Another video that I would rate under the term Augmented Reality concept videos.
In this video
A strange man uses holographic tools to build a world for the woman he loves. This is a short by filmmaker Bruce Branit……
See the following YouTube video or the WebSite of Bruce Branit.
I am fascinated by concept videos based on augmented reality by mixing real and virtual environments.
They are a real good basis to prototype future scenarios for augmented reality applications.
An application for advertising a game in a different way can be found at the announcement of “The Settlers 7″.
See the following video on YouTube or the relevant WebSite of the Game: The Settlers 7.
The AEL is a research lab at Georgia Tech investigating the design and implementation of augmented- and mixed-reality experiences.
A recent project they have done in collaboration with different project partners is ARhrrrr!
ARhrrrr is an augmented reality shooter for mobile camera-phones. The phone provides a window into a 3d town overrun with zombies. When you point the camera at a special game map, you get a mix of virtual and real world content.
While shooters are not really my favourite reference projects for such applications I see a lot of possibilities to augment also games and open an new dimension of games, board games, serious games and edutainment.
It is important to know that it is based on the new NVidia’s Tegra platform.
At the moment, it is all just concept. But we will se the devices soon out there that are capable of running it. But once Tegra actually launches in more devices, we will start seeing some real breakthrough games on mobile devices.
Bionic Eye is a new application specifically developed for the iPhone 3GS that enables you to visualize Points of Interest (POI) located in your nearby environment in the US, thanks to a unique Augmented Reality functionality using the iPhone camera.
POI databases include restaurants, WiFi hotspots, subway stations (New York Subway, Washington Metro, Chicago L Rapid Transit), etc. Over 100.000 POI are already included in this application. Elements located at a distance less than 1km (0,621miles) only will be displayed on the screen.
For further information see: BionicEye
Presselite announces new AR iPhone game:
Our new project has been revealed today, we are very proud to announce a new Augmented Reality game called Firefighter 360 for the iPhone 3GS.
We actually used our Augmented Reality engine developed for Bionic Eye application to create this little game.
In this life-saving fire-person shooter, you play as a firefighter, rather than gunning down enemies, you will have to douse virtual flames spreading very fast in your real environment. As you physically turn around 360 degrees with your iPhone, you have to methodically extinguish the flames you see, thanks to the camera. The fire itself isn’t just a static “enemy” to be dealt with. Flames will propagate and spread if you don’t put them down completely, the fire itself is capable of doing you harm if you’re not careful.
On one of my favorite blogs concerning 3D graphics at Blendernation I just found following very interesting post.
I am happy to see this and I am confident that my research is on the right track. Blender already showed in earlier posts that
it also is a supporting tool to bring Augmented Reality as an emerging technology to the broad masses.
Here’s a *really* nice form of interactive 3D advertising, and it looks like they did the 3D design in Blender.
What appears to be little more than a black and white advertisement in three recent German automotive magazines becomes a 3D holographic model of the Mini Cabrio through a webcam and the Mini website.
The ad works only in IE6 or higher. If you want to try it for yourself, download the PDF of the ad, print it out and head over to the Mini website.
See also the Making-of-Video: http://mini-cabrio.ar-live.de/video.html
Having an aeronautical engineering background and/or being interesting in the general aviation the following article my be of interest regarding fusing real and virtual flying.
ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2008) — Stunt pilots have raced against computer-generated opponents for the first time — in a contest that combines the real and the ‘virtual’ at 250 miles per hour.
Using technology developed, in part, by a University of Nottingham spin-out company, an air-race in the skies above Spain saw two stunt pilots battle it out with a ‘virtual’ plane which they watched on screens in their cockpits.
The ‘virtual’ aircraft was piloted by a computer-gamer who never left the ground, but could likewise see the relative location of the real planes on his own computer screens as the trio swooped around each other during the ‘Sky Challenge’ race. The event could pave the way for massive online competitions, and also demonstrates the power and scope of the very latest in GPS and related systems.
See:
Article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081017103640.htm
More information on the ‘Sky Challenge’ is available at: http://www.skychallenge.com
More information on GRC is available at: http://www.grcnz.com
It is very interesting to see that projects like 80days are on the way as path-finding research initiatives of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (FP7) to explore new frontiers in Digital Educational Games (DEGs), which combine effective learning with fun and pleasure.
The project description can be found on the relevant project WebSites as follows:
This project is a successor of the ELEKTRA project. 80Days is running for 2,5 years from April 2008 until September 2010. The project focusses on game-based learning and it is coordinated by CSS.
Recreational computer games are overwhelmingly popular. Hence, there is no doubt that educational games, which combine effective learning with fun and pleasure, are a desirable vision. Still, educational games, which can compete with their non-educational counterparts in terms of narrative and gaming quality, have not yet entered the market – especially those for children who are used to the quality of computer games. The main reason is the difficulty in merging both game and educational environments. To cross today’s horizon of educational games, a scientifically sound and valid methodological and technological foundation is required. Grounding on this mission, 80Days is a RTD project concerned with theories, methodologies, and technologies for game-based learning. To accomplish a significant step towards successful and effective educational games, 80Days is addressing the following two main objectives: First, integrating models of adaptive personalised learning with those of adaptive interactive storytelling, and second, merging virtual game environments with existing learning resources, thus reducing development costs and time. These fusions will result in an adaptive and responsive system, enabling the understanding of active learning processes within a virtual learning environment, adapting to individual needs and abilities, and therefore fully exploiting the learners’ capabilities. The quality of this approach will be assured by evaluation activities based on theoretically and empirically sound methods. 80Days entails the smooth integration of interdisciplinary work (learning science, storytelling, game and didactic design, game development, and human-computer interaction). 80Days delivers an innovative and advanced methodological and technological framework for effectively developing successful educational games to be demonstrated by a geography game prototype realising gaming/learning scenarios inspired by Jules Verne’s “Around the world in eighty days”.
For further information on this project see:
EA SPORTS and ESPN change the game in TV Studio Analysis. This interesting news on augmented reality was posted more than 1 month ago and shows the amazing combination of computer game technology and broadcasting:
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and BRISTOL, Conn. – Sept. 5, 2008 – EA SPORTS™ and ESPN are advancing media convergence and delivering a new enhancement to in-studio sports analysis with the debut of EA SPORTS Virtual Playbook, on ESPN’s award-winning NFL programs. The new television technology, developed jointly by EA SPORTS and ESPN, delivers an “augmented reality” that allows ESPN’s football analysts to interact with the virtual players from EA SPORTS video games and provide insight, education and analysis to fans about key football plays and techniques. EA SPORTS is a Label of Electronic Arts Inc.
See also following posts and publications on this topic:
Amazing the content you also can get nowadays online. Galileo Computing also offers some software presentations and videos from tech talks on actual topics online.
Video Trailer on Software:
see under: Video Trailer.
Techtalks:
especially the tech talks are interesting to follow like:
Game Design - made in Germany
