Augmented Planet » General

AR Street Fighter

lester — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:27:01 +0000

Trawling though my inbox I came across this fun video sent to me by Young Lee. It’s a pretty sweet viral video showing some hi-tech gangsters training courtesy of augmented realty.

If the Karate Kid had access to augmented reality he would have been the ultimate bad-ass and unstoppable.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=w77MiguDqYc

Vote Now. Augmented Planet Reader Choice Awards 2011

lester — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:45:06 +0000

Regular readers know that each November we hold the annual Augmented Planet Readers Choice Awards. The only awards dedicated to recognising the world of augmented reality and the only awards that matter. The awards are two fold. Firstly you vote for your favourite augmented reality content across the categories in the list below. At the end of the month the votes are totalled and the winner of each category wins the highly covered Augmented Planet Readers Choice Awards Crystal Plaque for their office, and for your time and effort in voting you go into our exclusive prize draw.

The prize draw

This year the awards are sponsored by the nice guys at NAVTEQ. NAVTEQ are the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data (digital location content) enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world. Not only that but all their content is accessible through their API so take a look at their website to learn more and how you can take advantage of their resources in your own applications.

The prize for one lucky Augmented Planet reader is with out doubt the ultimate Christmas gadget. We are please to announce that someone will be annoying the hell out of friends and relatives over Christmas dinner with their very own Parrot AR Drone. In our opinion it’s the ultimate AR accessory. You can learn more about this fantastic prize here.

This year you can vote for your favourite augmented reality applications across the following categories:

Best Augmented Reality Browser

Best Augmented Reality Game

AR Pirates (optricks)
AR Zombie Gate (Pantech)
Billjet AR (Beyond Reality)
Drop Defender (National Guard)
Hoops AR (Big Playar)
KickAR (Ioncomm)
Paparazzi (Pizel Punch)
Rise of the undead (Samsung)
Zombie Room AR (No, You Shut Up Games)

Best Augmented Reality Marketing Campaign

AR Jewellery (Holition)
Galileo (Metaio)
Harry Potter
Juicy Juice (Zugura)
Pocky
Red Bull Racing (circ.us)
Sony TV Finder (Sony)
Tron (Expresso Design)
Sexy Lynx

Best Augmented Reality Application (non Browser)

disguise AR (Play Nicely)
Farrago (Holo Labs)
GoldRun
Google Goggles (Google)
Konstruct (James Alliban)
Magic Mirror (Total Immersion)
Social Shopper (Zugara)
Wikitude Drive (Wikitude)
World Lens (Visual Quest)

Best Augmented Reality Developer Tool/SDK

The Augmented Planet Readers Choice Awards 2011 are sponsored by NAVTEQ

The NAVTEQ Network for Developers™ (NN4D) empowers application developers with the knowledge and resources needed to create the hottest, most differentiated location-based products. You can access technical resources, support and business development services to build and market location-aware apps for Web, mobile, automotive, GIS and enterprise markets worldwide. Join NN4D for free at www.NN4D.com.

Competition rules: The rules are pretty simple. By making a vote you have the option to enter into the draw. One prize draw winner will be drawn at random. To be eligible to enter you will need to enter a valid email address so we can contact you should you be drawn as the winner. No cash alternative is offered. The Parrot AR Drone requires either an iPhone or Android device to act as a controller. The draw is for the AR Drone only. Only one vote is allowed per person. Augmented Planet will cover the cost of the prize and shipping costs. Any other costs incurred (eg income tax) will not be covered. The winner will be announced in early December and we’ll aim to get the prize to you shortly after. The winner must respond within 1 month of being notified to claim the prize. Augmented Planet reserve the right to amend/change or withdrawal the competition rules at any time, and our decision regarding the award is final.

Augmented Planet Readers Choice Awards Nominations

lester — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:17:46 +0000

As it’s getting to the end of the year it’s time to start thinking about the annual Augmented Planet Readers Choice Awards. The only place where you vote for your favourite augmented reality experience of 2011

This year we’ll do things a bit differently and are inviting you to nominate the nominees for each category. Last year we had open voting and had a disturbing amount of people entering Firefox as their favourite AR browser, so this year we’ll be a little more restrictive.

