Augmented Planet » Android

DroidAR Tools for Android

lester — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:17:22 +0000

I know I blog a lot about iOS and often neglect our Android readers, so it’s always good to hear from Android developers who ask ‘how about me’. Good stuff.

This morning I posted about the Absolute Engine for the iPhone which prompted a response from Simon who has been working on the DroidAR project. DroidAR is an OpenGL framework for Android developers who want to add location based or marker based augmented reality functionality to their mobile applications.

You can find out more about the project here: http://code.google.com/p/droidar/

The website contains a number of examples including a rather handy installing and getting started guide to help you get up to speed.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFbEvkWJOV0

Ice Cream Sandwich Face Recognition

lester — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:04:15 +0000

Sometime last year I said 2011 would be the year of face recognition. I thought come December we’d be knee deep in people waiving their phones in our faces that it would almost be second nature. It seems I jumped the gun a little. Not much mind, but a little.

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

AR Drone Hits Android

lester — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:42:50 +0000

There is no doubt about it, the AR Drone looks like a seriously fun piece of kit. Unfortunately however its been an iPhone/iPad exclusive since launch, until now that is. Android owners dust off your wallet and breakout the credit card because the AR Drone is now available for you too!

The AR Drone in case you haven’t seen it is an indoor/outdoor remote controlled helicopter, or if you want to get technical, a quadricopter. Unlike a helicopter it has 4 rotors that provide the lift and steering, the additional rotors also make it much easier to control and with less of that unpredictable wobble factor. But what makes the AR Drone so much fun is it that it is fitted with not 1 but 2 cameras. The first camera provides a forward facing view while the second points down to show what’s directly below, perfect for those aerial snapshots or incursions into the neighbours garden.

To control the drone you’ll need a smartphone, either something running iOS or Android. Once connected via WiFi the phone will act as the controller providing you with the steering as well as the live camera feed from the drone. While that’s awesome enough, there are around 10 AR Drone applications available in the Android Marketplace. The current batch of apps include stats about your flight (eg height, distance, speed), create automatic fight paths for your drone to follow, or race your drone against friends.

iOS has slightly more applications available including a true augmented reality game where you race around one of five virtual circuits. I’m sure its only a matter of time before it hits the Android.

The only downside to the AR Drone is the cost. It will set you back around £240 which is by no means cheap. But it is fair to say that this is not a toy, its a serious piece of flying kit that also enables a realistic game experience. I’ll get my hands on one and give you the full review soon.

AR Drone

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8YeE9fUT7w

junaio 3.0: The next step in mobile AR

lester — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:54:20 +0000

When Google released Google Goggles a year or so back I’m sure it caught many of the incumbent AR browser providers off guard. Goggles in case you don’t know is an image recognition application that enables the user to scan images of wine labels, works of art or even architecture and have the image identified. The biggest grumble developers have with Goggles however is there is no way to gain access to the library of images or to extend the Goggles client. The good news for developers and users alike is junaio 3.0 nudges the junaio browser a step closer to Goggles and offers some unique additional functionality.

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

AR Games You Need To Try

lester — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:46:42 +0000

It seems like only yesterday that augmented reality gaming consisted of games that simply enable the phones camera to provide an interesting backdrop. Thanks to tools from companies like String and Qualcomm (and of course the OS’s providing access to the camera feed) developers are now able to build vision based games that use natural feature tracking to create interesting 3D experiences.
Qualcomm released their Android SDK some months back with a developer challenge, as a result they have a number of games that look pretty interesting. Before we get to the games its worth noting that the Qualcomm AR SDK has recently become available for iOS developers. The SDK plugs into Unity, one of most popular tools for games developers. If you are interesting in building your own AR content take a look at the tools here: http://developer.qualcomm.com/dev/augmented-reality

