Augmented Reality Art.

Digital Art (a.k.a. New Media Art) looks quite fun and gets a lot of attention from visitors. Here is some digital art from theMuseum of Modern Art in New York. Artists Mark Skwarek and Sander Veenhof use Layar, which is a very well known augmented reality platform.

Tamiko Thiel's work "Art Critic Matrix" from mark skwarek on Vimeo.

Microsoft Windows 7 based Augmented Reality application

I have seen so many augmented reality applications which are based on the Android platform or the iPhone platform.
This is the first time I have seen a Microsoft Windows 7 based augmented reality application.
According to the website that I found this video clip, they needed to hack Window 7 in order to manipulate the camera because Windows 7 does not provide the API's which allow you to handle the camera.

Augmented Reality Dogfight Game: Star Wars

This is a quite interesting game that uses augmented reality. The game concept is as simple as you can imagine: a classic dogfight game. However I am not entirely sure whether this can be called augmented reality. I think the definition of augmented reality is getting narrower. In the past, everything was called augmented reality as long as a virtual object was superimposed on the real world, no matter whether or not the virtual object had a relationship with the real world. However these days the definition has been narrowed, and if you want to call something augmented reality then a virtual object should have a relationship with the real world. For example, if you superimpose a virtual monkey on your screen with the real world as a background then that would just be a computer graphic. However if you can superimpose an image of that virtual monkey holding a real world object, then you could call that augmented reality.

Augmented Reality ID: Image Recognition

This interesting application uses image recognition technology in order to recognise a real world object and it superimposes virtual information on top of that object. Most current augmented reality applications are using GPS and a digital compass to determine a location where you would like to superimpose virtual information. Still, there are a lot of shortcomings to using image recognition technology on mobile phones.

Augmented Realtiy CV

If you like to impress your potential employer at your job interview. You should consider to make your augmented reality version CV.
This augmented reality CV and video made by CWJobs(www.cwjobs.co.uk) and Symbian co-counder David Wood.
The first video clip is an actual augmented reality CV and the second one is a making flim.
Enjoy it.

Augmented Reality application for drivers

Here is an iPhone augmented reality application for car drivers. This application was made by a company called imaGinyze. This application detects the lane in which you are driving and the vehicle that is ahead of your car. This application mainly uses spoken notifications to provide the driver with warnings of any potential hazards. My concern is how this application might work in a traffic jam, on narrow roads, or on a road that does not have clearly-marked lanes.

Here is the video clip.

AR Controlled Device: Parrot's AR.Drone

Here is a good item for somebody who has Peter Pan Syndrome.
Parrot’s AR.Drone is an iPhone-controlled quadricopter device. You can control this interesting toy with the very unique interface that iPhone provides and you can even control this object with your iPhone accelerometers. You can sync your iPhone with Pattort's AR.Drone and then your device will move right along with your iPhone.

IBM Seer: Augmented Reality app for 2010 Wimbledon Games

IBM has upgraded their augmented reality application for the 2010 Wimbledon games. Named Seer, this application produces augmented reality views of geo-specific information, showing everything from the length of queues for Champagne or strawberries and cream to the location of the nearest cash machine. In addition, as part of a deal with the BBC, the application shows live video streams of matches from the top three courts. Seer is available for the iPhone and Android platform.

Augmented Reality Shadow: Shadow Fantacy

This augmented reality story-telling shadow video is the thesis of Joon Moon, a student at Parsons School for Design.
This is a very artistic and creative work that uses augmented reality in an interactive way. The diagram below shows the story.



She calls this work "Augmented Shadow," and it is a design experiment producing an artificial shadow through the use of tangible objects, blocks, on a displayable tabletop interface.

Augmented Shadow_document from Joon Y Moon on Vimeo.

Glow: How do you feel today?

Sometimes we read articles about which countries are the top 10 happiest countries in the world. This is a very general list that reflects year-round happiness. How about mapping your mood in real time, and comparing it with other people? Using an augmented reality view, you can even find out other people's moods in various countries. A new iPhone application called Glow allows you to put your current mood and to share it with your neighbors using augmented reality views. Furthermore, you can check the mood map for your country (or even the entire world) in real time.

Here are several mood maps from Central London, Europe, and North America at 15:00 London time on 10th June 2010.

