Augmented Planet » Demos

String OJ Demo

lester — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 10:38:03 +0000

I went to a String AR drinks evening in London a month or so ago. Since then I have been eagerly awaiting the launch of the SDK as I’m sure once it is released it’s going to give rise to some really interesting AR games and demos. One of the demos that I saw that really caught my eye was the Orange carton demo. Obvious the demo is heavy on the eye candy but when you see this live its hard not to get excited.

There is currently no update on the release date of the tools, when I enjoyed my beers with the guys I thought the release was imminent. The website gives the impression of imminence so keep your eye on www.poweredbystring.com which will not doubt be updated soon.

String OJ Demo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-wU45knkmc

String AR Demos You Need To Try

lester — Mon, 16 May 2011 09:30:43 +0000

Having just finished a post about the amazing String AR SDK I wanted to follow up with a post for those of you who are not developers. If you are looking for some cool augmented reality demos that you can play around with and obtain the much coveted demo God status, take 10 minutes to download the String AR iPhone (iPad) application and prepare to amaze your friends and colleagues. These demos are guaranteed to provide that AR wow factor.

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.

Holoplanets AR demo

lester — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:36:02 +0000

HIT Lab NZ, one of my favourite innovating augmented reality companies has just posted a new video to showcase their Holoplanets interactive science exhibit that teaches users about the planets in the solar system.

With the demo, each planet is identified by its own unique marker which when presented to the webcam displays information about the planet.

I don’t have a link to the demo yet but you can get the idea from the video.

Holoplanets

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjdbWBGNL64

Explore the Taj Mahal with augmented reality

lester — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:11:56 +0000

If you are new to augmented reality and looking to explore the possibilities on what the technology allows you to do, then take a look at this demo from Source Bits.

For newbies, just print the special pattern and hold it up to your webcam. You’ll then be able to view one of the most famous monuments in the world in 3D.

To get started just visit http://www.sourcebits.com/artoy/

AR Door Demo Show Reel

lester — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:13:12 +0000

The guys over at AR Door in Moscow have put together an interesting show reel on some of the projects they have been working on.

Some interesting demos here covering everything from retail to mobile.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHG0nByy3Zs

Win An Augmented Reality CV Makeover

lester — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:15:39 +0000

If you have been job hunting recently, you’ll know that having a CV that stands out from the crowd is ultra important. It’s amazing how little time the recruiter spends reading your carefully crafted document. Honestly, If I get one more email about an urgent SAP programming role I’ll scream.

David Wood, one the co-founders of Symbian recently teamed up with CWJobs.co.uk to create an awesome augmented reality CV. The CV is a one and a half minute overview of David’s skills and it’s the prefect way to stand out and be different.

Take a look at the following video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=At2ABQBULwI

The only downside of course, is assuming the recruitment agent knows what to do with the marker. In my experience very few know what AR is. But having said that, I’d happy make space on my CV to include a marker.

CWJobs.co.uk are giving away the opportunity to have an augmented reality CV make over, plus £500 of Amazon vouchers. Just visit the link below and tell them why you think you should be the winner.

http://arcv.cwjobs.co.uk/augmented_reality_cv

Augmented Reality – Playing with your food

lester — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:53:56 +0000

If someone had told me back in April last year when I started this blog that I would be talking about breakfast cereal in a blog dedicated to augmented reality, I would had said they were two shredded wheat short of a breakfast. Still it’s a funny old world.

Not so long back there was a breakfast cereal that contained an augmented reality game on the back of the box. Keeping up the trend Boffswana have created a game for Saatchi & Saatchi NY and their client General Mills that enables kids to get a healthy breakfast and more importantly, 15 minutes of gaming before they go off to school.

Seriously though, the video below which I assume is the TV ad looks pretty impressive. When I go out to the US in June to speak at the are2010 event I’ll be picking up a box. (Further below is a link to play the game).

Honey Heist

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN700aMSsGs

Honeyway Train

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E1QSrbGBY0

Play Honey Defender now by visiting: honeydefender.millsberry.com (you can print a marker from the site).

Augmented Reality – The Services Of Tomorrow

lester — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:31:41 +0000

Ah the future, every futurist’s dream, with routine predictions including robots doing our house work or even taking over all our jobs and working on our behalf. I’m not really sure why I would want a robot to do my job for me, what the hell would I do? How would I earn money? Can you imagine a scenario where your robot has gambled away a month’s salary leaving you no money for food?

