Sekai Camera for Android

Tonchidot has released Sekai Camera ver 2.4.1 . and released a version for Android (v2.1) with Android-specific features.They even released a version for the (cameraless) iPad. In March, they released their "Open Air" API.

Also, there will be a series of apps designed to work within the Sekai Camera 'ecosystem', including it's premier title "Ka-Boom" (below).

The company is planning web-based access to it's air tags, and is mulling ideas for offices in Singapore and the U.S.

In-depth article at Tech Crunch.

Go, and see.

MIT=WIN.

Yeah, gotta love the "Home Team" Those crazy kids and their tech development.

Only in the student-culture of a tech campus could you come up with cheap, effective solutions, regardless of how funky it looks. Despite the plethora of wired data glove, the peeps at M.I.T. have done it again, more specifically, Graduate student Robert Wang (at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) ) has come up with a cheap, easily-implementable, and all-too-Partridge-family-meets-Ringling's look:  Color Gloves:

Okay, they're so funky looking, they are pretty. 

Camera-identified glove(s). "Why didn't I think of that?"

(because I'm not a starving Graduate Student, I guess)

Add a Vuzix Wrap920AR, and 'bingo'.

Yeah. If/when these come to market, I'd *so* get a pair. (but, um, guys, can you make them in grayscale?)
I understand that the color schema is an important part of it all, but I was (ideally) looking for somkething like these theoretical gloves:

 Rendered 'IT Manager' gloves from 2create. drooool.

Go, and see.

Stay Augmented.

Augmented Twitter, and the future of Social Media

Yup, as if that little 140 character text box wasn't enough for the vexing the verbose, Twitter , as well as many other 'social media' apps, will be augmented in the future (if they're not already, like Twitter 360).See the future, (both promise and pitfall), in this video "conversation with three futurists" from Jeff Pulver’s 140 Characters Conference (#140Conf), from April, 2010, (remember "back then", when Iceland had a volcano erupting?) It's 'dated', sure (by internet standards), but it offers a fascinating look into the minds that are focused on the direction Social Media is going.




Like I said, this is not "current news", per se, but it's also a good indication of how AR is "already out there", and accessible by you, in the here-and-now. Not everything AR has to be super-high-end, wiz-bang animation. It can also be practical and seamless in our daily usage.And it should be, if it's going to leave it's mark on Mr. and Mrs. Average Consumer.

And no, there's no way I could condense that to 140 characters.
Go, and see.
Stay Augmented

"When you wish upon a stAR..."

"Makes no difference who you are." That is, of course, *if* you're at a Disney Theme Park, have an iPhone, and Disney's new app: Wishing Stars.

Now, the Magical Kingdom has a Digital layer. Hunt for clues, and quest your way across the Kingdom (and even in waiting lines ), Here's a video review from The Orange County Register write up:

 Now you can pretend you're playing a U.S. version of Kingdom Hearts Mobile irl.(okay, maybe not)

"The hidden "Wishing Stars" are recorded as secret GPS coordinates that your iPhone will uncover during your search. Clues lead to more clues, which lead to discovery of the Wishing Stars. Along the way, you'll unlock more Quests that will test your knowledge of Disneyland to its limit!"


This is a great example of Mobile AR, and creating connected geospatial digital content.
Thanks to Gamepocalypse Now for the tip!

Go, and see.

Stay Augmented.

Adobe throws it's hat into the ring

BIG news, on this one. Software, and internet behemoth Adobe, archmages of such 'little' things as flash, shockwave and the ubiquitous.PDF file, have announced the future of flash...and yes, it's 3D. The announcement is a teaser, of sorts, since full details won't come out until Adobe MAX 2010. Oct 23-27, in Los Angeles. but a recent blog post by Thibault Imbert, (Adobe product manager) , hinted that the 3D API is "coming in a future version".
( To the rest of us, that means, basically, "it's on it's way").

Quoteth Imbert " We will share plans with you at Max during this session, I tell you, some serious stuff is coming for 3D developers ". That's not a light statement, coming from Adobe.

Adobe MAX Conference Event

This is one competitor the "little guy" developers are gonna have to take very seriously.

Go, and see.

Stay Augmented

The Future of Books II: AR page turners

Recently unveiled, Thailand's Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST)  demonstrated it's vision of AR in the classroom with AR capable, plain-paper textbooks.

The above example is used with QR codes, and probably a bit dated, considering Total Immersion's tagless AR, but the concept still stands.

Read the full article HERE.

GEAR: The Samsung Galaxy S Smartphone

"Where have I seen this, before?"
Here's a contender in the AR-capable category, The Samsung Galaxy S.
Android 2.1, and Layar equipped, this Bad Boy has a lot going for it. Check out the full specs HERE

Dimensions: 64.2 X 122.4 X 9.9 mm (119g)
Processor:1GHz ARM
Display:4.0” WVGA(480x800) 16M SUPER AMOLED mDNIe(Mobile Digital Natural Image engine)
Samsung Android 2.1 (Eclair)
Camera:5.0 Megapixel AF camera
Light sensor:Accelerometer sensor, Proximity Sensor, Digital Compass
Additional Features:Layar Reality Browser powered by Tele Atlas
Swype, Write & Go, ThinkFree, Aldiko e-book

Read a review of this TechnoBox at  V3.co.uk

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.

"Just say no" to Format Wars.

AR is certainly not "new". It has been painstakingly developed , over time, by a multitude of various individuals, and entities. The monetary implications are enormous. Every Archmage and Enchanter in the business wants a piece of the DAL pie. Just a quick glance to your right, to the growing links list, shows how big a battle it *could* be.

The one thing that could hinder the acceptance in the mass consumer market it lack of standardization. Yet another "Format War" (think 'Beta vs. VHS'.) Look at DVD player sales, before the DVD format war was won, ( by Blu-Ray) , sales were a mere trickle (by comparison). The average consumer sat on the sideline, and waited, making no purchases, until it became clear who the standard-bearer would be.

Why would the AR Market be any different? With QR codes, ARTags, tagless AR, ect, all vying for a place in the DAL, we need ourselves a Tower of Babel Standard. a common language for all Archmages and Enchanters to work off of, lest the Witches and Seers "sit on the sidelines" waiting for the AR standard-bearer to rise. The World Wide Web is viewable in a number of competing browsers, why should AR be any different? You can view AR through almost any smartphone, not just an iPhone. A varied field of competitors in any aspect of AR will be for the betterment of AR, (in the end), but we have to have all competitors agree to race on the same track, by the same rules, speaking the same language. Sort of an AR Olympics, I guess.

For one thing, it really should be an open-source standard. You give any one (or select group)of Archmages or Enchanters sole possession of the AR keys to the Digital Kingdom, and viola! You have the next Microsoft, or Apple: A large, corporate behemoth that will decide, for us, what we want, and how we want to implement it.

AT the moment, commercial momentum seems to be swinging in favor of Total Immersion, and it has a proposed course to standardize the experience of augmented reality , the AR PLUS logo:

Is this a step forward for all, or just a few? Time will tell.

Go, and see.

Stay Augmented.