The games listed below are for Android unless stated

BiljetAR
BijetAR is an interesting concept developed by Beyond Reality based in The Netherlands. The game uses a bank note to create the game board so there is no need to print markers. Simply use one of the 6 supported currencies, 1 US Dollar, 5 Canadian Dollars, 5 Euros, 5 UK Pounds, 1000 Yen or 50 Rubles and point your phone at the note. Once the bill has been recognised you’ll take control of the guns on an AC130 armoured ground attack aircraft where you get to blow things up in the various missions. The game action takes place high in the sky from the gunners seat, if you have ever watched the CNN footage showing the pilots eye view during an attack the game play is similar. If you fancy yourself as a gunner or just want to blow things up the game is available in beta for Android devices and can be installed free here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdJXghZTiXw

iPhone owners who like the look of the game take a look at Zombie Gunship which is a very similar concept with out the AR aspect.

Paparazzi
Paparazzi developed by Pixel-Punch was the winner of the Qualcomm Augmented Reality Challenge. In the game you are a paparazzi assigned with the task of capturing pictures of a celebrity who appears on either a marker that can be downloaded from the developers website or a US Dollar bill. The celebrity appears to be a harmless unassuming English country gent gets annoyed if you move the camera in too close for a picture and will jump onto your phone in an attempt to break the camera. If that happens you’ll need to shake the phone to try and shake him loose. For 66p it’s a lot of fun but it could do with a couple more characters. The game can be downloaded here. Interestingly the game is the first game I am aware of that reacts to the phone being placed in close proximity to the AR character. Most AR examples just make the character larger but Paparazzi provides character interaction.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlQVdWIBdHA

Continued on page 2

Mobile Face Recognition Coming Soon?

lester — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:01:34 +0000

I stuck my neck on the line at the beginning of the year and said that 2011 would be the year of face recognition. It’s nearly August and so far face recognition technology for mobile devices has yet to make a significant appearance.

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

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

CamTranslator – AR Translation For Android

lester — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:03:27 +0000

There are a few demos that I like to show on those rare occasions when I get let loose in front of an audience to talk about augmented reality. One demo that I always like to show is Word Lens, an augmented reality translator application that uses the camera to recognize text and display the translation in-situ. I always feel guilty however because my demos are almost always exclusively iPhone related.

For Android owners (and for my future reference) CamTranslator is an Android equivalent that translates any language into any other language just by aiming your camera at text and viewing the results. Unfortunately unlike Word Lens the translations are a little on the sucky side. For instance I searched Google for Spanish street signs and found a sign that read ALTO. In Spanish Alto means stop, in CamTranslator our translation read Strop. Other translations we tried insisted on translating to Chinese despite being configured for English. In fairness however decent translation is actually pretty hard to do since you need to have context for the words being translated.

The other problem with the application is each world needs to be translated individually so you have to point the camera at each word in turn, read the translation and move on to the next. Word Lens on the other hand translates all the text in one go and displays the results.

I don’t really recommend the app as it has a long way to go before being useful, but if you have an Android device and want to give augmented reality translation a try then take a look as its free. If you do, be sure to switch to auto-recognize by pressing the eye icon on the left of the screen or you’ll be left wondering why nothing is happening. Not that I did that.

CamTranslator

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLxCo6bciQw

The app can be installed here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.intsig.camdict

DroidAR Engine For Android Developers

lester — Wed, 04 May 2011 20:26:09 +0000

Android developers looking to get their hands on new augmented reality tools take a look at the new engine developed by Simon Heinen, a computer science student from RWTH Aachen in Germany.

I know how much Android developers like to tinker with code so I’m sure this will be of interest. Simon has made available several demos along with the AR Framework which you can find here. http://code.google.com/p/droidar/ You’ll also find a tutorial on how you get started on the page. Check it out.

DroidAR in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=brlNkKmw8IY

Professional Augmented Reality Browsers for Smartphones

lester — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:47:57 +0000

The last few months have been a blogging wilderness from me and for that I apologise. The reason being is; I am pleased to announce, I have been working on an augmented reality book titled: “Professional Augmented Reality Browsers for Smartphones: Programming for junaio, Layar and Wikitude”.

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.

