technical communication

On UgoTrade a discussion is posted of Thomas Wrobel’s proposal called, “Everything Everywhere: A proposal for an Augmented Reality Network system based on existing protocols and infrastructure.”
It is basing on his paper draft of his vision of a open AR Network and potential methods to implement it with existing technologies.
A real interesting discussion of the future in Augmented Reality.

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.

See: Augmented Environments Lab

I just retrieved from the blog of the Learning Technologies team at NUI Galway the following nice blog post and the reference to a well designed video from Sorin Voicu showing a interesting future perspective auf Augmented Reality:

Augmented reality looks at augmenting the real-world with virtual reality in real time. It’s a been around for a long time (the term first coined in 1990), and has become popularised in the public mind by the film Minority Report (2002). More recently, some interesting projects have been looking at mobile phone applications as avenues for new interest and research.

This video here illustrates an idea how augmenented reality could positvely work in an educational context. For me, it identifies the importance of reading - central to student learning - and paper as a tool to support it. The main character uses the individual reflective “alone” time to prompt ideas, that are then explored and expanded through digital interactions as he moves through the world. A simple spark of an idea unleases a curiosity that the student can then explore in an augmented way, on paper and his experience in world. The creator is Sorin Voicu, from the Valle Giulia faculty of Architecture, University of Rome, in Italy.

and the VFX breakdown:

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

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:

• EA Sports news
• ESPN news
• New York Times
• FutureBlogger