Personally I’m conservative when making predictions about the future, it’s easy to get carried away and over estimate the changes, particularly with augmented reality and the impact it will have on our lives.

Right now the only prediction I can make with any degree of accuracy is the wife is going to be getting a pretty crappy Easter egg. Having left the egg shopping to the last minute again, I know when I get down the supermarket today or tomorrow the best eggs will all be gone leaving me with slim pickings. I’m also pretty sure that augmented reality glasses are some years off, I expect someone will have a go at mass marketing them in the next 5 years but I think it will be at least 15 years before they are anything like useful.

I define useful as interacting with our surroundings and giving us real contextual information not just giving us a compass telling us which way is north or showing us our latest emails

While the video below is not aimed at augmented reality glasses but holographic augmented reality, a technology that would be practically impossible to provide in the video context, it is an excellent concept video nether-the-less of what kind of services that augmented reality glasses may give us access to.

Games:
Being a fan of air-hockey, I have to say that the demo in the video looks pretty compelling. Presumably you could play multi player with either a computer control character or someone in another country.

AR Air Hockey

Navigation:
I like the personal navigation icons that each user has guiding them in the right direction. As some one who gets lost even with an iPhone and Google maps, this technology can’t come soon enough.

Never get lost again with AR navigation

Email:
Ok I’m not really sold on this part, having a giant keyboard projected on to the ground, nah not for me.

Not sure thats a great place to stop and do email but...

Watch the full video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJyIuEnEecA

How far away do you think this technology is, and what type of applications would you like to see?

Find a second hand cAR: Autotrader on the iPhone

Nitin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:56:55 +0000

So I think that everyone who’s watched any TV over the last year or so have seen a whole raft of adverts such as those from CarSpotter. These companies provide you with details of vehicles by simply submitting the registration to them via SMS. They then respond via premium SMS and charge you for the information provided, typically the average value of the car and its performance.

Well this week, AutoTrader have enhanced their iPhone application by adding augmented reality and allowing users to gain similar information and do much more, see the video below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6g_1g8IRG4

Here is the iTunes description:

The Auto Trader Mobile application lets you use your iPhone’s camera to search for information about a car you like whenever and wherever you are. As well as being a new way to find out about the vehicles you like our app lets you search for similar cars for sale around you.

- Take a picture of a car’s number plate and we’ll find you Auto Trader expert reviews and technical specs to match the make and model. Isn’t that clever?

- Search for similar cars for sale around you, compare prices and models available to buy based on your location.

- Store the cars you’re interested in and any photos you’ve taken in your app’s Garage to make them easy to find later.

You can also look for cars the usual way, searching over 300,000 cars for sale on Auto Trader. Once you find the car you like it’s easy to call or email the seller straight from the app. Our iPhone app simply makes it easier to search, compare and store cars you like.

Let the world around you inspire your car search. Auto Trader – the world of cars made easy.

Here at Augmented Planet, Lester thought that this app could be the inspiration for a great game; race around with the cars that you find, search for cars of higher specs to have faster cars. If this were to be mixed with something like Ovi Maps Racing, this would be an all round AR experience – race around your local area, with cars that you have in your garage!

The application is available free from iTunes appstore here.

The scary world of augmented reality gaming

lester — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:57:05 +0000

Today’s augmented reality games are a fun affair, shoot a few aliens, blow up a few planes, or relax and put out a few fires all from the comfort of your own home. The only danger you face is banging your knee on a table as you turn around. But as technology gets more sophisticated and graphics get better, what are the implications of augmented reality games, will the technology make them to hot to handle?

Is the the future of gaming?

When I brought an xBox some years back and played Grand Theft Auto III for the first time, I thought that some people would have problems separating real life from the game, or at least use it as an excuse in their defence come their day in court. Sure enough a few people went out on violence sprees and did exactly that and as a result the use of violence in video games came under the spotlight.