AR App Gun

lester — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:12:46 +0000

If you are looking for that little extra realism with your augmented reality games, AppToyz, a UK games company could have the answer.

The AppToyz solution is a gun shaped holder for your mobile phone. There is no electronics in the device, instead the trigger controls two rubberised fingers (for want of a better word) which tap the screen. Of course games will need to be designed specifically for the AR gun to ensure that the fingers tap in the right places. In the video below you can see the gun in action.

I’m not sure about this one, I worry about my expensive phone flying through the air in the heat of an AR battle. It will be interesting to see if developers begin to build compatible games.
From what I understand the gun will be priced around £15-$20 ($25-$30) mark.

The AR Gun in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=N64IQN1MtdI

Kafkara for Android

lester — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 21:03:41 +0000

Some of the first mobile augmented reality applications I can remember (excluding browsers) were applications that let you add hats, beards, moustaches and other assorted paraphernalia to photos. Defacing your mother-in-law as she snored through a football match you were trying to enjoy was strangely therapeutic. Their augmentedness was always questionable however.

Kafkara is application for the Android that takes that concept a bit further and is most definitely an augmented reality app. Here instead of adding features to a 2D photo, a person’s face is texture mapped onto a 3D avatar and shown in augmented reality. In essence, you can map a face on to a 3D object like a bee. The best way to describe Kafkara is it’s like the Ironman or Transformers demo from Total Immersion but without the huge production values.

You can create the faces either by taking a photo of a person, or by grabbing their picture from either Facebook or Twitter. Once you have the picture, the application also uses the Google Text To Speech Engine and will animate the person’s lips speaking whatever you typed. Finally to complete the package, the app has a radar feature that shows what other Kafkara avatars have been created near you.

Kafkara is also completely free, so iIf you have an Android and you fancy a bit of 3D face manipulation fun be sure to take a look. If you’re a 3D model expert then get in touch with the developers as they are looking for some assistance with creating new avatars and I’m sure would appreciate your help.
Get it from the Android Market Place or use the QR Code

Mosimo Camera – What If Camera

lester — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 19:49:50 +0000

Android owners have a super cool application call Mosimo Camera on the horizon. Mosimo Camera developed by Japanese start-up AITIA enables the user to add computer generated effects to the video/camera window.

Effects can be themed, eg snow, music or birthdays and applied to the video feed. The application also has sophisticated facial tracking functionality to overlay video effects in the correct places.

Mosimo Camera

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI2KpZZF_Hw

Unfortunately the application isn’t available just yet as there is an API restriction that prevents developers from adding real-time animated effects to videos. (According to MobileCrunch)

ARTags for Android

lester — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 18:51:31 +0000

Over the last year we have seen a few augmented reality and art mash-ups hit the iPhone. TagDis, ARStreets to name a few. So it’s good that the Android has now got its own flagship app in the form of the new ARTags and the jump on iPhone users.

ARTags is a drawing application for the Android platform that provides the user with a number of drawing tools that can be used to create works of art and then left in cyberspace. Artwork is geo-coded with the creators current location and then viewable in an augmented reality browser. Where ARTags differs from other similar applications is they haven’t tried to reinvent the wheel by developing their own augmented reality browser engine. Instead they focus on the drawing tools, once artwork has been created and submitted they are viewable with either Layar, junaio or Wikitude. ARTags artwork is viewable with any of these browsers so it one of the first cross-browser products that I am aware of.

ARTags is currently only available for the Android, iPhone users for the time being will have to be content with viewing the art.

If you enjoy creating art and want to share your masterpieces with others then ARTags is definitely worth a look.

ARTags in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKxOy08POc0

Get it here.

junaio and Augmented Reality Revolutionize Print Advertising

lester — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:43:13 +0000

Metaio and their junaio augmented reality browser are busy working with partners to change how we interact with print. The latest campaign to use their junaio glue platform is the product of a collaboration between Sausalitos and Coke zero in Germany.

