Currently there are no shortages of augmented reality tools for developers, so my new book will cover all the latest platforms and how they can be used. Think of it as a ‘choosing the right augmented reality tool’ guide and how to developer augmented reality applications for the iPhone (Android version also in planning). Obviously there is a long way to go but the contract has been delivered so now it’s just a case of getting my head down and doing some research.

One of the latest tools to come to my attention is the Obvious Engine which was the engine used in the recent Chatterbucks iPhone application . The application if you missed it (more here) brings money to life. As you can see from the video below it looks pretty impressive.

Obvious Engine

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNiyT7qwHGA

The home page for the Obvious Engine is: obviousengine.comThere are not a lot of details on the engine but it looks good nether the less and could be a worthy chapter to include in the book project.

For other AR developer tools, please take a look at our AR tools section.

Related posts:

1. Build Mobile Augmented Reality Applications In 1 Hour
2. IN2AR Natural Feature Tracking With Adobe Flash
3. Attention developers building mobile applications for Android, iPhone, bada and Symbian.

Over the years there have been many attempts at producing the next Elite clone, all of which have failed to live up to the original. Even when the original creators tried to recreate their success with the truly dreadful Elite 2 and Elite 3 they failed to be anywhere near as successful.

You may be wondering why I mention Traveller AR and Elite in the same breath. When you load the Traveller AR game its clear to see where the inspiration has come from. The game is very Elite like, you start with a basic ship, travel between the numerous space stations located in the galaxy while trading cargo in an attempt to build up your money and to equip your ship. Along the way you’ll meet with alien races and humans alike that want to relive you of your precious cargo forcing you to engage in combat.

Traveller AR picks up some of the best bits from Elite and the other wannabe clones. For example, when you dock you are able to access a message board where you can sign up for special missions that earn you money or equipment. Additionally, the game is a MMORPG that supports thousands of users so you have that social aspect of encountering real people as you play. You can send them messages too via the in game chat system.

It is difficult not to compare the game with Elite as there are so many similarities, but rather than dwell on those and as this is an AR blog we should focus on the augmented realityness of the game. The games use of AR in my limited playing time has been of the superficial kind, eg. It turns on your devices camera window so the action takes place around you rather than on a space backdrop. I’m never really a fan of this as playing with your living room as the backdrop provides no value to the gaming experience in my opinion. However, the games designers do claim that the AR feature utilizes your GPS position and providers you with bonuses based on your playing location. While I haven’t seen that in action yet, presumably it’s open to scenarios where visiting your local Starbucks earns you special rewards. They also say that you’ll be able to use the AR functionality to discover and interact with nearby players.

Traveller AR is currently billed as being a beta release which means it is still undergoing development and ironing out some of the bugs. As such the price is currently £0.69/$0.99, but that will increase once the game is out of beta.

Without doubt Traveller AR is an ambitious project and I am expecting great things, if you like space trading games, or want to remember those good old Elite days then this could be the game you are waiting for so get it now while is on special offer.

Traveller AR is currently available for iOS devices and can be Installed from here: itunes.apple.com/gb/app/traveller-ar/id463521846?mt=8

Related posts:

1. Look-Up the Aliens are coming
2. AR! Pirates
3. AR Invaders

To spice up your iPhone movies and to convince everyone that you’re a budding Spielberg, take a look at the new, free Action Movie FX application from Bad Robot Interactive. The application uses augmented reality to overlay computer-generated graphics such as explosions and crashes directly into your movie.

The application is extremely simple to use, just record the scene, add the effect and then share with friends via Facebook or email.  The application comes free with two effects, missile attack and car smash but other effects are available as in-app purchase. (£0.69 / $0.99).

You have probably seen similar applications that overlay AR generate graphics in the camera window but the production values in this app are of a whole new quality. Check out the video below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiXwNqOWXj8

You can get it from here.