I love computer games as much as the next man but it’s going to be a scary world when computer games have photorealistic graphics and are blended with augmented reality. Take a look at the following video:

The future of AR gaming?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJItdmumxYY

While it looks cool, (tell me you are not dreaming of AR Quake right now?) what are the implications for games here? On one hand you can’t halt the progress of video gaming because the graphics and therefore the violence gets too real, on the other hand will augmented reality gaming lead to an increase in violence because some people are unable to separate the two?

Augmented Reality Toys For Boys

lester — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:19:32 +0000

If I won the lottery apart from a new Porsche, Ferrari, and Lamborghini I’d have a fleet of robots.
Every day my garden would be mowed by robotic lawnmowers that would come out, cut the grass and then return to their base station. Each room in the house would have a vacuum cleaner robot that comes out at 3am does a bit of hovering (quietly) before going back to it’s base stations to recharge.

Of course I would want a Rovio as well to act as my home security. If your not familiar with a Rovio, it’s a mobile web-cam that you can control over the web. Put the Rovio somewhere in the house, disappear somewhere exotic on holiday and at anytime you can connect up to the device and view the cam. Better yet you can control it and drive around the house to make sure the pets are OK or check that your TV is still where you left it.

So we have remote control robot with a web-cam, wouldn’t it be great if…

Way ahead of you with that one. LinceoVR is a set of tools that enable developers to build augmented reality content, using their SDK a mash-up has been created that allows the Rovio web-cam to recognise markers turning the robot into a games platform.

Check out this video and I’m sure it will be on your wish list.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2WeRfrfUM

Ultimate Guide To iPhone Augmented Reality Part II

lester — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:02:54 +0000

Continuing with the ultimate list of augmented reality applications for the iPhone. So far we have seen augmented reality applications that will help you find your car, get the HEX value of any colour you happen to point your camera at, track satellites and learn about the constellations and locations of the planets.

Compasses
I tested my iPhone compass against an Androids compass a few days back. Lets just say that should I find myself in the wild miles from anywhere I pray that I have a real compass with me.

Compass Apps
Reality Compass
Compass AR
AR Compass
lodestone AR Compass
TWCompass
ArCompassLite
GeoGeo
ARSensors

Various AR compass applications

Compasses don’t have to be simple NORTH, SOUTH indicators, there are a few that have real world overlays (fancy way of saying there is a small map on the screen)

VisualMap
HeadsUp navigator

When we get real augmented reality glasses no doubt it will come with a HUD, we’ll all be mini Terminators. Instantly we’ll know the location, distance and elevation of where we parked. If you can’t wait here are the HUDs that are available.

HUD displays
Theodolite
iHUD
Spyglass

Interested in mountain ranges?

Peaks
World Peaks
Peak.ar
Look Around
Panoramascope

WorldTags- see how far countries are away from your location.
Transparent Earth – ever wondered what is on the opposite site of the world from you?
Real Ski - the first augmented reality trail app for ski resorts. If you can ski down a mountain holding your iPhone in front of you and using it to navigate then you are one cool dude.
Sun Seeker Lite – when will the sun rise, when is the summer solstice? wonder no more

Still loads more application to come!

Augmented Reality And The Future Of Sport

lester — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:56:43 +0000

Some several months back I blogged about an augmented reality solution called Seer that was implemented at Wimbledon. The solution was ingenious, use your Android device to find out how long the bathroom or food lines are as well as get relevant information on the games in play. Scores, statistics that type of thing all from the comfort of your seat. Not only do you know what is happening with the game but you now the perfect time to go to the bathroom and grab a hotdog on the way back.

EYEPLY are a start-up company that are looking at changing the way we view sports by combining a similar augmented reality solution for all sporting events.

EYEPLY - The future of sport

Golf is an obvious candidate that would benefit from such a solution. If you are sitting at the 7th green is hard to know what is happening at other locations on the course, with an EYEPLY augmented reality solution you would be able to point your device in the general direction of the hole you are interested in and get up to date scores and player information on the game taking place. In the video below EYEPLY talk about solutions for baseball games, when a player steps up to the plate you are able to click on him and get his relevant stats. If you are fanatical about a sport you want to know everything about a player.

When I saw the Seer video I thought it would be fantastic if the technology could be applied to a football match. Being able to click on a player, get his stats, how far he as run, how many passes he has completed etc all live during a game would be pretty amazing. Especially when you haven’t seen that player before. I have a friend who occasionally works for various TV stations on football events overlaying the graphics that show scores and other game stats. A lot of information is tracked in real-time by various companies and is available at the touch of a button. The data is there, the question is how do you make that information available and useful to be consumed by the public.

