaging and a lust for “k-factor”? We’ll take a look at what’s been built, why it did and how we might design better games for players and clients alike moving forward.

Negotiating The Hype Curve: How UX Can Sell AR
Roman Hasenbeck, US Director Sales & Marketing

Every new project is defined by the business practices that enable them. So why do so many Augmented Reality experiences fall short of the expectations of both the buyer and end user? With dissatisfied clients and rumors of low ROI, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate how we sell AR. Roman Hasenbeck, Director of Sales and Business Development at metaio Inc., the nation’s leading AR Tech firm, explains the process of selling AR the right way. He shows us why the Hype Curve is just a crutch for lazy producers, and how the most crucial yet often-ignored components to ensuring a great project and closing a sale is taking the time to learn the tech, design a thoughtful experience and communicate it effectively to the client.

Augmented Reality = ARPA’s Original Vision of Web
Lisa Murphy, Sr. Sales & Marketing Manager

Using a variety of original source material, Chris Grayson will give an overview of the global network, as envisioned by thinkers at ARPA before the creation of the ARPAnet. Examples include J.C.R. Licklider’s “Man-Computer Symbiosis,” 1960; Douglas Engelbart’s “Augmenting Human Intellect,” 1962; and Ivan Sutherland’s “The Ultimate Display,” 1965. Some focus will also be given to the people and personalities involved. Lisa Murphy will provide the technical explanation for many milestones in the evolution of the internet, making the case that the human interface to the network has historically been limited by the available technology, and with Augmented Reality, we are now entering an era that truly begins to deliver on the original vision.

And lastly, Yours Truly:

Real Time Hyperlocal Brokerage Communities
Trak Lord, PR & Social Marketing Manager

Our life styles are increasingly evolving into hybrid experiences that blend the physical with the cyberspatial and the virtual. Moreover, these interactions are creating new forms of communities for fun and commerce, where consumers and businesses increasingly use hyperlocal incentives to leverage our immediate surroundings. In this panel, we’ll explore how games, collaborative consumption, Augmented Reality, consumer to consumer brokerages, experience augmentation, visual discovery and local commerce are providing the glue for diverse hyper-local experiences and communities.

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Outside voting counts for 30% of the selection process! Help us get to SXSW so we can bring these great panels to life.

Go Green with Augmented Reality

Today was the public release for the mobile app of the Green Party of Berlin and their election campaign. With the app you can actively participate in the real public space by posting or interacting with others on topics of interest, such as payable living space, education, energy consumption or production and public transport.  By placing a virtual POI you can express your needs or thoughts in the real world. All off this nicely embedded into the campaign framework of the green Party named “Da müssen wir ran” what could be translated as: “we have to tackle this.” The second function brings the billboards to live, when scanning one of them you can see a video of the election candidate referring to the topic. A truly interactive and integrated campaign! The Augmented Reality features are powered by the junaio Plug-In and the content will be available on junaio itself starting on Monday. Here`s a video of the political participation function:

And here´s the “speaking billboards”:

Have a nice weekend and maybe you would like to think about where you could go green in your life or what changes in your neighborhood could help make life more sustainable and worth living…

Credits: Concept by Zum goldenen Hirschen and Nest. Design by 10hoch16. And App development from Wonderkind.

The World’s First Reverse Vending Machine

Last week, Mayors from around the United States gathered for the 79th United States Mayor Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Unlike the last 78 USCM’s, the mayors this year got to experience a device that is the first of its kind: Recyclable Planet‘s Augmented Reality Reverse Vending Machine, powered by metaio’s Unifeye Platform and with the help of German vending firm trautwein sb technik.

Reverse vending machine? Yes! It rewards you for using it, and most importantly, for doing your part to help the environment. The concept is simple, much like redemption machines that already exist around the US where you can redeem recyclables for a small bonus, usually around 0.05 per item, depending on state regulations. This new “Green Machine” is universal- users can be rewarded with prizes and discounts at local retailers, just for recycling. Even better, these impressive devices come equipped with interactive augmented reality. Check out the video below to see how it works:

This is a major step for urban connectivity, commerce, and especially the environment. I’ve traveled through over 85% of the United States, and I can’t tell you how many places I came across where recycling was a foreign concept. I even stopped at cafeteria-style restaurants that sold bottled and canned beverages, only to be met with blank stares when I asked for the nearest recycling bin at the end of my meal. These machines could be a large move to educating people on the value of recycling through reward-based incentives and progressive-minded, interactive technology.

Attention Mayors of major US cities: Recycling just got gamified- let’s play “Save the Planet”.

Augmented Expression: ARtists Making ARt

Augmented Reality as a technology is often seen through utilitarian eyes. AR has many appropriate industry uses, such as improving mechanical safety inspections, interactive training procedures, mobile instruction manuals, and assembly-line safety. But over the past few months, we’ve seen developers use our technology more and more for personal, emotional, most importantly artistic expression.