Related posts:

1. Mosimo Camera – What If Camera
2. Augmented London – The New iPhone App
3. Augmented Reality Dating For The iPhone

The app enables you use your iPhones camera to watch the Eagle lander descend and land in your own  garden (or where ever you choose). These are not tiny little graphics that you can experience on your living room table, you’ll need a large outdoor space to view the action. Being an augmented reality application you are able to walk around the action and view it from different angles. You can toggle between real world action, ie the action takes place on your immediate surrounding, or you can enable the virtual moonscape mode which will give the action the authentic feel.

Unfortunately, for me the app requires an iPhone 4/4S or iPad 2 with 3G or this would be on my purchase list. Being a space buff, I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who gives this one a go. It looks like fun.

Get it here:

MoonWalking

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OWnyFS81DQ

Related posts:

1. Farrago augmented reality experience creator

Over the last few days I have had a few announcements from various source informing me about some of their latest campaigns. In one of those weird coincidences we rented the Smurfs movie a few days back and one of the campaigns was promoting the Smurfs so I decided to take a look.

The Smurfs GoldRun campaign gives you the opportunity to have a photo taken with your choice of Smurf. Once you select the Smurf campaign from the GoldRun app the Smurf is placed in the camera window giving you the opportunity to capture a photo. Unlike some of the other campaigns this one is not limited to any particular city so you can try it from anywhere.

The great thing about GoldRun is it really is a fun way for you to explore your city as some campaigns are specific to a particular location. For example, if you are in the LA area you can experience the Swarovski ‘Let It Sparkle’ campaign where you can have your photo taken with Swarovski merchandise. Once you have completed the campaign you win a free gift with a purchase from a Swarovski store.

If you are not in the LA area but fancy winning some jewellery you can also try Tweeting a holiday greeting with the hashtag #letitsparkle. Tweets will be shown on Rodeo Drive and fans around the world can watch the tweets via a livestream camera on the brands’ Facebook page. Every Friday there will be a prize draw for some sparking goodies. Here is a link to the Facebook page with all info: http://on.fb.me/uahwgj about the competition.

GoldRun is a unique combination of exploration, shopping and marketing, it’s free and covers content from various cities and countries so take a look and see what you can win.

Grab GoldRun for the iPhone here

Related posts:

1. Shop till you drop with GoldRun
2. junaio and Augmented Reality Revolutionize Print Advertising
3. The Gorillaz – Plastic Beach Augmented Reality Campaign

AR Defender is a marker based game with the simple concept of defending your tower from invaders.  In the latest release this puts you up against hordes of Halloween style invaders intent on overrunning your tower. Fortunately you have at your disposal a range of weapons to keep the hordes at bay, but you’ll need to use your weapons wisely to reach the end of the level. Enemy hordes will come at you from all angles and you’ll need to take them out before they get close enough to do any damage.

Being an augmented reality game you are able to move around your tower and view the action from any angle. Unlike other games you never feel that augmented reality has been used for the sake of it, here it adds real value as the ability to quickly move around your surroundings is essential to the game-play.

int13 have done a great job in creating this classic shooter. It’s great fun and should be considered an essential game for any gamer.

AR Defender

www.youtube.com/watch?v=k56ZtfZYG7E

AR Defender is available as a universal iOS app for £0.69/$0.99, the Samsung Wave II (bada) for free, and is slated for a November 2011 Android release.

Get it here: 

iOS
bada
Android (coming soon)

If you are new to augmented reality then no doubt you’ll find the experience of bringing a rather impressively rendered 3D object to life just by pointing your device at the special marker rather magical, but if you are one of this blogs regular readers you’ll no doubt think that AR has moved on a long way from what these applications do. For example, the AR Bike application simply displays a 3D bike with no interaction. The AR C-Class application fares a little better as you are able to customise the 3D model with a limited number of trims and spoilers, but the effect on the car is so negligible they are hardly visible.

Good AR campaigns should offer some interactivity to encourage users to come back for more and enough wow factor to make them want to show them to their friends. Both these apps are a classic example of a failed opportunity. How much better would the C Class app have been with the option to customize the cars colour, change the allow wheels, open the hood/bonnet, trunk/boot or doors?