Augmented Reality Game: Zombie ShootAR

Zombie ShootAR is first Metaio based augmented reality game. It is operated on Symbian OS platform. Metaio is Germany based augmented reality company which has released an augmented reality platform called Junaio which is an open API for developers and has AR browser functions.

Quartz Composer: Augmented Reality without programming in 5 Minutes

This application provides a very intuitive interface. You can generate virtual object and then you can superimpose the virtual object on your video clip.

Firefighter 360: Augmented Reality Game

New York City and Los Angeles based augmented reality game company Ogmento released an augmented reality game called Firefighter 360.
It is a quite simple game as you can see from the video clip.

Augmented Reality ITS: Junaio

Junaio is a mobile augmented reality browser. Junaio and Trimet announced a partnership and released Portland area's transit information and schedules information service using augmented reality on smart phone.
This application integrates transit data ranging from station locations, bus routes, to estimated arrival times, into a TriMet channel on the junaio 2.0 mobile augmented reality platform. Available free on the iPhone 3GS and coming soon to Android devices, junaio 2.0 features the TriMet channel to give riders easy and instant access to complete transit information on nearby stops by simply pointing their phone around them.

Here is another Junaio platform augmented reality application. This application provides the information about properties.

Augmented reality user interface: YDreams

Since the release of the Si-Fi movie "Minority Report", Natural User Interface (NUI) has become a popular topic in the computer science field. Portugal based company YDreams introduce an NUI using augmented reality. In order to make this interface, the company combined such as computer vision, physical simulation, and artificial intelligence.

Is it possible to eat augmented reality?

What would it taste like if you could eat augmented reality? I know this is a very silly question. Actually, a designer named Mike Clare made augmented reality cookies so as to use as an augmented reality tag.
I thought about designing my research poster for a conference as an augmented reality tag. That way, I could describe my work on the poster and in the meantime I could use the poster as an augmented reality tag. This would allow people to understand my work from the poster’s contents and to also see the virtual object which would be superimposed on my poster.

Demo of Augmented Reality Cookies from Tellart on Vimeo.

Augmented reality in retail shops.

It seems like augmented reality is extending to more diverse fields. Retail shops have adapted augmented reality technology to give you an idea of how something would look on you even if you don't have the real goods. The technology can also provide the information about the goods.

See the video clips below:

Using augmented reality for a public campaign advertisement from the Dutch government

"Save the cheerleader, save the world." It sounds very familiar if you have watched the American TV series Heroes. The Dutch government is using augmented reality to save its society and to make a better environment.
We have heard stories about how people often ignore or avoid someone who needs help after an accident or a crime in public places.

The Dutch government is now using augmented reality to motivate people.
The Dutch government has placed augmented reality billboards in strategic locations throughout Amsterdam and Rotterdam thoroughfares. These display the streets on which the billboards are located in real time and superimpose prepared scenes such as crimes or accidents.

It is a brilliant way to use augmented reality for a public campaign advertisement.

Augmented reality game from Citroën

French car maker Citroën is using augmented reality to promote their new car.
Accroding to Citroën's website this augmented reality game was developed by a French augmented reality company called Total Immersion. You can print the tag from the website.

Augmented Reality: A New Visualisation Method for GIS

I gave a presentation at CASA at UCL.
As ubiquitous computing and pervasive computing have become more and more implemented in our lives, we have become surrounded by more intelligent objects, and this has made our environment more complex. There are a lot of limitations to using current geovisualization techniques in trying to visualise such a complex real world. Augmented reality can be a promising technology to overcome this limitation, because augmented reality can provide dynamic and very realistic 3D virtual views.

This presentation was about my research background, introducing augmented reality, and some experimental studies about using tag-based augmented reality such as ARTag, as well as mobile augmented reality such as Layar.

Augmented Reality: A New Geovisualisation Method for GIS

View more presentations from Sung Hyun Jang.

Augmented reality: InvenSense (Motion-sensing for mobile phones)

When we talk about ubiquitous computing (or pervasive computing), user interface is an important factor in order to provide an immersive intelligent environment. The method of interaction between human and computer has not changed for a long time since mouse and keyboard become a major interaction method. There have been several attempts to develop a new interface such as voice recognition, motion sensing, and so on. Ultimately, the future interface between human and computer will be the non-interface which means disappearing all interfaces that we are using now. An intelligent environment (ubiquitous environment) detects user's motion, thinking, or behaviour pattern and provides a service that the user needs before the user ask.
Here is a video clip about the motion sensing interface for mobile phones. It seems to detect the user's motion very well. The key issue of motion sensing interface is how to precisely detect the user motion and reduce unexpected operating from the user's extraneous actions.