Could this be the future of sports?

Static games like golf or tennis are somewhat easy to manage as the players exact location is not that important, but in an augmented reality world with fast paced games like football the problem is how do you track 22 players around a pitch in real-time and determine who is who? If you want to combine a Sims style icon over every player on the field then you need some pretty good tracking. Interestingly the EYEPLY guys say they are working with a company who have the tracking technology to do this so perhaps at next years world cup we’ll see some really cool augmented reality solutions.

EYEPLY Video

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtOCePI7w8c

Total Immersion: Coca-Cola Zero | Avatar Promo

Nitin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:49:33 +0000

Afternoon all, and a BIG hello from your new augmentedplanet.com blogger! I’m Nitin and I’ll be helping Lester out on the site. I look forward to bringing you news, reviews and views on everything augmented reality.

For those of you who regularly visit the site, you’ll be familiar with Total Immersion and their fantastic 3D augmented reality web demos. Their latest work is for a joint promotion of Coke Zero and the upcoming hit movie Avatar.

This is a really great example of how augmented reality can be used in marketing campaigns; coupling a massive brand, with an upcoming hit movie and new technology that has been getting a lot of mainstream press recently. The great thing about this advert, is that is shows consumers how simple augmented reality can be to engage with. I expect that soon we will be in a place where markers will be picked up by webcams as flawlessly as we see in this video, and that no additional programs will have to be installed, and started in order to engage with rich, augmented reality media.

So, without more delay, here is the video in all its augmented reality glory:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx0IAZkgEco

Augmented Reality Christmas Cards

lester — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:07:03 +0000

When I was about 12 years old, I gave my mother a blank card and wrote “Happy Christmas, Happy Birthday, valid until 2010”. That was probably the last greetings card I sent. It’s true to say I am not known as someone who sends cards, except of course the wife on Valentines Day, you don’t ignore that one twice.

Ingloble Technologies have released the first ever augmented reality greetings card service which is a dream come true to people like me. Now we can send a free greetings card that uses augmented reality and send a greetings card that will be remembered. It’s actually a really cool service and works really well, it’s bound to be sure fire hit this Christmas. Just visit www.arwishes.com to design your card, select the image and a music track, enter the recipients name and a message then hit send and you’re done.

Your recipient gets an email with clear instructions on how to view the card, eg print and hold in front of the webcam and they’ll love you forever.

If Christmas is not your thing they have cards for Birthdays and New Year.

AR Wishes Video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvgrj-iZLb0

Some Cool Educational AR Demos

lester — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:37:06 +0000

We hear all the time about how augmented reality is going to change our lives and bring the education experience to life. Everything from changing our printed books by including rich interactive multimedia to the way we experience a trip to the museum.

Proving education can be fun, New Zealand based company, MindSpace Solutions Limited have some really engaging marker based demos that are well worth a look. A couple of my favourites are: Explore a Human Heart which has some really nice effects. Using five markers, four of which represent a piece of the heart while the fifth provides information on what you see. As you combine 2 or more cards the augmented reality images interact with each other.

The other demo I really like is the Solar Explorer. Similar to the heart demo but this time each marker represents a planet, when you add two planets together they scale to reflect their comparable size.

It’s all really clever stuff.

Try the demo yourself here
Watch the Human heart video here
Watch the Solar Explorer video here

Away from markers, MindSpace Solutions also have a really Interesting approach to engaging museum visitors. The idea centres around their Digital Binoculars Stations. Digital binoculars are just like any other fix binocular station you find at tourist attractions around the world. You know the ones where you put in a few coins and you get several minutes looking at a distant object before they go dark. However these binoculars bring the world to life by playing movies or animating exhibits. The system contains rotation sensors which are able to tell the computer where the binocular station is pointing so it knows the exhibit you are looking and can play the relevant augmented reality experience. By placing the system in a strategic location in a museum it can cover many different exhibits engaging you as you look around the exhibit hall.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqLAKBX0om4

If you find yourself out in New Zealand, visit the Canterbury Museum where you can give the system a go.

