Mixed News for the New Month
Hey everyone!
Time for an all-inclusive update today, giving a wider overview of news for you to enjoy the AR weekend! Let’s start right away with a fancy picture and a new tech demo:
Interactive car windows
GM and the Future Lab joined forces to bring us a nice prototype of the augmented-car-window scenario. I’ll just have this one for itself:
Designing Real World Collaboratories with Christopher Stapleton
Christopher Stapleton gave a guest article on medicalaugmentedreality to talk about AR, medicine and innovating the innovation. Please check it out and join the open questions he gave at the end of part 1.
Hardware News
• Samsung shows their great augmented fridge glass, that makes me think of thousand other uses than displaying cooking information or the latest tweet. The (actually working) digital blinds are an awesome step. With pixel-by-pixel access for transparency switches we can have a perfect occlusion with augmented objects in see-through glasses!
• BASF and Philips show us a way to create OLED-based windows. As in the first video and the second, we get another chance to see, where this hardware is heading. A great enabler for AR to have full control over surfaces to get towards some kind of translucent surface-based AR (unlike projected or handheld-device-dependent).
• Vuzix continues to push HMD- or AR goggles-development forward, so that we can enjoy lightweight sun shades design goggles for AR. The new SMART glasses presented at CES 2012 are said to be launched for industry and consumers alike this summer. Their press release tells us a bit more about the setup, e.g. they are fully useable outdoors, are see-through and give us optionally cameras and gyros for tracking functionality. Engadget showed us already the monocole version at CES.
Software, Apps and Games
• Qualcomm unveiled at CES, that their AR platform will now be called “Vuforia”. So, don’t get confused when downloading the latest SDK Version 1.5 (Beta 1) under a new name. :-)
• The PlayStation guys have some new demos for us for their PS VITA augmented reality scenarios. Adding to the last video from December, we now get to see their soccer game presented fresh at CES.
• Besides… if you are willing to try out some stunts, without risking your live, check out “Ken Block vs you” from imagination.
• …or use browsAR to qr-code scan your shirt, redirecting your friends or not-yet-friends directly to your facebook site. Privacy is a thing of the past anyway! :-)
• …or let’s play Ogmento’s King of the Court challenge. Shortly described, it says: “NBA: King of the Court is a free to play, Location-based, Augmented Reality game for both iPhone and Android smart phones. In NBA: King of the Court , players will compete to become the “King” of virtual basketball courts placed in real-world locations around the world.”
I like the idea of combining location based “check-in” fun like foursquare with location based gaming experiences. It’s just so much more fun to be standing at a bus stop and challenging the other real people, that played the same micro game at the same spot before. Only checking into locations and becoming the major through pure physical presence… well… is a bit dull on the long run.
• … or play the aaaarrrrrrrr! AR Pirates game! A 3 coin marker system that lets you set up a pirate ship basically anywhere. I like the game played at a lake, where the ships really appear in the water. Battle your friends!
Upcoming Fairs
If you happen to be in or around Monaco next week, don’t miss the IMAGINA fair. The fair on 3D Simulation and Virtual Technology also has a special augmented reality event, with Nokia, T-Immersion and Qualcomm talking about mobile AR. Be sure to attend!
Cheers!