The apps are free if you want to give them a go. Download from the respective store here:

• iPhone/iPad App – Fitnessbike
• iPhone/iPad App – C-Class MercedesSport
• Android App – Fitnessbike
• Android App – C-Class MercedesSport

Print or view the respective marker from here

• Fitnessbike
• C-Class MercedesSport

Mercedes-Benz Apps In Action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzNc-n-jvrc

Related posts:

1. Farrago augmented reality experience creator
2. Audi A1 Layer Marketing Campaign
3. junaio and Augmented Reality Revolutionize Print Advertising

The app comes in two flavours. A free lite version which includes 1 car and no gaming aspect. Here you get to drive the car around any flat surface much like you would any RC car.  The full version which retails for £0.69 ($0.99) includes 8 cars, each of which can be customized and a gaming aspect which involves avoiding obstacles and collecting virtual coins.

vCars

• Formula 1
• Nascar
• Go-cart
• Baja Ram pickup
• Audi racer
• Pink convertible
• Police car (with working light bar)
• School bus (with working stop lights)

As the game doesn’t require a marker it can be played anywhere and on any surface. The augmented realityness of the game reminds me of early AR shooters such as AR Invaders. The gameplay takes place in the camera window but there is no interaction with real objects so it’s possible to drive off a table or through objects. Still for the meagre asking price it a bit of AR car based fun.

Try the lite version here or jump straight into the full version here.

RC vCar In Action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIOcfaM42mA

Related posts:

1. AR Invaders
2. Augmented Reality Golf – But Not What You Think
3. AR! Pirates

Don’t forget, NAVTEQ are giving you the opportunity to win a Parrot AR Drone in the Augmented Planet Reader Choice Awards. See the link at the end of this post.

The AR Drone if you haven’t heard of it before is a remote controlled quadcopter. To control the drone you’ll need to pair it with an iOS or Android device. Simply install the Free Flight mode application from the respective app-store, connect to the wifi network broadcasted by the drone and its ready to fly. What makes the AR Drone something special is the two onboard video cameras that display a live video feed back to your device. You get a huge thrill of excitement as the device connects and you see yourself on screen via the forward facing camera ready to press the take off button.

Once you press the take off button the drone will lift off to around 2 feet and hover there until you tell it otherwise. Thanks to the 4 rotors it will pretty much stay put hovering in place.

Taming the beast
When the AR Drone arrived I had a goal of stealthily flying the drone up the stairs and navigating using the camera to spy on one of my cats sleeping on the bed. We adopted a stray cat some years back that shows no fear of anything. He is the type of cat when you vacuum the house he takes a few nudges with cleaner before be budges.

As I was setting up the drone he happened to be watching with normal catlike curiosity. That was until I pressed the take off button. The drone sounds like a million angry bees trapped in a jam jar, for a cat that knows no fear he was a blur of movement heading towards the door. Stealthy and drone are not words you are going to hear in the same sentence, it’s a pretty noise beast so you can rule out the idea of hovering over your neighbours garden and using the downward facing camera to spy on unaware sunbathers. The amount of power that the 4 rotors put out is incredible and will easily lift the drone up to over 30 feet. Of course in the house anything you have laying around the floor as the drone passes over is going to be scatted into the wind thanks to the powerful downdraught.

Controlling the drone takes a bit of getting used to. Controls such as up, down, and rotate are control by virtual buttons on your device while the forward and back movements are control by the accelerometer. The first few attempts saw me being slow backed into a corner while trying to nudge the drone away with my hands; it actually takes a lot of effort to move, particularly as you trying to avoid putting your fingers into the rotors. Trust me, that is something you’ll only do the once.

After a week of playing with the drone I never did mange to get it up the stairs using the camera view alone. Having collided with several light fittings in my attempts which resulted in spectacular crashes from ceiling to floor and bouncing down several stairs the drone is remarkably robust sustaining no damage thanks to its foam indoor body shell that protects the rotors. Of course crashes are not recommended which is why should you sustain any damage, all the parts are easily replaceable.