Augmented Planet Event Wrap Up

lester — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:37:09 +0000

Good morning, firstly thanks to everyone who attended the Augmented Planet meet-up yesterday. I hope you had a good time and it was worth while. There was around 75 people who made the event so lots of interest in the technology. Feedback from everyone I spoke with was extremely positive, it’s something that you’d like us to do again. A few people offered to donate a venue for next time which will be fantastic, we’ll try to get a beer sponsor as well. The good news is we are looking at planning another event for April so we hope to see you again.

Thanks of course to Nitin Samani, John Wyer for helping out and of course our guest speakers Myles Peyton, James Alliban and Chris O’Shea. You’ll never know the stress me and Nitin went through until John turned up with his laptop.

If you didn’t manage to write down all the demos that I showed this is the list with links to a YouTube demo.

Hyperlinking demos
RedLaser (barcode scanner)
Bableshot (language translator)
SnapTell (product recognition)
CubeCheater (solve the Rubix Cube)
GetFugal (logo recognition)

Marker demos (links to try the demos)
Lost Valentinos (the band demo)
Twitter business cards
GE SmartGrid

Mobile demos
Layar
Wikitude
Junaio

Markerless demos
I couldn’t install the codex for this one, but this is the mobile face recognition demo I was planning on showing.
TAT
Links to speakers websites
James Alliban
Myles Peyton
Chris O’Shea

Both Nitin and John where taking photos, once they send them over I’ll put them in to Flickr and send out the link.

Next up for me, I am attending the Vodafone AppStar event tomorrow. If you are a developer and building Widgets then they have a few places left at this free event. You can find out more and register here appstaruk.eventbrite.com.

iNude The iPhone App We All Want

lester — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:05:14 +0000

Bit of a late blog today, it’s been a busy day. Most of it has been spent preparing slides and demos for next week. The rest of it has been spent in the garage trying to build some kind of rig that will support an iPhone and web-cam for the demos. Without it, it will be impossible to show any kind of live demo. I have had some kind of success, time will tell when the paint dries.

Cheers to Michael Krivicka for this entertaining video of everything we hope augmented reality will be. Very entertaining

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_AzDO_uwz8

It reminds me of a pair of x-ray specs I sent away for out of a comic when I was a kid.

Don’t do it kids, they don’t work

Best Yet Augmented Reality Business Cards

lester — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:03:40 +0000

Quick post today as I am flying out the door.

We have seen some cool augmented reality business cards in the past but this is the best example by far, the integration with Twitter is cool

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgVAF0YlF6s

I’m in the market for new business cards.

We have exceeded our ticket allocation for the Augmented Planet event next week, there is 1 ticket remaining before we go to the reserve, reserve list.

Rocking Augmented Reality Demo

lester — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:22:39 +0000

This demo is probably one of the coolest augmented reality demos I have seen for sometime, you might even say it rocks.

There has been some attempts in the past to combine augmented reality with music videos but this one is the best by far. With the Lost Valentinos augmented reality demo you print the markers and decide how the music video will look. Each marker represents an individual member of the band so you can arrange them however you see fit, make you own stage and soundings and decide the action.

Once you have your perfect music video you can upload it to share with others at their website. The YouTube video below doesn’t do the demo any justice at all so be sure to visit lostvalentinos.com and watch the introduction there. The music is actually pretty cool as well.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPbEzbyS2ik

You can have life sized band members so get printing and join the band.
http://www.lostvalentinos.com/

Top 10 Augmented Reality Concept Games – Part I

lester — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:02:43 +0000

Having just finished another xBox 360 game I’m thinking about my next game purchase. Augmented Reality has the potential to revolutionize gaming so today we’ll look at the top 10 list of augmented reality games that I really want to play. The caveat is none of these games are available, some of these are still concepts, some are in beta, and others… well have disappeared. So think of this list as my top 10 wish-list.

Top 10 in reverse order

10: Pacman

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCRN6Pu7ygg

Yes it’s retro but it makes the list because everyone who grew up in the 80s loves Pacman

9: Skreek Station

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiWBX_fc2xU

I have no idea what this game is about, it looks interesting but more importantly it looks like one of those games that could change the board game genre.

8: MemoARy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_i4hp1lYUg

The simple games are the best and what can be simpler than a game of memory.

7: Marbles

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AKgH4On65A

Another nice simple game, get the marble to the exit.