If there is any app, tool, hardware or marketing experience you think must be included please nominate it here.

This years categories are:

Best Augmented Reality Browser
Best Augmented Reality Game
Best Augmented Reality Hardware
Best Augmented Reality Marketing Campaign
Best Augmented Reality Application
Best Augmented Reality Developer Tool / SDK

Voting will open in November via the Augmented Planet website for the community to vote for their favourite from the list with the winners being announced in December.

Please do take the time to nominate who should be entered into the voting.

Find your perfect TV using AR

lester — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:12:13 +0000

Last year Samsung ran an augmented reality campaign to help consumers see how their range of flat screen TVs would look on their living room wall. Sony have jumped aboard the AR band wagon and release their own AR TV shopping experience, only different.

In the Samsung campaign the user printed the special AR marker which when viewed with a webcam, the Samsung TV was displayed. Users were able to place the marker on the wall and view the TV in position. As the marker was interpreted in real-time the user could move around the room and view the TV from different angles and get different viewing perspectives. The downside was it wasn’t always convenient to fumble around with a laptop and webcam to view where the TV would be placed. Sony have taken the approach where the user prints the marker and positions it in location. Once placed in the ideal spot simply take a photo of the scene using a camera and upload the photo to the Sony AR website for the AR magic to happen.

The AR web service positions the TV over the marker and scales the TV accordingly. You can choose between different sized TVs at the click of a button so you can figure out the optimal size. As a really nice touch you can select the TV program displayed enabling you to choose the perfect model for sports and movies.

I’d always fancied a 70” screen but have found that sadly I wouldn’t be able to open the living room door.
Choose the perfect TV size

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0BHLytP1bg

You can test the campaign for yourself here – www.sony.co.uk/hub/lcd-television

Zombie Room AR Android Game

lester — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:42:50 +0000

I have always been a sucker for anything zombie related. Games, books, movies and anything else you can throw at me. When the guys over at No, You Shut Up Games contacted me to tell me about their new AR Zombie game, it was too good an invitation to pass up.

Most AR games involve using your camera to view your surroundings while fighting off hordes of as they come at you from all angles. You know the type where you wave the phone around frantically while looking like you are being attacked by a swam of invisible bees. Zombie Room AR is different, its a slower paced puzzle game where you pit your wits against a zombie that’s stalking you. But just because its slower it doesn’t mean its not full of suspense and strategy. To survive each level you’ll need to lead the zombie to a trap which needs to be sprung at the just right time, as you progress you are presented with different types of traps.

Of course being an AR game you’ll need to print the tracking image which displays the level, once printed and viewed in your Android’s camera window you’ll see a 3D game room which can me navigated.

If you like puzzle games then the game is well worth a look. The free demo version which can be downloaded for your Android phone here.

For the technical among you, you’ll notice how smooth the tracking is. The game has been developed using the Qualcomm AR SDK and is able to recognizes the tracking image even in pretty poor lighting conditions so there is very few instances where the game disappears. Neat stuff.

Zombie Room AR

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhCIgPUqI4o

You Sexy Lynx

lester — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:43:39 +0000

It seems that the world over Lynx are renowned for their funny deodorant adverts containing some of the hottest honeys you’re likely to see on TV. Even in Brazil recently I watched the Brazilian equivalent and it was just as fun.

The latest Lynx campaign involves angels falling from heaven. The marketing team liked the idea so much they decided to recreate the experience at London’s Victoria station earlier this month using augmented reality. In the live campaign a marker was placed on the floor telling people to look up. When a willing participant obliged they saw themselves on screen with a lovely angel. Many (and who wouldn’t) stopped to interact.

Sexy Lynx

www.youtube.com/watch?v=16nihYXCLSU

Hopefully the rest of the world doesn’t have to endure the annoyingly repetitive Go Compare advert that they insist on showing every 3 minutes here in the UK. I hope never to see an AR version of that one.