In door drone action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG1yvv1BABQ

I didn’t trust my flying skills to try flying outdoors but if you have an outdoor space then the internal body shell can be removed and the drone equipped for outdoor flight. This body shell (supplied) makes it more aerodynamic and less likely to be blown about in the wind. Outdoor flying I am sure is a lot of fun as you’ll be able to fly the drone at full speed without fear of colliding with internal structures.

Battery
The drone comes with a single battery that takes about an hour to charge but only gives around 30 minutes of use. You’ll definitely need a spare battery to get the most from flying. While 30 minutes may not seem like a lot, is probably in-line with what other remote control flying gadgets offer.

Games
The great thing about the AR Drone is the fun doesn’t stop at the free flight application and it can be used as a gaming experience. In the Apple and Android app-stores there are an increasing number of applications that can be downloaded. These include multi-player games where you can launch rockets at friends in an attempt to destroy (virtually of course) their drone, or games where you race around a race circuit trying to beat your friend’s time. And if that’s not enough, there is an SDK where you can create your own games.

Multi player gaming

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcuPdraxiRc

Cost
Now that I have whet your appetite I’m sure you’ll want one, so lets talk about the cost. The drone which comes with the 2 built in cameras, battery, charger, indoor & outdoor body shells will set you back £299/$299 making it a pretty pricy toy but the ultimate Christmas present.

Now is a good time to remind you that you could have a Parrot AR Drone sitting under your Christmas tree on Christmas morning thanks to NAVTEQ, our sponsors of this year’s Augmented Planet Reader Choice Awards. Simply vote for your favourite augmented reality applications of 2011 and you’ll be entered into the prize draw. Click here for more info:

Summary
The AR Drone is the ultimate flying experience and the most fun I have had with augmented reality for sometime. The added bonus of cameras and dedicated augmented reality games just takes the fun to the next level.

Related posts:

1. AR Drone Hits Android
2. AR Drone + Vuzix Wrap 920 = Serious Fun
3. AR App Gun

iOS 5 added some new face tracking APIs but overall it was a little disappointing that we didn’t see any of the technology from the recently acquired Polar Rose implemented in a bigger way. If you happened to have been following the launch of the new Galaxy Nexus from Samsung, running the about to be released Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android, you may have spotted that face recognition is also part of the OS.

In the teaser video below its difficult to see how deep face recognition goes and how else it can be used, but we do know you’ll be able to unlock your phone by looking at the camera.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_ke3rxopc

Related posts:

1. Mobile Face Recognition Coming Soon?
2. 2012 The Year of Face Recognition
3. Augmented Reality Face Recognition

If you have used augmented reality before, this is the kind of demo that places a 3D image on a marker. You have probably seen many flash based demos in the past doing exactly that. If you haven’t used augmented reality before, simply print the special black and white image and whenever the application sees that image, a 3D image is displayed. For example, stick the marker on someone’s head and it is instantly replaced with a zombies head in the camera window. Hold the marker in your hand and you’ll be holding a ray gun. As the marker is moved it is tracked and the view of the 3D object changed accordingly.

In a world where the current technology enables real-time face tracking and directly overlaying 3D without any kind of assistance this may not seem that impressive, particularly for iPad 2 owners. But there are a couple of interesting features to make this app worth a look.

Firstly you can record video of your marker in action. Most apps only allow you to create a screenshot so you can have endless fun creating videos and sharing them on your social media sites.

Secondly and perhaps the biggest selling point is you can upload your own content. This enables you to create your own custom experiences with pictures from either your photo album or from the camera, which is a novel, twist. It even comes with some reasonable tools to help you crop images and to create the relevant transparencies.

For £1.49 it’s a fun app particularly and if you’re searching for some marker based AR fun you can install it from here.

Farrago in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGGbrX6fLec

Related posts:

1. The Mercedes-Benz AR Experience
2. iPhone Markerish Augmented Reality Games
3. The Gorillaz – Plastic Beach Augmented Reality Campaign

junaio has been around for a few years now, it originally started life as an augmented reality social networking browser where communities of users could drop 3D objects in the virtual world and others could add to the 3D scene. It was actually fun to see what people were doing with your scenes and how it was being extended.  In version 2.0 junaio moved away from the ‘creating 3D scenes’ landscape and became its own augmented reality browser enabling users to locate their nearest restaurant, bar, or other geo-code content, and also became the first AR browser to support natural feature tracking to bring printed content to life.