Enhanced vision system : GM Augmented Reality

The Augmented Reality field is getting more exciting. American car maker General Motors (GM) has introduced a new augmented reality display windshield called "enhanced vision system." This augmented reality system detects the driver's position and perspective and displays important objects such as road signs and buildings to which he or she is aiming to go.
It is still at the prototype level. However, you can have a car navigation system that is displayed on your car windshield. This kind of augmented reality display system provides a safer driving environment because the driver can pay attention to the road ahead while driving instead of looking at a navigation device on-screen.

Augmented reality: AR Map

Tag-based augmented reality was one of the more widely used augmented reality platforms. There are two well-known augmented reality libraries, namely ARToolKit and ARTag. These two libraries are open source and support multiple platforms.

This video clip is an augmented reality application which uses ARTag. The application is called AR Map.

Augmented Reality: AR Map from GIS plus AR on Vimeo.

Augmented reality: UCL in Layar

Layar has become a major platform for individual mobile augmented reality application developers.
Here is a video clip showing University College London (UCL) buildings in Layar.
In order to put UCL building information into Layar, I stored location information for each UCL building, as well as images, website, and phone numbers on my server.
This is a good example to show how mobile augmented reality should be combined with Location Based Service (LBS).

UCL in Layar from Sung Hyun Jang on Vimeo.

4 technical concerns that must be overcome in augmented reality

In order for augmented reality to be successful, there are 4 main technical concerns we must consider in computer vision terms.
Here is a list:

1. Projection
2. Rendering
3. Location
4. Recognition

Here is some more information about those topics above.

In order to increase the array of virtual objects and real objects, we need good (fast) performance in recognition while the augmented really application is operating.

Here is an application which is using face recognition technology.

Augmented reality in the 2010 Vencouver winter olympics

Yahoo! and Total Immersion are bringing augmented reality to the Winter Olympics. Augmenting virtual objects on moving real objects requires very advanced rendering technology. If the rendering is too slow, it will often miss the virtual objects when real objects are moving. This application seems to be quite precise in its rendering, even when the real object is moving.

A New Android Application : Google Shopper

Google has launched a new Android application called Google Shopper which can lead you to a new way to buy goods. Google Shopper gives you information about a product that is displayed on the screen of your Android-platform mobile phone. The application can read a 2-D bar code or the front page of a book. In addition, the application recognizes your voice and searches for products that you are looking for.


Google has already launched an application called Google Goggles which uses image processing technology (namely image extraction and recognition). Google also already has an application called Google voice search.

10 Web Tech Innovations That Have Improved Our Lives

While I was wandering around on the internet, I found a very interesting article called "10 Web Tech Innovations That Have Improved Our Lives"

Here is the full article.

1. Web Browsers
2. Search Engines
3. VoIP
4. RSS
5. The Real-Time Stream
6. Peer-to-Peer
7. AJAX
8. Software as a service
9. E-commerce
10. Wi-Fi

worksnug: find free wifi hotspots using augmented reality

Here is an application that suits for people who work normally outside with their laptop.
The way of work is same as the application called nearest tube station.

A New Augmented Reality (AR) Application in Korea : Ovjet

Korean mobile network provider SK Telecom has revealed a new augmented reality application called “Ovjet” for Android-platform mobile phones.

It seems like quite similar to the concept of Google Goggles. When you point your camera at a building using your Android phone, the relevant information about the building is superimposed on the camera image on your mobile’s screen. For example, when you point your camera at a movie theatre, the application provides information about the movies being shown, and if you point at a book centre you can buy books through Ovjet.

Exellent Review of Windows Phone 7 Series for mobiles

Microsoft lauched a new mobile phone operating system called Windows Phone 7 Series.
I think Microsoft have paved their way for a comeback in the mobile OS market which until now has been occupied by Apple, Android and RIM.

Here is an excellent review of MS Windows Mobile series.

And one more article about lunching Windows Phone 7 Series is here from BBC.

