SR CommLink for real ?, Augmented Reality is nearly here. Options

[Synner667]

I mentioned and linked to a news article, on my own website, about a piece of software that allows you to look through a phone's camera and see the realworld - with extra information....
...And thought I'd mention it here, too.

It allows you to add information about something, or somewhere - either as a note, a voice message, etc...
...Which someone else going to the same location and pointing their camera at the same thing will see.

It looks stupid, walking around and looking at everything though the phonescreen...
...But it is a good glimpse of the future, augmented reality overlayed on the realworld.

This software is only for the iPhone, but makes good use of the screen size and the touchscreen controls.

The article has a YouTube link showing it in use.

Quite amazing, actually !!

[Steampunk]

It's a start at least.

[hobgoblin]

why oh why did they use the iphone in that video?!

also, to be true AR, it got to be using a HMD...

sadly, most of those like gordi's visor then fashionable sunglasses (not that i have anything positive to say about current bug eye sized sunglasses)...

or maybe we just need to make things like bluetooth handsfree's fashionable? right now it seems to be the last thing anyone fashion conscious wants to be seen using...

[Delta56]

A friend and I had an idea related to the geordi visors, in truth making a personal cyberdeck.

We were going to start with the ThinkGeek PAN hoodie (enough pockets and space and still be inconspicuous) and using the hud goggles from the company Vuzix, and a micropc like the ASUS EEE laptop model. Recently, Dell put their foot into the small laptop world with the Dell Mini 9. Same idea as Asus's but a little bit cheaper and more mass produced. Assuming you could port the software over, and with a little bit of creative engieering you could just have the webcam extend on a wire up to the glasses and boom.

Cyberdeck with AR and it keeps you warm!

[hobgoblin]

why go with a eeepc when you can use a oqo?

http://www.oqo.com/intl/

and the idea have been touched on at the vuzix forum (hell, the moment i bumped into the vuzix page i had the same one), but known as gargoyle (from snow crash).

anyways, it may be issues, like when one wants to shift focus from close up to far ahead.

thats why display glasses work so much better, as the 3D effect of virtual objects can be simulated on the glasses themselves. but they are not really showing the real world, they are just overlaying it. think of it as a transparent LCD screen or similar...

[Delta56]

why go with a eeepc when you can use a oqo?

http://www.oqo.com/intl/

and the idea have been touched on at the vuzix forum (hell, the moment i bumped into the vuzix page i had the same one), but known as gargoyle (from snow crash).

anyways, it may be issues, like when one wants to shift focus from close up to far ahead.

thats why display glasses work so much better, as the 3D effect of virtual objects can be simulated on the glasses themselves. but they are not really showing the real world, they are just overlaying it. think of it as a transparent LCD screen or similar...

...Because I didn't know about it o.o

I... I think I need to make a few calls. One of which to my bank for a balance check.

[Synner667]

Instead of starting a completely new thread about this...
...Here's a story of some Dutch developers creating an appication for the Android platform that augments the reality seen through your mobile phone's screen.

From the website I got the story from, complete with video...

"If you caught the Copper Robot show on Sunday or any of our recent talkcasts, you may have heard me yammering at length about the possibilities for using the iPhone 3G S in enhanced or augmented reality applications. After the dynamic demo of compass-enhanced Google Street View on the Android Dream, the news of a magnetometer included with the 3G S -- allowing the phone to determine its direction with respect to the real world, along with position (GPS/SkyHook) and orientation/acceleration (accelerometer) -- starts to make geeks drool with eagerness for practical heads-up displays or browsable views of the world.

Here it comes, folks. As noted over at 9to5Mac, the Layar app from Dutch developer SPRXmobile will get Android phones into the realm of science fiction X-ray specs when it comes out at the end of this month. Point your phone across the street to see what houses are for sale, which bars are offering happy hour specials, or where the nearest ATM might be. A live, animated overlay points out the key locations and moves with your camera view. It's tough enough to describe, so I've got the video in the second half of this post -- but the effect is impressive. The previously-announced Wikitude app gives a travel guide the same augmented treatment for Android."

[Caine Hazen]

Yeah, I noticed that the specs were on gizmodo and engadget on this as well... it can be put to use on a Pre, an iPhone, or on an Andriod phone with the magnometor and the GPS functionality. I imagine we're going to start seeing a tipping scale with the announcement of dual core ARM chips as well. the Comm is coming along nicely (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Chibu]

why oh why did they use the iphone in that video?!

also, to be true AR, it got to be using a HMD...

sadly, most of those like gordi's visor then fashionable sunglasses (not that i have anything positive to say about current bug eye sized sunglasses)...

or maybe we just need to make things like bluetooth handsfree's fashionable? right now it seems to be the last thing anyone fashion conscious wants to be seen using...

Point #1: Bluetooth is definitely already fashionable, especially in the business sector.

Point #2: No one would wear a visor, we're not cyberpunk enough. Though http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10261907-1.html could work in the mean time. Add some bluetooth (with added earbud of course) and you've got yourself a deal. EDIT: can I get one for the windshield of my car please?

[hobgoblin]

Point #1: Bluetooth is definitely already fashionable, especially in the business sector.

biz is biz and casual is casual i fear...

tho i guess it could be a "hipster" thing...

[Chibu]

biz is biz and casual is casual i fear...

tho i guess it could be a "hipster" thing...

