Augment tourist places, edit reality and render it!

Hi there,

today a quick summary on a few new demos and tools found on the web.

Binocular Tourist AR

To kick off, another kiosk AR solution comes from Malaga in Spain. We’ve seen the concept of a virtual window as a kiosk or AR binocular (actually, mono) before (e.g. from Germany, the Basque Country or Beijing), but I felt like going back to this idea for a second: it’s still a pretty good concept for AR:

1. you have a well-known piece of hardware in your hand (binocular or interactive screen) where the augmentation happens and thus have no output device problem (looking at a screen while flipping around the marker in your hand in the other direction) (tracking is also more accurate since you can use of physically measuring the angles),

2. it integrates perfectly into the “classic” version of a binocular without a change of interaction concept (well, talking beyond the same basics: additional interaction granted),

3. due to its positioning on e.g. a mountain top and the view towards the far away valley – without trees or people in front – you don’t run into occlusion or focus problems,

4. it is located in popular spaces and has a nice entertaining one-time-fun-touch four visitors (willing to throw in that Euro coin).

So, now for the action. ARPA Solutions came up with this new video. Me gusta!

Edit reality App

Talking about Apps again, we take a short look at EmpireIsis and their Mixar app for the iphone. At first, it looks like another AR app, but the new part I like about it, is that you are able to easily edit your augmentations on your phone. Maybe it’s more a playful approach to pass the time on a boring party or at a bus stop, but judge for youeself and take a closer look. Like junaio or others you can select ready-mades from a 3D library and share your fotos or movies easily. The new thing I liked (only seen in the concept video so far) was the possibility to edit real objects and to mask out parts you don’t want and later use these 2D assets as billboards to augment your friends’ shirt with a new one for example. This is the best fun part for now, I’d say! Also time slicing art can be fun again, like we’ve seen with Kinect. Since I’m currently only on Android, I’d love to hear your comments on the working iphone app below! :-)

Render it!

A great material look and integration of the AR objects was done by NeuroSystems with Kort-X and PURE. I like the look and especially the materials and shadows that turn the AR scene into a convincing video. The quick finger gestures as interaction round it up nicely (obviously the black t-shirt was worn for a reason). :-)

… and if you can’t wait for the new Tron to hit the cinemas in Europe like me, go check out another fun AR marketing concept. :-)