Hand From Above

Big respect to Chris O`Shea and his work for FACT: Foundation for Art & Creative Technology and Liverpool City Council for BBC Big Screen Liverpool and the Live Sites Network. To see why the kids on the picture above have so much fun, got to this website or watch the video, which refused to get embedded, here.

Chris answered my questions about the project as following: ” The software I wrote myself in c++ using the openFrameworks & openCv libraries. The BBC Big Screen is fitted with a CCTV camera, linked into a computer that runs the software then outputs to the screen. The software picks a person based on their proportions & how alone they are from other people, then tracks the blob over time using optical flow.  If the giant hand removes, flicks or shrinks a person, firstly it rubs out the person from the live video using the background reference pixels.  Then the tracked person is redrawn over the top in relation to what the hand is doing, i.e. being picked up, or flying out to the left of the screen (not shown in this video).  When the hand shrinks a person it redraws them into the video at half scale.  When there is too big a crowd it resorts to tickling people, with a random selection.”

Here are two pictures showcasing the magic behind this adorable installation:

Come And See The Berg – For Real

In case you haven´t heard of The Berg, it is an utopia developed by the creatives at Mila Berlin. When it was time to think about new spatial concepts for the former airport “Tempelhof” in the heart of Berlin they had a great idea. The Manifesto goes a little like this: “While big and wealthy cities in many parts of the world challenge the limits of possibility by building gigantic hotels with fancy shapes, erecting  sky-high office towers or constructing hovering philharmonic temples, Berlin sets up a decent mountain. Its peak exceeds 1000 metres and is covered with snow from September to March…” After officially contributing it to the contest people all over the world could testimony, how an idea of a place transforms the place itself. People created fictive postcards with The Berg, integrated it into the advertising campaign of Berlin and created many other visions of how the city would actually look like with having The Berg. So after all, The Berg at the beginning was fiction, something virtual, somehow becoming reality. And that´s where we came in, because that´s actually what augmented reality is all about! Now, by holding a map of Berlin in front of your webcam you can see The Berg grow and take it in your hands. It is there. On your table, and maybe within the playmobil figures you are using to create a little movie with real and virtual elements. So, as a starter, here´s a little movie of The Berg in someones hands. Would you like to video-answer? What comes to your mind?

And just in case you are reading this, while you are breathing the Berliner Luft, hey, go to The Berg Fest at fabulous St. Oberholz today. Here´s the flyer:

Another LASAR

Unlike this previous entry the laser in this universitarian work by Alvaro Cassinelli, Daito Manabe, Kuribara Yusaku and Stephane Perrin functions as a scanner for capturing not preset (!) markers and even parts of the body. As they state the “sticky light” can virtually define everything, as long as the contrast has a critical level. Augmented with sound this is very nice technology demo, worth to be mentioned here. Finally, the camera is not used for optical tracking. So it only functions to capture the nice movie: including my favourite hands-on-part…

Via: Wired UK

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”.

I Know What You Dated Last Summer

Obviously not everything gets easier with progressive technologies. Found here, but created here. I would love to see the function: “people who have dated this person, also dated these persons”… Venture Capital anybody?

Now That´s An E-Paper

One of the things I´ve learned in university is, to quote if you´re moving on unfamiliar terrain. Some of the things – actually some many of them – done at the Human Media Lab seem to fulfil this premise. So here is what they say about this crazy interaction concept: “Foldable input devices are cardboard “mouse pads” that are tracked through cheap infrared sensors that detect bends and folds. Input is used to manipulate paper-like windows on a screen, allowing origami-style input.” And not only the origami style input looks great, I especially like the simulation and “bending” of virtual paper referenced to that foldable marker. OK, maybe it´s a little bit to early for a productive implementation, right now. But this blog is not only dedicated to show best-practice. That´s why I am very happy that my friends from TrendOne have sent in this nerdy-techie-high-brow-demo.

 Via: trendexplorer.

Neat Cheat

No killer application, no live video augmenting, no location based service, no brand, no function (instead: killing the function of a rubik`s cube), nothing more than a little idea. And I still don´t know why I post this kind of stuff…

AR video editing

Dan Goldman of Adobe’s Advanced Technology Lab showed some nice scenarios for interactive video object manipulation by analyzing and segmenting objects in a video stream.

Have a look for yourself:

Have a nice weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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