Harry Potter and the augmented reality demo

lester — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:25:17 +0000

If you have ordered a copy of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 video game be sure to visit the EA Harry Potter site (http://harrypotter.ea.com/ar) once it arrives for an interactive AR surprise.

Think of the game cover as being your very own copy of the Daily Prophet. Simply visit the site and present the cover to your webcam and Lord Voldemort will come to life. As an additional bonus, if you have part 1 of the game present it to webcam at the same time and Harry and ‘he who must not be named‘ will commence battle.

Harry Potter in action

Augmented Reality for Kids

lester — Mon, 16 May 2011 14:36:01 +0000

WITZ, a popular TV program for pre-schoolers in Singapore has launched an augmented reality interactive campaign to bring the TV characters to life.

The software takes the form of markers that represent the main characters from the show, which when presented to the webcam they bring the characters to life in 3D and should prove hours of fun for the younger members of the family.

It’s good to see some augmented reality aimed at the younger audience. If you want to give the app a try, you can find out more at: www.witz.sg/alive.html

Awesome Augmented Reality Visualisation Projects

lester — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:00:58 +0000

Here are a couple of cool demo that show how augmented reality is being used for visualization. The first demo created by PROJEKTIL, a company based in Switzerland that specialize in visual art experiences, is an interactive augmented reality installation that uses an architectural model and a variety of tricks which include, beamers, lamps and projectors to bring the installation to life.

The only way to describe it is ‘totally awesome’.

PROJEKTIL

As we are talking about awesome, the second demo is from ikikoi, a UK based company who created this evolution of the smartphone for Vodafone. (You can meet Lee one of the designers of this project at Augmented Planet 2011. Remember join our Facebook fan page for an exclusive event registration discount code).

Evolution of mobile

www.youtube.com/watch?v=883UlMNOuX4

If you are interested in the newest augmented reality visualisation projects, take a look at online masters degree programs in computer science, design, or engineering.

mTrip Augmented Reality Travel Guide Promotion

lester — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:32:41 +0000

If you’re planning a well-earned holiday this summer keep an eye open Thursday for the mTrip augmented reality travel guides. Not only are they great travel guides with augmented reality functionality but the mTrip guys tell me they are running a special discount on Thursday.

The guides are available for both Android and iPhone. The Android guides will be priced at $0.99 while the iPhone version will get free treatment. (Normal price £3.49/$5.99) I’m not sure if all the countries are all in the promotion but I am hoping for the Sao Paulo map. Either way stock up on some AR travel guide goodness.

There is an extensive list of countries available and since everything is installed on the phone there are no nasty roaming surprises for using the app abroad. For the full blurb on the features go here or you’ll find some review links below.

Europe

Amsterdam
Barcelona
Berlin
Budapest
Dublin
Istanbul
London
Madrid
Moscow
Munich
Paris
Prague
Rome
Stockholm
Venice
Vienna

America

Chicago
New York
San Francisco
São Paulo
Washington DC

Asia

Bangkok
Beijing
Dubai
Hong Kong
Shanghai
Singapore
Tokyo

Red Bull Racing – Amazing Augmented Reality Game

lester — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 23:19:55 +0000

I have seen some interesting augmented reality games that use markers enabling you build a custom game environment. Augmented Reality Tower Defender for Symbian and Drift from Slapdown Games are two that spring immediately to mind. Red Bull however have taken the concept to an entirely new dimension

I have to admit when the press release arrived in my in-box yesterday I thought I had misread it. The concept of using cans of Red Bull to build your own unique augmented reality racing game for your iPhone seemed like a far-fetched concept. Amazing Red Bull has done exactly that.

To play simply arrange cans of Red Bull in the circuit you would like to race. Once you have created your perfect circuit use the Red Bull application to scan the tops of each can. The application uses Advanced Sensor Fusion (a combination of gyroscope, compass and accelerometer input) to track the motion of the phone between the cans and metaio’s natural feature tracking technology (the same technology used in the junaio browser) to identify the Red Bull cans.