In the campaign, users interact by using their Android or iPhone to view the advertisement printed in various newspapers and magazines. Once the Coke zero advertisement has been identified by the junaio platform the advertisement comes to life with additional content providing the viewer with a richer experience.

The Coke zero campaign is the latest in a series of high profile augmented reality campaigns from Metaio. Previous campaigns have included an augmented reality stamp for the UK and a special edition of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung`s supplement magazine that was distributed to over 500k homes in Germany.

Some day all print will be like this

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTeJW3IDrI0

junaio is free platform that enables developers to build sophisticated natural feature tracking applications like the one shown in the video. For more information about junaio take a look at: www.junaio.com/glue

Tupalo now with scanAR (Android)

lester — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:55:00 +0000

I love it when people send me an email about the latest augmented reality Android app they have developed. I feel that I am often biased towards the iPhone so getting some Android news is exciting.

Tupalo is a free app that enables users to discover restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other interesting things around the city. In addition the application allows users to rate their experience, so if you are looking to try a new restaurant you’ll know what other people think before giving it a try.

Yeah the iPhone has dozens of these applications but it’s good to see the Android getting a few as well. Particularly as the application is available on iPhone already but the augmented reality functionality is hitting the Android first.

Android users can scan the QR Code below to get the app.

vouchAR for Android, find bargains with AR

lester — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:48:15 +0000

Many companies have released augmented reality browsers and then attempted to make money from the platform. vouchAR have approached the problem slightly differently. Rather than showing users where the nearest train station is and then trying to sneak in the occasional store sponsored promotion, vouchAR is entirely about helping users find nearby discounts.

The application uses the camera window to display a graphical overlay of what nearby businesses are offering discounts. Simply hold up your phone in front of you and you’ll see the discounts appear. It’s not a new idea, but having a dedicated application does solve the intrusive issue. I.e. I don’t want my phone alerting me to two for one deals in Starbucks as I drive past..

If you’re an Android owner and currently in the UK then give the application a go and see if you can pick up deals, anything from lunchtime snacks to bargain hotels.

Search the Android Market for vouchAR

Google Goggles available for the iPhone

lester — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:25:27 +0000

The long awaited Goggle Goggles image recognition application has finally arrived for iPhone users.

I know, I know… Goggles is a visual search application. But some day this is what AR will become. Every object will be known and identified in seconds and will provide associated real-time context.

If you are not sure what Google Goggles is, or why it is exciting, Goggles is an image recognition application that enables Android and iPhone owners to take pictures of objects such as:

Landmarks
Wine labels
Logos
Books
Text (translation)
Contact info

By taking a picture of any of these classes of objects, the image is recognised and submitted to the Google search engine. If you take a picture of a landmark the landmark is identified and named without you having to type anything into a search engine. Useful if, you don’t want to type, or if you don’t know what the object is to begin with.

To test the functionality, I loaded the browser on my laptop and searched for Tower Bridge. I took a picture and retrieved a Google search page full of related results correctly identifying the picture as Tower Bridge. Similarly to test the Art recognition functionality I searched for Mona Lisa which was also correctly identified.

The translation appears to work well. It would be interesting to try it out on something complex like a menu, but the text I tried came out fine.

Olá eu gostaria de
um pouco de queijo no
brinde, por favor

I tested the contact info by taking a picture of my business card. The data is scanned and you are given the option to add the contact to your contacts list. At the same time you are also given a Google search page with related results. In my case all the links looked relevant containing the Augmented Planet home page as well as my LinkedIn profile. The OCR require a few attempts in getting it to recognise my card but I expect that was down to poor lighting.

Wine label recognition worked as well, again you are at the mercy of the OCR and lighting so it may take a few attempts but complex images such as books and DVDs worked fine taking you to the relevant places where you can buy the product..

Interestingly, I took a picture of my cat and as expected it didn’t find a match. However it does attempt to be helpful by showing similar images which in my case included a few cats and a couple of dogs.

