Using a Kinect sensor with a traditional kids sandbox, Oliver Kreylos has created an interesting interactive tool merging classic fluid simulations with physical environments
The goal of this project was to develop a real-time integrated augmented reality system to physically create topography models which are then scanned into a computer in real time, and used as background for a variety of graphics effects and simulations. The final product is supposed to be self-contained to the point where it can be used as a hands-on exhibit in science museums with little supervision.
It’s pretty interesting work, and reminds me lots of stuff going on in structured light space, like the “SimTable” from RedFish.
Saw this on a few news outlets touting the amazing technology from Innovega & DARPA that puts an augmented reality display right on a contact lens on the eyeball. It’s important to get the details as that’s not actually the truth: What they’ve done is create a contact lens that allows a wearer to focus on “near to eye” displays, such as their own glasses with integrated projection displays.
For DARPA’s part, Innovega is working as part of the Soldier Centric Imaging via Computational Cameras (SCENICC) program, which aims to eliminate the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability gap at the individual soldier level.
You can get some good details in the video below. Still neat technology, but not quite what most people think from the headline.
Toyota has teamed up with junaio and Hatsune Miku to bring the popular vocaloid sensation to life with Augmented Reality. Toyota’s already used Hatsune to advertise their 2011 Corolla, so this is just a continuation of their existing ad campaign.
Hatsune Miku may be a digital construct, but the great thing about Augmented Reality is that we can take digital and 3-D content and breathe life into it by placing it in the physical world. A virtual entity could assume all three dimensions and interact with the real world- and that’s exactly what we did for the beautiful Hatsune Miku in this most recent development for Toyota.
A fun piece of augmented reality from Ben Purdy brings Minecraft to the real world with some clever projection kit. Projecting classic 8-bit graphics onto a cardboard box you can then take a stick and mine away the projected block.
Block animation is handled by a piezo sensor, an Arduino and a Processing sketch. From earlier posts on [Ben's] blog, we’re going to guess that he used the keystone video projection library his own solution to map the Minecraft block onto the cardboard box. Animation is handled just as in Minecraft – overlaying the breaking animation onto the block and adding some particle effects.
Keiichi Matsuda has a fantastic little video of one proposed view of Augmented Data Visualization in an urban environment. As our hunger for every more information grows, are we going to find ourself living in a world like this, full of popups and overlays?
As an added bonus, the video is rendered in Anaglyphic stereo, so dig our some red/cyan glasses.
Vuzix is back with an impressive new offering for Augmented Reality fans, the STAR1200 which packs a HD camera, 6-dof head-tracker, control logic, connectivity, and more all into 1 amazing (and pricey) pair of glasses.
A high-speed 1080p high definition camera with a dedicated USB connection enables exceptional performance for marker or object recognition. The camera, seen by the computer as a standard webcam, allows for easy adaptation and application support without proprietary software.
A miniature 6-DOF (Degree of Freedom) head tracker with compass plugs directly into the STAR 1200 display module providing cooked or raw tracker data through the STAR system’s control interface. A VGA Control Box interfaces with Windows based netbook, laptop or desktop computers or lithium ion rechargeable Wrap PowerPak+ connects to the iPhone/iPad family of mobile devices, enabling tracker support.
They aren’t cheap, running $5000 with a $2000 commitment up front, but they look like they’re state of the art in Augmented Reality headwear.
Although, one has to ask how long AR Glasses will remain relevant with the booming smartphone AR market.
The annual Augmented Reality Awards event, the Auggies, is coming back to Santa Clara, CA this year with an impressive lineup including Bruce Sternling, Will Wright, and many more. With each team getting a mere 5-minutes to present their tools, it’s a high-adrenaline nail-biting event for presenters and attendees alike.
“Auggies is the opportunity for AR developers to unveil their vision of the future, not only in terms of technical progress, but also on how creative you can be with this technology”, said Ivan Franco of YDreams the 2010 Auggie winner. “Winning is truly an important recognition from the AR community and it surely means you’re defying the norm and taking one step further”.