All that wonderful data is then processed by the application to build a 3D track based on your unique design. If all that wasn’t enough you can also share the track with your friends and challenge them to beat your time.

The game is truly ground breaking and will be a tough app to beat in this years Readers Choice Awards. The game has been developed in conjunction with Circ.us, which is a leader in uncovering remarkable uses for gameplay, animation, 3D and cross-platform creative execution.

Take a look at the game in action here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSM8Dap-AFE

The application is free and can be downloaded from the Apple App Store here.

AR Hockey – 3D Shootout Game

lester — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:00:11 +0000

I’m not a huge fan of sports. It football (don’t make me say soccer) or nothing for me. I have been to an American Football game which was 3 hours of my life that could have been put to better use, and a baseball game in Boston where I managed to knock half a pint of Guinness over someone’s head. I was sitting above the exit at the time and stretched out my leg sending a plastic cup half full with Guinness down into the abyss below. Unfortunately someone managed to break the cups fall, let’s say they weren’t happy. The good news however was the guy next to me got the blame but that’s another story.

Hockey looks like a fun sport and if you fancy a game then AR has the answer. Canada’s Arcane Technologies have created an AR game that utilises your webcam and a marker for Best Buy that challenges you to score as many goals as possible in 2 minutes. The challenging part is you use a marker and gravity to control the hockey rink.

Take a look at the game in action here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE2T-DChGlE

You can take up the hockey challenge and test the game on the Best Buy website here.
http://www.bestbuy3d.ca

2012 The Year of Face Recognition

lester — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:13:06 +0000

While 2011 is being billed by industry experts as the year of the Tablet, I am going to make the early claim that 2012 will be the year of face recognition.

Ever since seeing early demos of Augmented ID by Swedish company TAT which used the face recognition SDK by Polar Rose, it’s just been a matter of time before we have face recognition power in our smartphones. Polar Rose were acquired by Apple back in September 2010 which has led many to believe that the iPhone 5 will have face recognition capabilities, and I tend to agree that the next version of the iPhone will have some face recognition aspects. However while some bloggers feel that iPhone will use this technology as a security feature, i.e. unlocking the phone automatically when the use picks up the device, I think the technology will be used in a more subtle way.

My guess is that Apple will use the Polar Rose technology as a way to tag individuals in photos and possibly videos. As you take a picture using the iPhone camera each individual will be identified and tagged enabling you to search for all the pictures that containing the same individual or automatically upload the tagged photos to Facebook, (or wherever). I would be very surprised if the functionality is more sophisticated and incorporates live social media profiles of individuals in the camera view. I.e. while pointing the camera at an individual you see their recent tweets or Facebook updates. While there are companies building these solutions I think it’s a step to far to assume it will be such an integrated experience with the next iPhone. iPhone 6 however will give Apple developers enough time to experiment with the functionality and make face recognition a core part of the camera technology.

Since Polar Rose was acquired the face recognition SDK has been withdrawn for download, but fear not, particularly if you’re an Android developer. At Mobile World Congress this year I met up with a company called Viewdle who have taken up the mantel of face recognition on mobile devices. The demo I saw was a prototype that instantly recognised an individual when an Android device was pointed in their direction. Once the individual was recogniesd their social media profile include Facebook and recent tweets was displayed. It’s the first step to a future where you’ll be able to use your smartphone to point at individuals and see who they are and how to connect with them. There is privacy storm brewing there but that’s a story for another time. In the meantime however, if the finished Viewdle product is half as good as their marketing video we are in for a real treat.

Viewdle

Viewdle – Photo and Video Face Tagging from Viewdle on Vimeo.

If you can’t wait for the mobile solution, Viewdle have desktop version that will automatically tag photos on your PC and upload them to Facebook. You can download the app here: http://viewdle.com/products/desktop/index.html

Microsoft Face Recognition
Microsoft Research in Israel have also being working on face recognition and have recently released a short video showing some of their work. You can imagine this technology finding its way into their gaming platforms.