XYZ Site Gallery AR experience

It’s difficult to try to comprehend the almost limitless design possibilities when you have the potential to take any digitally-designed or rendered object and place, overlay, or otherwise anchor it to the physical world.  Imagine: a vast museum of virtual artifacts and objects occupying the same space as the Louvre- accessible only through your mobile device! The term “mixed media” is barely sufficient anymore- we’re beginning to see a real blending of the virtual and the physical, with a substantial emphasis on using metaio’s software, like junaio, to curate and design galleries, exhibits, art and space augmentations, and even use “basic” functionalities of junaio to guide and navigate around them.

Chris Hodson and Sarah Staton recently designed an experience for the Sheffield, UK Site Gallery in which they designed and implemented sculptures that were part virtual and part material, including marble, concrete, metal, wood, glass, wool and cork. The experience was triggered by a series of markers placed around and inside the museum- such a simple installation process for something so complex! Hodson and Staton even worked with physicist Dominic Hosler to design a “cuboid game of life and death”, in which “infinitely accumulating and dissipating cubes” loop themselves into eternity.

Anyone living or vacationing in Italy this year should already be familiar with the 54^th Venice Biennale Art Exhibition. This year, we’re pleased to announce there will be a junaio channel running the duration of the event until 27 November 2011. The channel, “Venice Augmented”, was developed by San Francisco-based Certified Developer Vitamin AR under the direction of artist Amir Baradaran, and places examples of Baradaran’s work in POI’s around Venice and the Biennale, as part of his “FutARism” campaign:

I am interested in how small acts of resistance, particularly within so-called virtual domains, can create pockets of transformation. Seeking to generate much more than novel surprise, my art explores new ways of being.

These are just two ways in which artists are using junaio to design wonderfully interactive experiences. Below is a list of links to recent examples of junaio augmenting the art world. What kind of projects could you envision, knowing that what you design is not bound by the laws of nature? A Borgesian map, perhaps?

Wink.

-Trak

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Scope, Cabinet Exhibition, Peninsula Arts Gallery, Plymouth, UK; Vladimir Geroimenko and Roberto Fraquelli

-          “Scope” junaio channel that adds enhanced dimensionality to a specific exhibit

Mao Dollar Channel, part of the Manifest.AR art festival

Gallery Kessler-Battaglia AR experience, developed by our partner eDiam Sistemas

Museum Night in Belgrade with our own TV appearance!

Presenting: Augmented Reality

Our German Partner Kreativagentur Thomas did  something smart, successful (host and guests were overwhelmingly inspired and happy) and maybe comparable to an event previosuly described. And I also repeat myself: get in touch and let them touch…  So, the acengcy invited their existing and potential partners and customers to experience new technologies live and direct, which are influencing the communication process of manufacturers and brands these days. After a day full of speeches and demos dealing with social media, print to web and of course augmented reality the absolute highlight was the concept car presentation for Molitor Racing Systems GmbH, competitors in the Porsche Mobile1 Supercup and the Porsche Carrera-Cup.

Kreativagentur Thomas designed the complete vehicle beginning with the first drafts and 3D renders to the finished model. At the same time, they prepared the data for several kiosk applications and an iPhone and Android app based on metaio’s Unifeye platform. At the launch event, the interactive prototype concept car was presented on touch screens via Augmented Reality. Attendees of the event could then also configure and adjust the car’s paint scheme and appearance. Please find the application and the handsome metaio racing team below:

What about Markerless, Freehand Augmented Reality?

On our way to an augmented world there are still some hurdles to be taken. Data generation, bandwidth, standards and such. But we are not to far away anymore, let me tell you this. And it´s not only us doing the homework. While we are working for example on markerless tracking algorithms, others work on processing power and smart architecture. And there is another important stakeholder: output devices! For some scenarios – industrial as well as commercial – you`ll need both of your hands – and that´s where AR-able head mounted displays (a layman like me would call it magic glasses) step into the arena. You know what, today is a goood day for AR game developers, industrial AR researchers or experience designers! Vuzix Corporation today announced that it has formed a marketing and development partnership with metaio, the leader in the field of professional Augmented Reality (AR) software systems, to deliver head mounted display (HMD) solutions for their customers. The two companies will work together to identify and deliver customer solutions that require both metaio’s AR software capability and Vuzix’s line of ARenabled Video Eyewear. Paul Travers, President of Vuzix, commented, “Both metaio and Vuzix are leaders in and at the forefront of AR markets with highly complementary offerings. With Vuzix providing its award winning Video Eyewear products and engineering services and metaio providing its leading software platforms and software engineering capability, we believe that together we can better address this rapidly emerging market need.” metaio and Vuzix have identified a number of common customers that require integrated hands-free HMD solutions for applications such as marketing and advertising, assembly, maintenance, on-site and on the factory floor problem solving, training and education and entertainment.

Because images say more than a thousand words out of the official press release, here´s one of the many examples for markerless, handsfree augmented reality. By the way, this is registered in 3D and most of all: a real use case.