I'd say you're probably right. There was a time (which has thankfully past) when I worked at Starbucks... And well, there were very many people that seemed to love using them, especially while ordering. It was rather annoying. Ah well. But I hope they don't get too popular, really.

[KCKitsune]

What they need to do is get THIS technology to be powered off of the bioelectricity of a person and then implant it as an Intraocular Lens. You get to see the data and no one would be the wiser.

EDIT: Nokia just came up with something that can allow those contacts to power themselves:

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/143945

Getting power from the ambient EM in the atmosphere... awesome!

[Mirilion]

http://hackaday.com/2009/03/10/usb-finger/

[Shadowfox]

A friend and I had an idea related to the geordi visors, in truth making a personal cyberdeck.

We were going to start with the ThinkGeek PAN hoodie (enough pockets and space and still be inconspicuous) and using the hud goggles from the company Vuzix, and a micropc like the ASUS EEE laptop model. Recently, Dell put their foot into the small laptop world with the Dell Mini 9. Same idea as Asus's but a little bit cheaper and more mass produced. Assuming you could port the software over, and with a little bit of creative engieering you could just have the webcam extend on a wire up to the glasses and boom.

Cyberdeck with AR and it keeps you warm!

This is one of the projects I'm trying to do.

Here's my idea:

Build everything custom, which means no internal keyboard, no internal screen, simply outputs for the Vuzix glasses (and I'm fairly sure you can have bluetooth if they come out with the HUD glasses soon.)


OH, and check these out: http://www.vuzix.com/iwear/products_wrap920av.html

If this does what it says it does, AND COMES WITH AN ATTACHMENT FOR VIDEO AND AUGMENTED REALITY SHIT, I'm going to shit my pants.

[Blade]

why go with a eeepc when you can use a oqo?

I'd rather go with something like a Pandora: lighter, more pocketable and more battery time and the CPU should be powerful enough for the computations.
I'd also suggest you wait for the next Vuzix glasses which should be able to mix virtual object on top of the real world (and will have head-tracking and stereo cameras accessories). I prefer to see the world through my ultra-HD/high contrast ratio natural eyes than through some shitty webcam.

[KCKitsune]

What they need to do is get THIS technology to be powered off of the bioelectricity of a person and then implant it as an Intraocular Lens. You get to see the data and no one would be the wiser.

EDIT: Nokia just came up with something that can allow those contacts to power themselves:

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/143945

Getting power from the ambient EM in the atmosphere... awesome!

Sorry for quoting my own post, but I didn't want my update to get lost in the background noise.

[Chibu]

Ok, first off, the Pandora looks pretty cool. And with a price tag of $330, it seems like it's a pretty good little machine. However...

It is by far the most powerful handheld in the world both in terms of raw CPU power and 3D graphics capability, it will be able to handle things such as Firefox3 or Quake3 with ease.

What's that all about? Who uses Quake 3 as an example of how 'good' a product is? It was release 10 years ago, and it can easily be played at full on the computers that people throw away because they can't do anything useful anymore. It has AMD K6-2 listed as a good processor to have to play it... Now don't get me wrong, the K6-2 is probably my favorite processor (yes, I have a favorite processor, I'm cool like that lol) but, it's not really 'good' anymore.

I guess the people at OpenPandora are either not considering their product to be in the same class as the oqo 2+, or that they've never heard of it. The Model 2+ has 2GB ram, and a 1.8ghz processor, just to name a few things. However, the Model 2+ is about 5 times the price of the pandora, so it's not like I'm ever going to buy one (in fact, I'm not sure they actually retail them anymore, i couldn't find a like to their store on their site). So, you win some you lose some.

All that being said, the Pandora does look really cool, even if they are a bit dramatic about it. (Quake 3 ftw!)

[Blade]

That's partly due to the lack of update of the page (claiming that last year was ok, now it does sound ridiculous). The Pandora's still powerful, though.
It's powered by the OMAP3530, similar to the 3430 used by the Pré and the iPhone 3GS which is a quite powerful 'system on a chip' (CPU/GPU/DSP in the same chip). I guess Quake 3 isn't the best it can handle (some people talk about Doom 3, but since the engine hasn't been outsourced yet, we can't be sure).

It's hard to compare the raw power with the oqo2+, since the Pandora is ARM based and the oqo is x86 but in any case they aren't exactly in the same product class.

[Chibu]

That's partly due to the lack of update of the page (claiming that last year was ok, now it does sound ridiculous). The Pandora's still powerful, though.
It's powered by the OMAP3530, similar to the 3430 used by the Pré and the iPhone 3GS which is a quite powerful 'system on a chip' (CPU/GPU/DSP in the same chip). I guess Quake 3 isn't the best it can handle (some people talk about Doom 3, but since the engine hasn't been outsourced yet, we can't be sure).

It's hard to compare the raw power with the oqo2+, since the Pandora is ARM based and the oqo is x86 but in any case they aren't exactly in the same product class.

Yeah, I definitely agree that they are really different kinds of machines. I haven't been keeping up on processor tech for the past few years, so I don't actually know how the two compare. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've not read any papers or reports about ARM chips =( I should probably get around to that someday... And yeah, I was just commenting on the silly description, it actually looks really good, especially for the price (even though it's still more than I can spend on something like that). If anyone around here ends up getting one, I'd like to know if you like it.

Anyway, Tech is moving along pretty nicely these days. I'm pretty happy with the progress we (as in humanity) are making.