Another great example of augmented reality gaming, levelHead is a spatial memory game from 2007-2008 by Julian Oliver, a Madrid, Spain-based artist, inventor and teacher. Oliver’s spatial memory game consists of three colored cubes (each with unique faces), a camera, computer and projector.
levelHead utilizes a tangible interface by allowing the player’s hands to directly influence the rooms and character’s movement in the game. By tilting a block in any direction, the user moves their character from room to room through a series of interconnected doors. The block’s digital rooms bring augmented reality gaming into an Escheresque-meets-Rubik’s-Cube space that is nothing short of inspiring.
A 4D zombie video game out of Georgia Tech and Savannah College of Art and Design is causing a buzz around the idea of first-person augmented reality gaming on handheld devices. The folks at NVIDIA have created the Tegra mobile platform which is small and powerful enough to turn a handheld device into the lens that lets us explore physical space in a mind blowing way.
Gizmodo and Engadget recently blogged about Layar, one of the world’s first augmented reality browsers for cellphones. Developed by the Dutch company SPRXmobile, Layar is available for Android phones and will be available for iPhone 3GS as well.
Check out this light installation by Project Blinkenlights from 2002 in Paris. It’s a pretty amazing full-building display with a 20×26 pixel wall on which to show video and play games. You may have heard of this one before, or similar projects, but Arcade allowed everyone to play games, such as Tetris, on the building with only a cell phone. They also utilized spotlights in every window hooked up to a dimmer, allowing for a full spectrum of gray tones.
Not too shabby for 2002! I’d love to see more of these in the US, especially around conventions and shows. If you have any other examples of full-building light displays feel free to post them in the comments. Thanks @ashaman212 for the link!
It looks like augmented reality is starting to catch on with TOPPS 3D LIVE trading cards. Bring your favorite collectible pastime to life with slick animations, a true-to-life announcer’s introduction for each card and of course: mini-games! Released mid-march, 3D baseball cards are only the beginning—I’m very interested to see where this technology goes in the next few years, but I think it’s safe to say the sky is the limit.
Alright, forget other touch screens for a minute… Check out Multi-Touch G2 from PQ Labs—it will blow your mind and quite possibly burn a hole in your wallet. Take any LCD or plasma monitor, slap a Multi-Touch G2 Touch screen to the front of it and it instantly makes all of your multi touch dreams come true! This touch screen solution uses IR technology, attaches to the front of your existing monitor, plugs into a USB port and has an interpolated resolution of 4096×4096—giving you the ability to detect objects as small as 0.12 x 0.12 inches! The touch screen’s tempered glass surface sits right on top of your screen, giving you a durable and invisible surface to work with. With no bulk or special operating system required to run it, Multi-Touch G2 is inspiring.
I hear the term podcast used almost as ubiquitously as “VOD” nowadays (which is ironic because podcasting is a form of video on demand) and I wanted to take a moment to ask you, do you podcast?
There are a lot of people who seem to think that podcasting is somehow getting your content onto iPods or iPhones. It is, to an extent, but that’s not really the right reason to “podcast.” Podcasting is a method of distribution for episodic content. According to wikipedia, “The syndication aspect of the delivery is what differentiates podcasts from other files that are accessed by simple download or by streaming: it means that special clientsoftware applications known as podcatchers (such as Apple Inc.’s iTunes or Nullsoft’s Winamp) can automatically identify and retrieve new files when they are made available, by accessing a centrally-maintained web feed that lists all files associated with a particular podcast. The files thus automatically downloaded are then stored locally on the user’s computer or other device, for offline use.” Well now, that pretty much explains it.
As information becomes overwhelmingly accessible online, it also becomes exceedingly complex to digest in the short time frame in which it has our attention. If your information can’t grab someone’s attention within the first 8 seconds, you are likely to lose them. How then do we share complex ideas and large amounts of information quickly? One ingenious solution moving into the online space is information graphics or infographics for short.
Infographics are visual representations used to transmit information, data or knowledge quickly and clearly. When used online, the opportunity to include interactive elements and/or time-based information makes it even more attractive, persuasive and engaging. When knowledge is transferred so efficiently that words are oftentimes unnecessary, the result is nothing short of art. (Think Edward Tufte)
The most exciting part about using infographics online is its ability to spread virally. When an image conveys useful information, one tends to share the link with those he/she knows will be interested. Just take a look at the search results from Digg on the term “infographic” to see where we are headed.
Diggnation, the popular podcast featuring Digg.com founder, Kevin Rose, and his “sidekick,” Alex Albrecht—both arguably two of the most influential names in social media—distributed their 200th weekly episode on April 29th via their podcast RSS feed from Revision3.com. The milestone isn’t anything remarkable, but it does, in fact, solidify the podcast medium as a viable means for exclusive distribution of a popular show.
Robert Scoble, popular blogger in the tech world, writes in a post that is over 2 years old, “Actually, the fact that Diggnation is bringing in the ad dollars means I’m aiming too high. What a brilliant idea. Get together on a couch. Drink some beer. Tell people what you think. And collect cash.” Note that he mentions how over 200,000 people watch the weekly show, and that number is even higher today.
You may have seen a bit of press lately about Cramer’s partnership with Unisfair, the leading virtual events company out in the market today. Press releases are great, but they don’t really tell you what it means for you. I’ll attempt to clarify.
If you’re considering hosting a virtual event, chances are that you’ve attended one in recent months. You’ve probably realized how different they can be based on the company that is used to host them and how boring they can be based on how well the content is prepared. Yea, we realized this too.
Image of a virtual booth from the Unisfair platform.
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