Visions of the future, in 3D

ImmesiveTech.org just posted this great video from Keiichi Matsuda, which was recently shown at the London's 3D festival. Why does the video look "off"? Because it's meant to be viewed in 3D, but you get the idea, even without stereoscopic projection, or those funky red-and-blue lenses.



Very reminiscent of the Domestic Robocop video, I had to laugh watching all the little adverts following the guy down the street. Reminded me heavily of Denno Coil. (At least they could be filtered, and don't contribute to global pollution)

imtech will be holding an immersive technology summit, 10-21-10. And while you're at it, be sure to check out some of their videos. Brain Candy stuff, there.

go, and see.

viZoo HD augmented Reality

Well, here's a neat video from the company, viZoo. Check out their video (below) and prepare to be impressed. With the combination of real world objects, and seamless virtual ones, the Flare 320 makes for a stunning visual.It's so slick and streamlined, you gotta wonder what makes this "magic box" tick?( hint: Think "smoke and mirrors") Sure, it *looks* like it might be a microwave, but it's High Definition makes you question what is real, and what is rendered..and that's High Art, in my opinion. When you watch it for the first time, see if you can distinguish the real from the augmented, before it becomes obvious.

Invisible concrete...well, sort of.

Wow, miss a few days (camping off the digital grid) and you miss a lot, So, I'll be playing a bit of 'catch up' for the next few posts. Here's a neat little art installation , utilizing the concepts of AR (without a HMD/Smartphone), designed by Daniel Franke and Markus Kison, called "Durchsehen Exp. 01 (augmented perspective)",

Durchsehen Exp. 01 (Docu) from Daniel Franke on Vimeo.

Using a facial-recognition camera that calculates the viewer's angle of perspective, it overlays images (including a "pass through" view, as if one were looking *through* the solid block). Nicely done work. Who would have thought that the first Terminator would be made of concrete?

Go, and see.

Putting the Art in AR. ART+COM

Let's take a moment, if we may, to back up from the pure tech aspect of Augmented Reality, and look at it from the artistic side. We know AR is likely to be around a while, but do we want it to all be "talk bubbles"? Of course not. To give the Digital Art Layer a more concrete permanence (ironic, I know), we can't forget to add art to the augmented layer.

To that end, if you don't know him/them already, I'd like to introduce you to Joachim Sauter , the Founder and Director of Design at Art+Com, a design house for interactive media. They have some visually stunning projects going on.

The video from The Creators Project must be seen to truly appreciate the art.

From The Independent: "His work covers everything from technologies including augmented reality, (dinosaurs in the Berlin’s Natural History Museum becoming digitally fleshed out through the use of cameras and 3D modelling software), to mixtures of digital and physical reactions; one of the most impressive of his examples was a Tokyo installation in which the footprints of participants go from ripples of LED lights to physical waves on a nearby water feature. Much of it has to be seen to be believed (perhaps proving his point), but the central argument of much of work is the same: that we’re in the midst of a digitally-enabled ‘renaissance of the space’, as the talk was titled."

It's my personal hope that the creativity and ideas, such as fostered at ART+COM do indeed filer over to the Augmented Layer in AR, because AR serves as a potentially explosive art medium, given the chance. Yes, AR needs it's technicians, (artists of another sort, really), but who will paint the unseen?

Go, and see.

It'sa meee...mARio.!

Okay, had to add this, 'cuz it's just so cool. Andreas Heikaus,  a student at the Hannover University of Applied Science and Art has come up with a really neat presentation, using the cinema technique of "Match Moving" has brought Old Skool to the Great Outdoors, in a very visually compelling way.

Super Mario Bros. from Andreas Heikaus on Vimeo.

Says Andreas "This video was part of my Bachelor thesis at the University of Applied science and art Hannover. The Super Mario Bros. game, released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, is not longer bound to the television size and get interactive with a new environment. The emphasis of my thesis is on the matchmoving work. It is the process of matching CG elements into live-action footage."

Althoug I'd hesitate to call it "true AR", it's a darn impressive piece of work, and could easily be confused for high-end AR. (and it's fun to watch). Nicely done, Andreas!

The Future of Books- beyond the looking glass

Eventually, we'll have content floating before our eyes, (like we don't, already, right?). But what about that content? Will it be as static as this blog entry you're reading right now. or will reading become an ever more immersive experience? Take Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", (no, not the recent Tim Burton movie, the original 1865 story, itself). Sure, any codemonkey can burn a .PDF file, and scoll it in their reader, but what if it were a little more interractive? Thanks to Atomic Antelope, "There's an app for that":

Alice for the iPad

Sure, it's a cute bag of animation and accelerometer tricks, but it definitely shows how far a little creativity can invigorate any text, even a time-honored tale from 1865. Kinda funny, well over 100 years later, we're still viewing through a 'looking glass', of sorts.

Go, and see.

Stay Augmented.