Augmented ID
For those that missed the original ground breaking demo from TAT, here is the original demo based on Polar Roses SDK. This technology was acquired by Apple in September 2010.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb0pMeg1UN0

Face recognition for mobile devices will no doubt be huge. The ability to automatically tag individuals in your photos and search for other pictures where they are featured will be just the start. In 2012 perhaps we’ll all be using our smartphones to see who is around us and what they are thinking.

Lost emails please resend

lester — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:37:07 +0000

General apologies if you have sent me email over the last few weeks and not heard back. I did a spring clean on my inbox and inadvertently deleted some unread emails.

I try to respond to everyone, but if you haven’t heard by now then I’m afraid you got deleted. Please resend and I’ll get back to you.

Marketing tips for augmented reality developers

lester — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:06:15 +0000

For those that don’t know me, my career has been spent building developer relations programs and working with 3^rd party developers to build applications. I have worked at brands such as Microsoft, Skype, Symbian and Nokia working with the developer community for marketing and application generation.

Since developers don’t necessary make the best marketers, today I thought I would offer up some quick start marketing tips for developers who have created their augmented reality application and want a head start with the marketing.

Firstly the obvious, it goes without saying that you should create a blog to engage with your potential customers. You don’t need to blog every day, but putting out content once a week will reap rewards. The web has a long memory so any blogs you post will get indexed by search engines and continue to drive users to your website for years to come. You should also use twitter. Don’t tweet every 30 seconds about your application being available, but a few ‘relevant’ tweets a day will help you get users. Be sure to include a URL to drive traffic to your download page to make it easy for your customers. To make life even easier, if you use WordPress use one of the free plugin’s that automatically tweet when you post.

Hashtags.
Hashtags are essential in making sure your tweet gets to the right audience. Some good tags to use are #augmentedreality #ar and depending on your platform #iphoneapps or #androidapps. If you have written a Layar, Wikitude World or Junaio channel, make sure you tweet at the relevant platform provider as well so it can be re-tweeted easy.

YouTube
I search YouTube almost daily to see what has been tagged as ‘augmented reality’. Putting together a 1 minute video might take you a couple of hours, but you’ll be surprised at how quickly it can go viral.

Bloggers
The hardest thing about blogging is finding something to blog about. Sometimes there is an abundance of news, other times it’s a struggle. I’m sure I speak for every blogger that writes about augmented reality when I say this, but if you have a cool app, tells us about it. By telling bloggers about your application it will get picked up by the widest possible audience. We don’t bite, and I for one really like to hear what people are building. (Our email is on the contacts page).

Competitions
You want users to install your app, bloggers want traffic to read their blog. So offering a blogger a few promo codes to give away on their blog is a win – win and before you know it you’ll be re-tweeted all over twitter.

Events
If you’re a small company then running your own event and getting it well attended will be pretty difficult. But do look out on websites like Eventbright and Meetup and see what relevant events are running. Once you find something of interest contact the organiser to see if you can get a 5 minute speaking slot to launch/talk about your app. Lookout for Augmented Planet events as we always like to have the community talk about new applications.

Advertising
Look at advertising on a relevant blog. Having your advert appear on a blog with relevant content is far better than paying for a Google ad campaign where you have no control over where you banner appears. Don’t be afraid to haggle with the blogger over the cost. Most bloggers would be more than happy to give you a discount as they’ll be looking to keep you as an advertiser long term.

Newsletters
Like blogging regularly, newsletters are hard work putting together. Authors are often looking for content so make it easy for them by asking if you can submit a article. Even big companies like Forum Nokia and Orange struggle for unique, relevant content so a well timed email could give you access to an audience of hundreds of thousands of potential customers.

Social Networks
LinkedIn in particular has numerous groups for augmented reality enthusiast, so ensure you post your news there as well.

Like most things with marketing, a lot of it is fairly straight forward. Make sure you use a stats program like Google Analytics so you can see what works and what doesn’t. Hopefully these tips will help even the most marketingothobic developer out there get off to a good start with telling the world about their creations.

Code may be poetry, but marketing is art.