An impressive product use for Augmented Reality comes from researchers at Miami University that have used an Android handset to analyze books on a library shelf in real-time to find the misfiled books.
ShelvAR consists of an Android app and a set of coded tags, representing call numbers, that are placed on books’ spines. When a librarian holds a smartphone or tablet camera up to a shelf, the app reads all the tags at once, thanks to a new algorithm that can decipher multiple patterns even though they’re small when viewed at a distance. Then the app uses a simple sorting method—at least for computers, which aren’t fazed by complex letter-digit combos like Q164 .G72 2009–to figure out the correct order and the shortest number of moves needed to achieve it. The phone’s screen displays red X’s over any misfiled books, along with arrows that show where they really belong.
A pair of London companies, Berg & the London Branch of Dentsu, have combined to create a line of augmented reality toys they call “Suwappu”. Choose a character’s head and a set of pants indicating the environment, and away you go.
Suwappu is a group of characters that can take lots of different forms. Primarily (or initially), the toys seen in the film – a set of collectible and swappable figures, readable by connected devices, opening up a layer of content. The Suwappu’s head signifies his personality, and his pants signify his environment – the app produces content according to its reading of each half.
Definitely watch the video below for a.. Well, I would say “better” explanation but I’m still pretty puzzled by what’s going on here.
The 2nd annual “Augmented Reality Event” (ARE) has posted some quick details on their upcomign schedule including presentations by Bruce Sterline, Vernor Vinge, and Will Wright.
Also returning from last year’s event, Blaise Aguera Y Arcas (a leader in Microsoft’s mobile strategy), to top his Ted talk demonstrating innovations in Bing Maps and Augmented Reality. And if that’s not enough magic – Marco Tempest, the world’s most notable AR magician will stun the audience with a live magic show.
You can get the full list of speakers at their site, or read the press release after the break.
Saw this on a few news outlets touting the amazing technology from Innovega & DARPA that puts an augmented reality display right on a contact lens on the eyeball. It’s important to get the details as that’s not actually the truth: What they’ve done is create a contact lens that allows a wearer to focus on “near to eye” displays, such as their own glasses with integrated projection displays.
Toyota has teamed up with junaio and Hatsune Miku to bring the popular vocaloid sensation to life with Augmented Reality. Toyota’s already used Hatsune to 
A fun piece of augmented reality from Ben Purdy brings Minecraft to the real world with some clever projection kit. Projecting classic 8-bit graphics onto a cardboard box you can then take a stick and mine away the projected block.
Keiichi Matsuda has a fantastic little video of one proposed view of Augmented Data Visualization in an urban environment. As our hunger for every more information grows, are we going to find ourself living in a world like this, full of popups and overlays?
Vuzix is back with an impressive new offering for Augmented Reality fans, the STAR1200 which packs a HD camera, 6-dof head-tracker, control logic, connectivity, and more all into 1 amazing (and pricey) pair of glasses.
The annual Augmented Reality Awards event, the Auggies, is coming back to Santa Clara, CA this year with an impressive lineup including Bruce Sternling, Will Wright, and many more. With each team getting a mere 5-minutes to present their tools, it’s a high-adrenaline nail-biting event for presenters and attendees alike.
An impressive product use for Augmented Reality comes from researchers at Miami University that have used an Android handset to analyze books on a library shelf in real-time to find the misfiled books.
A pair of London companies, Berg & the London Branch of Dentsu, have combined to create a line of augmented reality toys they call “Suwappu”. Choose a character’s head and a set of pants indicating the environment, and away you go.
The 2nd annual “Augmented Reality Event” (ARE) has posted some quick details on their upcomign schedule including presentations by Bruce Sterline, Vernor Vinge, and Will Wright.
VizWorld.com 
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