6: Roku’s Reward

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUOHfVXkUaI

I’m not sure if this one was ever designed to be a real game or just a promotion video from HP. It’s definitely a game that looks exciting and show’s some amazing possibilities for augmented reality gaming. WifiArmy are another company trying to create a game that spans LBS, augmented reality and mobile but their website has’t been updated for almost a year. Solutions that offer this level of real world interaction would seem to be some way off but it will be interesting to see how Layar’s new 3D platform develops.

New Augmented Reality Trading Cards Are Topps

lester — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:22:25 +0000

One of my first posts back in May when this blog was only a few weeks old was about the 3D trading cards from Topps. At the time Topps had released augmented reality baseball trading cards that you could interact with rather than just marvel at. The premise was you buy the Topps trading card, get it home and visit the website, hold up the trading card to your webcam and you get to play as the baseball player on the card. Pretty sweet. As a kid we use to collect trading cards and stick them in albums and that would be the end of it.

Hot off the heels of that success, Topps and Total Immersion announced today that they have extended the range of trading cards to cover football. The new Topps 3D Live football cards feature quarterbacks who pop up from specially designated cards to fire passes to virtual receivers, all the while seeking to keep away from defensive obstacles.

Every pack of Topps 2009 Football contains one interactive code card. Fans log on to www.toppstown.com, enter the Topps 3D Live section and select the player on the code card. Once the player is selected and the program is initialized, it’s time for the snap from center. When the card is held under a webcam, the quarterback springs to life, onscreen. Fans control the action with a few keystrokes.

If you’re into football, baseball or just looking for something cool then it’s well worth picking up a pack to play. Be sure to checkout the Topps 3D cards website- www.toppstown.com

Being in the UK I’m more in to soccer but I have been to an (American) football game. Many years ago I went to see the Seattle Seahawks, sadly it was 3 hours out my life that I’ll never see again but the cheerleaders were a big plus point. I also went to see a baseball game, Boston Red Sox. I was sitting above the exit and accidental kicked half a pint of Guinness over the edge. Unfortunately it landed on some guy walking up the stairs. Dripping with Guinness and red with rage he was screaming at the guy next to me blaming him for the incident why I cried with laughter. Sorry dude.

If we could have some Topps cards for soccer that would be cool.

Full press release from Topps & Total Immersion

TOPPS AND TOTAL IMMERSION HUDDLE UP,

UNVEIL ‘3D LIVE’ FOOTBALL CARDS: NFL QUARTERBACKS ON

VIRTUAL GRIDIRON COME TO LIFE VIA AUGMENTED REALITY

Cards Build on Game-Changing Introduction of 3D Live Baseball Cards,

Enable Kids and Collectors to Play Ball with the Pros at ToppsTown.com

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK (September 23, 2009) – If the prospect of being a Monday morning quarterback every day of the week grabs you, you can now get in the game, thanks to the Topps Company, Total Immersion and the magic of augmented reality.

The two companies today introduced “Topps 3D Live” football trading cards featuring star National Football League quarterbacks who come to play, at www.toppstown.com, Topps’ virtual sports community.

Building on the success of its groundbreaking 3D Live baseball cards for Topps, Total Immersion, the global leader in augmented reality, is bringing Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady, Eli and Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb and other star quarterbacks to life in 3D, for the 2009 NFL season.

Topps, the leading creator and marketer of sports and related cards, is delivering a new level of interactive gameplay via the new football cards, introducing a highly engaging experience where virtual components are merged into a live video stream in real time.

The new Topps 3D Live football cards feature quarterbacks who pop up from specially designated cards to fire passes to virtual receivers, all the while seeking to keep away from defensive obstacles.

“With 3D Live NFL cards, Topps is continuing to innovate, bringing greater interactivity to game play for fans and collectors alike,” said Steve Grimes, Chief Digital Officer, Topps. “We’re fans of augmented reality, and the quarterback game we’ve developed with Total Immersion is simple, engaging and fun.”

“Marrying football with augmented reality was a natural after the game-changing success of Topps 3D Live baseball cards,” said Bruno Uzzan, CEO and co-founder, Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com). “These cards put fans in the huddle with their favorite NFL quarterback, and demonstrate yet again how augmented reality gets the consumer into the action like nothing else. That’s the kind of engagement that AR delivers consistently.”

