Interactive AR, Siggraph and HMDs

Interaction

A lot of research flows into the visualization and the automatic segmentation of body volumes in CG. Takehiro Tawara published his latest paper called Interactive Volume Segmentation and Visualization in Augmented Reality. The focus lies on the automatic segmentation, the region growing after setting a seed in 3D space – but what I wanted to display here is of course the AR part.

The combination of a cheap Wiimote and an attached marker cube is a winning combination for an interaction device. In this case, the virtual skull appears in AR on one marker and the device can be used to cut through the layers of the skull. Wiimote comes in handy due to some more interaction control through the buttons. Interaction by moving your hand to move the clipping plane is again a perfect mapping for AR scenarios. I love it.

The paper from Takehiro Tawara and Kenji Ono can be found on the web, along with more docs and videos. There is another great AR interaction video for wave simulations. Check it out.

Siggraph

Siggraph featured some AR again. Take the tour and get an impression from youtube:

Rouli goes into detail on three AR demos at Siggraph, so check out his report.

More

If you want to get an impression of how AR would look like on an ipad – if that thing had a camera – you can go here and watch the concept.

Gamesalfresco has another interview on DIY-HMDs.

GOODMagazine put up a funny video on how HMDs with the right technology could allow us to photoshop our reality. Be sure to get a proximity alert for approaching cars and lamp poles! Really neat!