Version 3.0 builds on the previous success and adds a number of new features including the ability to recognise 1D barcode (the kind you find on the back of products in your kitchen) and QR Codes. The barcode functionality is an interesting addition as not only does it recognise the product but should you scan a humble can of baked beans, it is able to give you recipes ideas based on the other ingredients you scan to help you cook the perfect meal. Perfect for trying to figure out what to do with those left over cans stashed away at the back of the kitchen cupboard.

junaio has always had a great image recognition engine that enables users to recognise images and either display 3D objects, link to videos or websites, but version 3.0 takes this concept a little further. Now any object can be viewed in the junaio client and once the scan button is pressed, further information about the object can be retrieved. There is no messing around with trying to figure out which channel to load making it even easier to find content. This works as long as the image is in the junaio or a partners database but you can see the comparisons here with Google Goggles as developers or companies with large amounts of image resources can now expose those through the junaio client.

The updated junaio client can be downloaded free for both iOS and Android from the respective store. It’s the essential app for any iPhone/iPad or Android user.

junaio 3.0 in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNjhM7T7DJ4

Related posts:

1. junaio and Augmented Reality Revolutionize Print Advertising
2. junaio Redefining Interactive TV
3. Metaio change the game with junaio glue

On the bright side, the app is now free so think of it as being a demo you can show over breakfast tomorrow before tucking into your boiled egg.  (Grab it here)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=58IEP1udwVQ

Related posts:

1. AR Easter Egg Game
2. Hidden iPhone Augmented Reality Feature
3. Mobile Face Recognition Coming Soon?

I was somewhat disappointed that Apple didn’t announce face recognition with iOS 5 back in June, particularly as they acquired Swedish company Polar Rose (famous for the demo below) at the end of last year.

According to 9To5Mac however a couple of APIs have been discovered in the latest beta of iOS 5 that give credence to face recognition making an appearance later this year. The newly discovered APIs are:

• hasLeftEyePosition
• hasRightEyePosition
• hasMouthPosition
• leftEyePosition
• rightEyePosition
• mouthPosition

Polar Rose

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QBLKBYrgvk

Polar Rose are were not the only company experimenting with mobile face tracking. At Mobile World Congress in February I met with US based company Viewdle who were showcasing some amazing demos.
They recently released a beta of their Android face recognition app which can be found here. I haven’t looked into it yet so feel free to share you comments.

Perhaps the last half of 2011 will be the year of face recognition.

Viewdle

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A10tgE9YQDo

Related posts:

1. Mobile Face Recognition
2. Ice Cream Sandwich Face Recognition
3. 2012 The Year of Face Recognition

The game is simply enough to play and is certainly demo worthy when you pick up your change at the bar and want to impress your friends over a beer. I’ll be keeping in on my phone for demos in the future. However there is an annoying aspect that I found. While the game is free from the App Store it is ad supported. Unfortunately the advert is right at the top of the screen and I found the pirates often sailed behind the ad making them hard to shoot. There is a $0.99 (£0.59) in app purchase that gives you more levels and I assume removes the ads.

AR! Pirates is the most fun you can have with the coins in your pocket (unless you know better). You can install it from here

AR! Pirates in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=al7StPimtRs

Related posts:

1. AR Pirates for Symbian
2. RC vCar The Next Best Thing To Owning A Car
3. Look-Up the Aliens are coming

The demos include:

Scrawl – AR drawing

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pl_4Cn9Bl4

Pharaoh’s Fury  - an augmented reality game

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEVOheUrm0w

Proto – cute 3D alien

Clayful – mouldable virtual putty

www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7u6luBO2Lo

Sneaker – view 3D sneaker (trainer for the rest of us)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6VPK-OyQwo

The above demos, which I’m sure you’ll agree are pretty amazing, are part of the String Augmented Reality Showcase application that you can download completely free from iTunes. Once you have downloaded you’ll need to print, or point you camera at the markers to trigger the AR. The markers that can be found here.

