Augmented Reality becomes Reality, OH GOD, IT'S A GUNDAM Options

[Toloran]

I swear, we're going to reach 2072 tech LONG before that date. Someone else recently on this forum posted a link to an article about how a mentally controlled cyberarm was going into human test trials. However, this bit of news is even more interesting: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2...rpart-on-iphone

Although it is seemingly unrelated anime news, there is one key bit:

Yahoo! Japan says that it will release the free augmented-reality app "soon," and the app will display the virtual Zaku II from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m every day until September 30. The "life-size" Zaku II will only appear if the camera on the iPhone 3GS or 4 with the app is pointed at a spot next to the Gundam statue. (The app uses the newer iPhone models' magnetic compass sensor and assisted GPS system to pinpoint its direction and location.) The app can also display a smaller virtual Zaku II (pictured below) anywhere that the user places a printable marker template.

So yes, there is an AR app in real life now.

[Trevalier]

Not to add to your future shock, but there have been real augmented reality applications for years now. I tinkered with some crude ones as far back as the late 90s. (They used squares of paper with symbols on them as markers for overlaying video of people around a conference table.) I've seen several AR apps of various levels of sophistication for smartphones in the last year.

[suoq]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EA8xlicmT8 for a video of Wikitude. It basically does the same thing as the Gundum app, only textually instead of an image, and in a lot more places.

I'm a bit of a luddite so I like my Augmation a bit more divorced from reality. (I like to keep my map separate from my territory.) To this end, I use droid software like Google Places for my AR. (Some people use Layar. I've found Google places, being a bit more divorced from reality suits my taste better). Either way, it's all the same basic technology. It just uses the GPS to know where you are and the directional sensors to know which direction the camera on the phone is facing.

For slightly slower than realtime AR, I tend to use software like Barcode Scanner and (occasionally) Google Goggles. They're fast, but they're simply not capable of scanning video in realtime on my phone's processor, so it's take a photo, scan a photo, return results, all without leaving the app. (It also means I don't have to keep the phone looking at the item in question while I read the results.)

Edit: I just remembered another favorite that worked a little differently. http://www.bestbuymoviemode.com/
Best Buy Movie Mode is an app that translates what the minions are saying during the end credits of Despicable Me. My kids were amazed by it.

[X-Kalibur]

The Zaku II is not a Gundam, it is a Mobile Suit.

[KarmaInferno]

Yah, Gundams apparently need a special operating system to make them Gundams.

That and two eyes.




-karma

[X-Kalibur]

Yah, Gundams apparently need a special operating system to make them Gundams.

That and two eyes.




-karma

That was only the Gundam Wing Zero and the Gundam Epyon that had the Zero-System. The Gundams are specifically (with few exceptions) to have been made from Gundarium Alloy or some such nonsense.

An exception goes to Gundam 00 where the Gundams were powered by a specific engine that utilized light photons for movement systems, shields, and weapon power. Those were the GN or Gundam Drives. I could just wiki this stuff to double check it... but meh.

[KarmaInferno]

Oh, right.

I just remember that Two Eyes = Gundam, One Eye = Not a Gundam.



-karma

[Xahn Borealis]

This Wikitude is what they call an AR browser, yes?

[emouse]

The addition of a gyroscope in iPhone 4 and future phones should make the AR browser experience smoother and more accurate.

[suoq]

This Wikitude is what they call an AR browser, yes?

<- Google searches "AR Browser"
<- Sees lots of references to Layar.

Yep. I think so. Same basic thing.

[Fabe]

That was only the Gundam Wing Zero and the Gundam Epyon that had the Zero-System. The Gundams are specifically (with few exceptions) to have been made from Gundarium Alloy or some such nonsense.

An exception goes to Gundam 00 where the Gundams were powered by a specific engine that utilized light photons for movement systems, shields, and weapon power. Those were the GN or Gundam Drives. I could just wiki this stuff to double check it... but meh.

The Gundamium alloy thing was only in Gundam wing I believe, in Gundam seed the name comes from the OS that some of them used,the "General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver Synthesis System" as for the original classic series I'm not sure why they called it a gundam.