Google Goggles in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezc108DTaug

Having the Google application on your mobile phone is pretty much essential anyway, the voice search facility is also pretty interesting, but having the Goggles functionality built in makes it even better..

Get it here

Audi A1 Layer Marketing Campaign

lester — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:35:16 +0000

It’s interesting how advertisers are using augmented reality as a marketing vehicle to promote their products and build engaging content for consumers. One of the latest examples is the Audi layer developed by AR Door and Russian advertising agency, Rodnaya Rech.

The campaign takes the form of a layer for the Layer augmented reality browser available for Android and iPhone owners. Users of the browser are encouraged to travel to special points around 5 Russian cities where they can take a picture of the new Audi A1 car and post their picture to Facebook. To encourage users to take the time to interact with the campaign, users are entered into a competition when they upload their picture to the Facebook group.

I think few people would be interested in travelling to see a billboard but augmented reality is a unique technology that creates the desire for users to want to travel to see an advertisement. Neat stuff, our Russian readers can join the Facebook group here.

Audi A1 Layer Campaign

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV-euU8hZGM

Popcode natural feature recognition SDK

lester — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:00:12 +0000

Augmented reality and natural feature recognition are hot topics at the moment, particularly amongst mobile developers. Thanks to companies like Metaio with their easy to use junaio glue platform we are starting to see even more solutions finding their way to market.

To keep the guys over at Metaio on their toes, Popcode is a new free SDK that has been released by Extra Reality Limited here in the UK. The Popcode SDK contains everything that a developer needs to build their own natural feature recognition applications for the Popcode client available on: Google Nexus One, the HTC Desire and the Samsung Galaxy S. They are adding support for more devices so the list will continue to grow.

Currently the SDK is in preview but it does look like fun and easy to use. Check out video below of the interactive tee-shirt for an idea of the powerful features the SDK contains.

For more information about Popcode and to download the SDK, visit their website: www.popcode.info

Interactive tee-shirt demo

Building your first Popcode application

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5f6cbiyGCA

Metaio change the game with junaio glue

lester — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:46:36 +0000

Whenever I talk to someone about augmented reality, the first thing they say is, “have you seen the Smart Grid demo?” or “have you seen the Lego kiosk demo?”. The answer is always an emphatic yes, but it’s funny how it’s these two demos that stick in everyone’s mind. While out in San Francisco last month we managed to drop by the office of the guys at Metaio (who, incidentally were behind both the GE Smart Grid and Lego solutions), and find out what they were working on. One of the projects we saw first hand was junaio glue.

junaio started life as the first ever augmented reality social networking browser but has evolved into a world browser in the same vein as Wikitude and Layar. junaio has still kept its social networking roots with a strong emphasis on sharing, but like Wikitude and Layar, users are able to perform local search, or view channels to find information that matters nearby.

Since Wikitude and Layar already had a big head start in the world browser market, Metaio has had some catching up to do. But with Apple finally opening up access to the live camera data, Metaio is laying down the gauntlet to other augmented reality browsers by being the first to offer natural feature tracking functionality as part of their junio browser.

No doubt, you have also seen the Lego kiosk demo where holding up a Lego box to the kiosk in the store renders a 3D animation of what you can build by buying the product. This is exactly the kinds of solutions that junaio is enabling mobile developers to build using their new ‘junaio glue’. Better yet, developers taking advantage of this technology are able to either build their own channel for the junaio browser, or white label the solution.

junaio glue in action

In September 2009 Apple finally allowed developers to publish applications that used the camera to display content to the user, since then we have seen an average of 12 augmented reality browsers published each month to the Apple App Store. I firmly believe that while iOS3 represented the year of the augmented reality browser, iOS4 will become the year of the natural feature tracking application, and this time next year we’ll have natural feature tracking applications for all the following:

Point your camera at text and see an instant translation
Use your camera to view a product box/log and see that product come to life
View movie trailers just by looking at the poster with your phone
Viewing the actual food dishes at a restaurant by point the camera at the menu
Instructional videos for DIY. Point your camera at the object you are trying to build and see the next step
Car repair, point your phone at the flat tyre and see instruction how to replace the wheel

The future for natural feature tracking is only limited by developer’s imagination, so if you’re a developer, take a look at the junaio glue developer page to find out how you get started.

