Augmented Planet » Install

Augmented Reality for Nokia owners

lester — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:03:01 +0000

Regular readers will be forgiven for thinking that augmented reality is exclusive to iPhone or Android devices with Nokia owers having very little to shout about. While it’s true there are a lot of excellent applications for the iPhone/Android, Nokia users do have a few rays of sunshine so let me give you a few things to install and try over the weekend.

Nokia have an application called Point & Find which has been available in beta for sometime now. Using Point & Find you can point the phones camera at a movie poster and get the option to either see a trailer or book tickets. You can scan barcodes and get product prices, eg you’re in a store and see something you like, you can scan the barcode and see how much it costs online. In reality it’s actually very cumbersome with you having to work your way though numerous menus to narrow down the product. Nokia recently added a new feature called City View (the augmented reality bit). I have tested it but haven’t found any tags where I live, but the offical blurb on Nokia’s website says:

Tag real-life objects around you, such as restaurants and stores. Provide more information about the item or send the user to a web link. All users will be able to pick up the information and instructions you give when they point their camera phone at your tagged objects.

Point & Find

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqW5zBTYbt0

Point & Find supports most Nokia devices - take a look at the website for the full list
Install from Nokia’s website here – http://pointandfind.nokia.com/

ARound from Sequence Point supports a number of Nokia devices and provides the user with information on their surroundings including who is tweeting and what’s around. If you have a Nokia device and want Layar or Wikitude then this is the closest you can get. ARound is also extensible so if you are a developer you can add in your own layers. ARound is still in beta but if you have one the supported devices then its well worth taking a look.

ARound

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZRy52qSnQI

ARound supports N97, Nokia 6210 Navigator, 6710 Navigator, 6720 Classic, 5730 XpressMusic, N86
Install from Sequence Point’s website – http://seqpoint.com/beta-labs/69

If you’re the games type then CellaGameshave a few games for Nokia devices that are well worth giving a go.

AR Tower Defense

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyWVH6jkDHg

AR Tower Defense supports N95, N82, E50, E51, N93, N96 - take a look at the website for a full list
Install from CellaGames website here – http://cellagames.com/artd.html

AR Rougelike

www.youtube.com/watch?v=67bxQmEl7tQ

AR Rougelike supports N95, N82, E50, E51, N93, N96 - take a look at the website for a full list
Install from CellaGames website here – http://cellagames.com/arogue.html

Feel free to share any other applications you know of with the community.

Augmented Reality Driving Applications

lester — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:13:34 +0000

Two driving applications for Android users this morning.

I noticed a few days back, AugmentedTimes reported an update to the Wikitude application aptly named ‘Wikitude drive AR navigation system’. The new update gives turn by turn instructions and POI navigation to Android users.

Unlike a TomTom or other GPS device which gives directions overlayed on a map, Wikitude overlays the directions on reality via the phones camera making it much easier to see the instructions. This should solve those GPS problems where you are told to turn left but not exactly sure which left you are meant to take.

I was a little bit worried about the idea of using augmented reality in a car for navigation, the whole idea of looking at a small screen for instructions was a bit scary, however as long as it is properly mounted to the dashboard and you don’t drive down the road with it in your hands then there is not really that much difference with a traditional GPS device.

The new update from Wikitude represents a big change for the application which previously offered information on points of interest, I’m wondering if the change is largely due to the success of Layar. Either way it’s a very compelling update that would actually make me buy an Android device so excellent job.

Wikitude drive AR navigation system – in action

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReH9dmqfOqA

While on the subject of traffic navigation, readers in Toronto take a look at the augmented realty Traffic View application.

Traffic View gives you access to over 250 traffic cameras directly from your Android device to help you see what the traffic is like and plan your journey. You can either view the cameras in advance to see what the traffic is doing and plan your route, or as you are driving the application will show you what the traffic is like ahead of you by showing you the view from the next traffic camera. It’s a fantastic idea, how many times have you been stuck in a traffic jam just after you passed a turn off? I am not in Canada so unable to test it, if you have tried it I am sure we would all like to know your experience.

Traffic View – in action

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqlwZK9e5UI

Both applications are available in the Android Marketplace

Heavens Above Augmented Reality

lester — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:43:47 +0000

Morning all. A couple of demos today.

Have you ever tried to install a satellite dish? It’s not difficult, to some degree it’s just fix it to the wall and point it in the same direction as all the other dishes. The tricky bit is getting a good signal, for that you ether need a sat meter or a sat bleeper (it bleeps louder when you have a good signal). As you can imagine space is littered with satellites, so why you think you are locked on to the right satellite and have a great signal you might be picking up the signal of it’s neighbour so end up wondering why you have no tv channels.