Metaio : Unifeye® Mobile Augmented Reality SDK

Metaio released a new mobile augmented reality SDK, called Unifeye® Mobile Augmented Reality SDK at Mobile World Congress 2010.
According to the press release document the professional toolbox in Unifeye® Mobile Augmented Reality SDK is supporting all major mobile platforms and features the latest image recognition technologies, 3D rendering for animations with real time interaction and optimized components for mobile hardware. With the Unifeye® Mobile SDK software it is possible to create fascinating marketing experiences, intuitive information design, mobile augmented reality games or innovative retail solutions. Based on the proven AR platform Unifeye® by metaio it is possible to easily develop and deploy solutions at the interface between the real and virtual world.

Can Microsoft Bing maps takeover Google maps?

Recently Microsoft launched the new Bing Maps. It seems like they are really trying hard to takeover Google maps. They did an especially great job using crowd-sourced photos to create 3-D virtual worlds in their Maps.
Here are a couple of video clips about Microsoft’s Bing maps.

Microsoft Adds "Augmented Reality" to Bing Maps

At the TED conference this week, Microsoft announced a new, AR mapping feature.

The full article is here.

Sat-nav devices face big errors as solar activity rises : BBC

BBC : Sat-nav devices face big errors as solar activity rises

The picture from the BBC.

Google jumps into the SNS (Social Network Serviece) Market : Google Buzz

Google launched a new Social Network Service (SNS) which is called Google Buzz.
Google has been observing the huge success of Twitter and Facebook. Now google tries to claim part of the success of Twitter and Facebook in the SNS market

A new mobile appl : GeoVector’s World Surfer 2

A company called GeoVector launched a new version (2.0) of its World Surfer app for the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone and Android-powered devices.
They categorized some themes such as coffee shops, resturants, historical places and so on, which they call "Channel". The application simply gives information on the direction you are heading.
As for as I understood their application, the application does not provide augmented reality display but they use digital compass and GPS.

Augmented reality game : Sky Siege

Here is a augmented reality game which is called Sky Siege.
It looks a very interesting game.

GIS and Augmented Reality in 2015

The last 12 months has seen a turning point in terms of bringing geographically aware augmented reality to mobile devices. Significant developments in locational technology such as the inclusion of a built-in digital compass, GPS (Global Positioning System) and accelerometers into mobile phones have allowed not only location but also heading, and pitch to be detected and therefore incorporated into data display systems. These built-in technologies have brought augmented reality to the hands of the masses, and the phones themselves have sparked a market driven boom in fusing augmented reality with location-based services (LBS). Currently applications are in their infancy and mainly focused on specific topics such as ‘show me where the closest x is’. This however represents the tip of the iceberg with the addition of a GIS into the mix there is notable potential for the industry.

This paper is a part of works from the Association of Geographic Information (AGI) Foresight Study in 2009.
The authors are Andrew Hudson-Smith and Sung Hyun Jang at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at UCL.

Mobile augmented reality to see $732 million market by 2014

Juniper research predicts mobile augmented reality market will reach $732 million by 2014.
The full article is here.

High Capacity Color Bar Code : Smart Tag - Microsoft

Here is a video clip about the Microsoft 2D colour tag.
Actually 2D colour tag is not a new technology. However, it seems like Microsoft tries to boom up this service.
Advantage : It can contain more information than just normal bar code or B/W 2D tag.
Disadvantage : Need a high resolution printer, Not a standard format.



The picture from Microsoft.

Augmented Reality Glasses : Vuzix 920AR

A Video Eyewear and personal display devices for the mobile video manufacture company Vuzix will launch a augmented reality head mounted display called Vuzix Wrap 920AR in 6months.
The Wrap 920AR has a camera that can capture video a 752 x 480 resolution at 60fps, and combine it with a 1504 x 480 stereoscopic 3D image.

5 Best Things Vs 5 Worst Things About the iPad

5 Best Things
1. Price
2. Unlocked 3G
3. External Keyboard
4. iWork: Keynote for presentations, Numbers for spreadsheets, and Pages for word processing
5. Supports eBooks in a standard format (ePub)

5 Worst Things
1. No built-in GPS
2. No built-in USB port
3. No built-in camera
4. No wide-screen display
5. TV out has a max of only 480p

Augmented (hyper) Reality: Domestic Robocop

It is a short film by Keiichi Matsuda, a Masters student at the Bartlett School of Architecture in the United Kingdom.
This video shows how your life will be in the future with augmented reality environment.