3D Live augmented reality football cards are the newest attraction at Topps Town, an online sports community. The site was unveiled in June 2008 as part of the iconic company’s plans to expand into the digital space. Topps was recently named the exclusive card supplier to Major League Baseball.

About The Topps Company, Inc.

Founded in 1938, Topps (www.topps.com) is a leading creator and marketer of sports and related cards, entertainment products, and distinctive confectionery. Topps entertainment products include Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA, and other trading cards, sticker album collections, and collectible games. The company’s confectionary brands include “Bazooka” bubble gum, “Ring Pop,” “Push Pop,” “Baby Bottle Pop,” and “Juicy Drop Pop” lollipops. In June 2008, Topps unveiled ToppsTown (www.toppstown.com), the first online sports community for kids, bringing the popularity of trading cards with the exploding world of web-based social networking.

About Total Immersion

Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com) is the global leader in augmented reality. Through its patented D’Fusion™ technology, Total Immersion blurs the line between the virtual world and the real world by integrating real time interactive 3D graphics into a live video stream. Leading the augmented reality category since 1999, the company maintains a presence in Europe and the U.S., and supports a network of partners worldwide

Michael Jackson in an augmented reality blog?

lester — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:49:14 +0000

Friday is the Over The Air event in London, it’s a 24 hour event dedicated to building mobile applications. I’ll attending so if you are going it would be great to meet up. Drop me an email or tweetme.

The Wikitude press release has been delayed a bit so we’ll have to hang tight a bit there before we hear more.
Talking of news, it’s the picnic in the park event in Amsterdam this week, word on the ground is Layar will announce support for Layar on the iPhone. If true expect that news to break tomorrow.

Michael Jackson Demo

The Michael Jackson Opus book which will celebrate his life and career comes with an augmented reality demo. To try it out just visit here, print the marker and hold it up to your webcam.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg3EN_MSIe0

Augmented Reality News Digest 14/9/09

lester — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:54:21 +0000

Sorry for the late blog today, I have been trying to get my CV done so I can start looking for a job. So despite my lateness let me do a bit of a news digest.

Getting a lot of attention and being billed as Google Earth meets augmented reality is this blog post and video (below). I’m not really convinced that it’s an augmented reality solution. Don’t get me wrong it looks good and I looking forward to playing around with it, but calling it augmented reality is stretching it a bit. Read the article and watch the video and decide for yourself.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPk88soc2qw

Revolution Magazine must be having an augmented reality day today, having brought us the Google Earth story above they also have a feature on the top 10 augmented reality campaigns. There isn’t really anything new in there, nothing that we haven’t been talking about for a few weeks now but that’s the power of twitter. What goes around comes around again and again.

In a similar vein this is yet another article focused on the top demos. As above there isn’t really much new but the article is interesting from a marketing and sales perspective. If you don’t have the time or patience then just watch the video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgett5Od3G4

That’s it for today, now back to the CV.

Print Is Dead Long Live Augmented Reality

lester — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:50:35 +0000

It’s hard to imagine the ways in which augmented reality will change our lives in the future, but one area ripe for picking is the printed press.

Images come alive with augmented reality

Magazines for example, the images are stationary and don’t move or change. A picture says a thousand words but video or interaction says a lot more. Skip forward several years from now and imagine picking up the newspaper and looking at the TV guide, instead of seeing a still picture of the latest episode of Lost you’d be able to see a full length trailer for tonight’s episode.

An AR marker

Of course this is possible already, marketers have been embedding AR markers into printed medium for a while. The problem is those black and white squares where the 3D content will be rendered means very little to the human eye. Unless you have some way to interpret the image into it’s augmented reality form it’s a waste of advertising space. But it’s only a matter of time before black and white markers are a thing of the past and we are able to recognise natural shapes.

Metaio are a company at the cutting edge of augmented reality development, in their latest vision video we get a flavor of how the future of print may look once these barriers have been removed. If you watch the video below you’ll notice how real shapes are used as markers making the content readable whether you are viewing with an augmented reality device or the human eye. Not only that but the augmented reality content is compelling and adds value to the product, a real marketers dream. I can’t sail but I now have an urge to buy a yacht having brought into the dream.