Related posts:

1. Augmented Reality Powered By String
2. String OJ Demo
3. Combining AR with Art with Konstruct

If you are already familiar with AR you’ll notice that String lives somewhere in middle of fiduciary markers and natural feature tracking. Tracking images combines the high contrast black border of a marker and a complex natural image in the centre. This mix actually works well. With a marker users can identify it as having special significance when presented to a camera (much the same way users identify QR Codes as having significance). With NTF images the challenge is telling the user that the image as has significance without providing a large amount of instructions. Combining the two therefore goes someway to solve the identification problem.

The String SDK which is currently available for iOS with an Android version in the works is powerful enough to build some pretty amazing solutions. I normally say that any AR demo is only as good as its 3D objects, that’s still true as eye candy sells, but String does an amazing job of recognising the markers even in poor lighting.

String AR Drawing Demo

Possibly my favourite String demo is the Orange carton demo which is amazing when you see it live.

String Orange Carton

For developers looking to build standalone mobile NFT apps the String SDK should be high on your list of tool to try. You can find out more or download the SDK from: www.poweredbystring.com

Related posts:

1. String AR Demos You Need To Try
2. String OJ Demo
3. IN2AR Natural Feature Tracking With Adobe Flash

Fortunately the AR Browser craze has died back a little so I was a little surprised recently when the guys from FutureTap sent me their Where To browser to review. I have seen more than my fair share of browsers over the last 2 years so it was with a little apprehension that I installed it. Surprisingly it’s actually pretty good.

Most AR Browsers fail because AR is the central selling point and everything has to take place in the camera view. Take away the AR and the app just doesn’t make sense and is tedious to use. As I always say, the best AR apps are those where AR is added to an already good idea.  The Where To browser was originally released in June 2009 and it’s only recently that AR has been added. Since the app has been around for a while it already has rich functionality and can be used just fine without relying on AR as a selling point. That said the AR is also a excellent worthwhile inclusion.

Using Where To you can find restaurants, schools, airports and everything in between. The app splits the POIs in to 12 categories and is amazingly simple to use thanks to an innovative wheel menu. There are no complicate menus or searches to navigate in an attempt to find the content you are looking for, with everything being easily accessed.

My standard test for any new browser is the local Indian restaurant test. In this test I attempt to find the nearest group of Indian restaurants to my house, this highlights problems with the underlying database used to generate the POIs as restaurants are either missing or misplaced. Where To passed the test and found all the restaurants and put them in their correct location but the test failed on locating the nearest pubs.
The Where To browser is a not a free browser and the AR functionality is an additional cost provided by an in-app purchase, but it is one of the better browsers you will encounter.

FutureTap have also reduced the price a little the Easter holiday so you can pick it up for a 33% discount. Get it from here.

Where To In Action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR2qqpYFRog

Related posts:

1. The New Yell AR Browser
2. WhereMark Augmented Reality Browser
3. Wikitude World Browser Update – Quick Look

If you follow Augmented Planet you will have seen some of James’ amazing FLARTookit demos in the past, the iPhone app is just as entertaining. Simply install the app, select from one of several factual graphics and then point your iPhone camera at the marker. The application responds to sound drawing structures over the marker.

After a few beers it’s one of those apps you’ll want to crank up the stereo and watch the light show.

The app is free from the Apple App Store and can be installed from here.

Incidentally, James is a guest speaker at the Augmented Planet event in London on the 1st and 2nd of June. If you want learn more about developing augmented reality applications book your ticket now.

Konstruct in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kJF3GQF3YI

Related posts:

1. String AR Demos You Need To Try
2. Red Bull Racing – Amazing Augmented Reality Game
3. Augmented Planet Event For AR Developers

Augmented Reality (AR) is the latest red hot technology that is taking the world by storm. Have you ever wondered how you can use AR to build your own solutions that use the following technologies:

• Natural feature tracking
• Visual search
• Face recognition
• Augmented reality browsers

If you have wondered how you can use these technologies to build mobile applications for Android, iPhone, iPad 2, bada, Symbian or the web then Augmented Planet 2011 is the event for you. Augmented Planet, the No 1 blog dedicated to all things AR is back for our third London conference. This year we are focusing entirely on the development of AR applications and we have assembled the best speakers from the AR industry for an exclusive event in London.