Can the iPad Stimulate The Mobile Augmented Reality Market?

There are so many rumours that Apple will launch a new tablet computer later today (27 Jan 2010) at the press conference from its base in San Francisco, California.

Many experts expect that iPad will change the whole paradigm for the media market, including newspapers, books and magazines.

One of the lasting effects of the iPod is that it has made people to start to pay for audio files and video files which they would previously download without paying from a P2P site.

How about the mobile augmented reality market? The mobile augmented reality market has significantly increased since the iPhone 3GS and the Android platform phone appeared. However, there are still big limitations to using augmented reality on a mobile phone. One of the limitations is a mobile phone's processing capability. Current mobile augmented reality applications mostly superimpose POI (Point Of Interest). This is because if you want to superimpose line or polygon objects, you would need a more advanced computer graphic program.

In this sense, the iPad could be a good device to overcome this problem. But even so, there are still many hurdles to be overcome to develop mobile augmented reality. Complicated and advanced computer graphic algorithms will need a high-performance processor. In addition, an iTablet would need a 3G connection so it can use databases when it is located in a remote place. I believe that iTablet will bring more dynamic mobile augmented reality applications to your hands.

Early Augmented Reality Applications

Augmented Reality (AR) has been a widely-known concept since last year. Actually however, AR has been around for over four decades.
It would be worth it to look back on the major AR applications of the last few decades.
This posting is about AR applications that predate the iPhone and Android platforms.
The first augmented reality application was invented by Ivan Sutherland in 1968. He called it "Ultimate display" and he believed that the ultimate display might let us understand our own natural world better. It is basically a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) AR application.

The second major augmented reality application was made by Boeing. In addition, Tom Caudell started to use the word "Augmented reality". The flight simulation is one of the fields that has used augmented reality actively so far.

ARToolKit is the third major AR application. It was originally developted by Dr. Hirokazu Kato, and its ongoing development is being supported by the Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HIT Lab) at the University of Washington, HIT Lab NZ at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and ARToolworks, Inc, Seattle.

ARTag is also another tag-based AR application like ARToolKit. The good thing about this application is that you can avoid one of the main problems that many programmers face: the array problem in matching the locations of real objects and virtual objects. ARTag came out many years after the original ARToolkit, and they improved the tag detection capabilities compared with ARToolkit.

References :
http://econsultancy.com/blog/5293-augmented-reality-ar-the-technology-is-now-market-ready
http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/
http://www.artag.net/rev1.html

Have you ever played a rock-paper-scissors game with your T-shirts?

Here is an interesting video clip showing one use for augmented reality. Augmented reality has become more and more intelligent. It is not only showing virtual objects but also it can communicate between virtual objects and humans. I think this could be the future of augmented reality.
We could improve this application by making it more realistic. In the real world of course we play face-to-face. One improvement could be for one player to wear the T-shirt while the second player wears the augmented reality goggles and plays against the first player's T-shirt.

Extend your visibility – Transparent wall

Here is a good example of how augmented reality can extend your visibility. This video clip is from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and it shows how we can use augmented reality not only for entertainment but also to save lives.

Using sensors has been a common way to extend visibility, but this is the most human sense friendly way to do that. Just watch the video and you will understand what I am talking about.

A new interface for next generation computing.

An interface and the interaction between human and machine have become big issues since the release of the iPhone, a mobile phone that has had a huge impact in the market. I believe that one of the reasons that the iPhone has been enjoying huge success is its new interface. This new interface is called "touch," or "haptic," and it was not very common before. Before the introduction of the iPhone, inputting commands through a touch interface was only possible on a simple bank machine. High-tech touch interfaces were only something we saw in movies like "The Minority Report." But now the iPhone has made such interfaces quite common in hand-held devices.
Since the implementation of next generation computing (also known as the ubiquitous environment or pervasive computing), we have seen that two issues have become very hot topics; namely new interfaces and the interaction between human and machines.
Here is an interesting video clip that shows a new interface and a new way of interacting between human and machine.
David Merrill from MIT presents a technology called Siftables at the TED conference.