The junaio application is available for the iPhone and Android.

Rock’em Sock’em Robots

lester — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:35:12 +0000

Android owners have been able to enjoy natural feature recognition applications for sometime. Recently Zenitum where showing off their Space InvadAR game, but beyond that, for some strange reason despite developers having full access to the camera we haven’t seen a huge number of natural feature recognition games arriving on the platform. I always find that strange since iPhone developers number one gripe at Apple has been the lack of access to the camera API. (which has been granted now).

Qualcomm have been working with Mattel to produce a rather nice game based on Rock’em Sock’em Robots. Print the game board and point your camera to take control of a boxing robot. Of couse being an augmented reality game you can move your device around the game board to view your fighter from different angels, if your friends have the game then you can both play over Bluetooth.

MobileCruch have a rather nice write up which you can find here, and they have put together a video of the game which you can view below.

Rock’em Sock’em Robots

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm6jExcWr9s

Awesome Cube Solving Robot

lester — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:26:48 +0000

While writing about the augmented reality Sudoku puzzle solve this morning it reminded me of a presentation we gave a few months back. At the time we were showing a Rubik’s Cube solver for the iPhone. The concept was the same, take a picture of all the sides and the mobile app processes for a few seconds and gives you the solution.

Nitin, our resident Android/Symbian expert was quick to point out a better solution that involved augmented reality and Lego existed. The result is a mobile powered robot that can solve a cube in less than 25 second.

Speedcuber

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylFb4pqAUd8

Augmented Reality Puzzle Solver

lester — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:05:49 +0000

If you are stuck trying to solve a Sudoku puzzle or want to show your friends just how quickly you can solve one, then try this handy mobile augmented reality Sudoku puzzle solver. Just take a picture of the puzzle and let AR do the rest.

Android owners you’ll be pleased to hear that we are not neglecting you this morning, there are solutions available for both the iPhone and the Android.

Rather than provide links to a download, just search the respective stores, you’ll find free as well as paid applications.

Sudoku Solver

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt96OomJY9A

Tagwhat Augmented Reality Social Networking

lester — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:07:59 +0000

Tagwhat is the latest mobile augmented reality browser to hit the iPhone and the Android. We take a ‘first look’ at the demo application available in the appstore.

Tagwhat differentiates itself from other augmented reality applications by positioning itself as an augmented reality social networking application rather than as yet another augmented reality browser providing visual search. As a social media tool, either you or someone you follow has to tag content before it appears, if it’s a restaurant you like, tag it, if not it will never appear and you wont have 100 restaurants cluttering up your view.

There is a lot to like about Tagwhat. Your tags are private and are only shared with people you invite, so not everyone is going to know where you live, where you work, or even where you are drinking right now. If you value your privacy then this is obviously going to be a big plus point. You can also tag directly from your mobile device so if you are meeting friends you can quickly geo-tag the location, snap a photo and your location will be shared with them. Using Tagwhat they are able to get directions and navigate to your location and even leave you comments.

Because all your tags are private you’ll need to invite your friends, the more friends you have using the application the more useful it will become. Finding friends is simple thanks to the very useful ‘invite’ function that will tell you which of your Facebook and Twitter friends are using the application so you can invite and follow them.

For social networking and sharing content, inevitably comparisons will be made with other services such as Google Latitude, Junaio and Wikitude.me, but I don’t see a huge overlap with any of these, they all offer different aspects of sharing so all have their uses. I use Wikitude.me to share with the entire community and I’ll be keeping Tagwhat to share tags with friends and family.

Tagwhat is free and can be installed from the AppStore or Marketplace. I should also point out that iPhone version is very much billed as a demo version. There are some features not implemented, such as the channels feature which turns Tagwhat into a fully fledged augmented reality browser.

Tagwhat in action