Just like the numerous augmented reality applications that enable you to find the nearest underground stations, you can now get hold of a mobile augmented reality application for the iPhone that shows you the positions of the satellites. The application is from DishPointer and is great if you want to install a satellite or just annoy people at BBQs, either way it makes a great demo

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AFtcgYRcu4

Sky Maps

If knowing the location of satellites is not your thing, then how about an application that tells you the names of the constellations and the locations of the planets. If you have a Google Android smartphone then they have an application called Sky Maps that will do just that. Point it at the sky, set a reference point and then see all the heavenly bodies revealed.

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

Install

iPhone users can isntall the DishPointer application from here.
Android users can install the Sky Maps application from here.

87 Layers And Counting

lester — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:20:21 +0000

A quick congratulations to the guys at Layar today who have now taken their product global and have an amazing 87 layers available for their augmented reality browser.

If you are not familiar with Layar, Layar shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone (augmented reality to you and me). There is an older post here that will get you up to speed.

We have a lot of new reads to the blog recently (welcome), so if your new and your trying to get up to speed on the hype behind augmented reality, imagine you see an advertisement in a magazine for new car. You could of course phone the car dealer, or using augmented reality you could point your phones camera at the special marker embedded with the advertisement and get directions to your nearest dealer. Sounds great right? That’s one of the many layers available.

From Magazine to Mazda in 80 Seconds.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0okCzYp6s34

The Mazda layer is just one 87 different layers available, using Layar you can find everything from houses for sale to the location of the nearest hospitals so if you have an Android device you’re bound to find something interesting. Browse the catalog for the full list of available layers.

The Layar application is available to download from the Android market.

Finally, for more information about Layar take a look at 10 minute video presented by Raimo van der Klein, CEO of Layar, as he announces the new global release of the Layar Reality Browser and walks through the new features. You can watch the video here.

Augmented Reality Demos To Install And Try

lester — Fri, 01 May 2009 08:52:57 +0000

The most impressive augmented reality demos I have seen to date have come from the guys at HIT Lab NZ. Not only have they been doing fantastic stuff, but unlike a lot of the demos out there which are just YouTube videos, HIT Lab’s give you applications to install and play around with.

So if you want to impress a few of your friends this weekend, how about installing a few of these.

Demos for your mobile

Virtual Tennis (1 or 2 player)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Ya293u34c

Install

Supports

Nokia N82
Nokia N95
Nokia N95-3NAM
Nokia N95-8GB
Nokia 6120 Classic
Nokia 6121 Classic
Nokia N81
Nokia N81 8GB

Virtual Fanta Crew – 3 characters to chose from
Try changing the size of the marker for bigger or smaller characters

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIWV_Myx2dc

Install

Supports

Nokia N82
Nokia N95
Nokia N95-3NAM
Nokia N95-8GB
Nokia 6120 Classic
Nokia 6121 Classic
Nokia N81
Nokia N81 8GB
Nokia 6124 Classic
Nokia 6110 Navigator
Nokia 6210 Navigator
Nokia N79
Nokia N85
Nokia N92
Nokia N93
Nokia N93i
Nokia N71
Nokia N75
Nokia N76
Nokia N77

Demo for your desktop

ARTetris

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yDylS_Q4Lo

Install

Wikitude and the augmented reality hype cycle

lester — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:13:14 +0000

Floating around on Twittersphere this morning is a very interesting article on the augmented reality hype cycle. (read here)

The article that breaks down the technology in to 4 stages:

Level 0 – Physical World Hyper Linking
Level 1 – Marker Based AR
Level 2 – Markerless AR
Level 3 – Augmented Vision

Right now we are around level 2 with mobile applications beginning to use markerless AR. A good example or markerless AR is the Wikitude application for the Google Android G1 device.

It looks like a great application if you are a traveller.

Wikitude
Wikitude is a mobile travel guide for the Android platform based on location-based Wikipedia and Qype content. It is a handy application for planning a trip or to find out about landmarks in your surroundings; 350,000 world-wide points of interest may be searched by GPS or by address and displayed in a list view, map view or cam view.

Wikitude AR Travel Guide Part 1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EA8xlicmT8

Wikitude AR Travel Guide Part 2

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpaJBu4BEuA

More
Application home page
Install from here

At the moment the Google Android device appears to be hogging all the augmented reality limelight. With some of the new super powerful Symbian based devices coming out later this year I hope all that will change.

Have you used it?
If you have used the Wikitude application? I’m sure we’d all be intrested in hearing more