At Augmented Planet 2011 you’ll hear from industry leaders, AR tools and platform providers and the UK’s leading AR developers. It’s not a death by PowerPoint event but an opportunity for you to see how easy it is to take advantage of AR.

Sessions include

• The AR opportunities for developers
  • Why you should be building AR content
• Developing simple Worlds for Wikitude
  • The basics of creating worlds using KML and ARML (Augmented Reality Mark-up Language)
• Developing dynamic AR Worlds for Wikitude
  • Creating advanced AR worlds, new features and options for developers
• Using junaio to build POI driven content
  • How to create junaio channels and making a compelling AR experience for users
• Using junaio to build natural feature tracking content
  • Creating GLUE channels that display 2D or 3D images
  • AR is only as good as the 3D models you have. This session will look at the tools required to create stunning 3D content.
• Face tracking
  • Using the Dfusion Studio workflow for creating a face tracking experience. From the most simple to the more advanced. Prepare to be transformed!
• Trans media apps
  • The latest cross media AR experiences and the quantifiable ROI by some of the global major brands. See the latest mobile and iPad AR experiences
• iPhone AR development
  • The latest demos and iPhone development experiences from James Alliban one of the UK’s leading AR developers
• The AiRaid SDK
  • The bada open-source library that allows developers to quickly build mobile augmented reality applications
• + much more including keynotes from
  • Lester Madden – author of Professional Augmented Reality Apps for Smartphones & AugmentedPlanet.com editor
  • Myles Peyton – Total Immersion
  • Ken Blakeslee – WebMobility Ventures
  • Wikitude

• Developing 3D objects and models

If you’re a developer here’s why you need to be at Augmented Planet 2011

• Watch expert developers programming AR applications
• See coding demos not PowerPoints
• Hear from the leading industry experts on how to take advantage of AR
• Learn how AR can be applied to your own solutions
• Network with people from the AR industry

Spaces are limited, when the tickets are gone they are gone. Take advantage of the early bird discount now and save £50. Join our Facebook fan page for an exclusive event discount.

If you’re a developer and you want to hear first-hand from AR experts about building your own AR solutions this is must attend event.

Gold Sponsor

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Media Partners

Related posts:

1. Attention developers building mobile applications for Android, iPhone, bada and Symbian.
2. Augmented Planet Event 2011 Countdown
3. Augmented Planet – Augmented Reality Event

If you are building mobile applications and you want to learn how AR can be used to provide features such as:

• Face recognition
• Visual search
• Image recognition / natural feature tracking
• POI AR browsers

Or if you want to see some of the latest, coolest, innovative uses of AR then this is the event for you.

AR is the RED HOT mobile technology around so come along and learn how you can build applications that will set you apart from the rest.

Take a look at these demos for a taster of some of the technologies that will be covered during the event:

Wikitude

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAcAHgUge-8

Total Immersion

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDxCneDOgwc

junaio

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz-lYtzKpTo

+ many more.

To register click the link below.

Join our Facebook fan page and use the voucher code ‘facebookfriend’ to save £29 on registration. (Discount price £50 )

The Event is proudly sponsored by:

Gold

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For more information about the event please visit www.augmentedplanetevent.com

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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

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2. mtrip Augmented Reality City Guides
3. Ultimate Guide To iPhone Augmented Reality Part II

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.

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The book is aimed at developers and focused on teaching mobile developers how to build AR content for these platforms. It will be published by the nice guys over at Wrox Press hopefully in May. As of today I am just one and a half chapters away from completing the book with an angry editor on my back. Hopefully by Sunday night I will be complete. Then begins the nightmare task of dealing with the edits from the editor and reviewer.
For more information about the book take a look here:

Maybe, just maybe. Those of you that manage to attend AP2011 in London on the 1st/2nd of June will find a copy in your delegate bag.

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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.

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