king talk

The guys from imaGynize created an Augmented Driving App for your iPhone. The idea is not actually new, but it‘s interesting, that it´s working quite good. If you are often driving on highways or country roads, then you have to check this app (price: $ 2,99) with real-time object detection with up to 10 fps including the following features: Dynamic augmented reality overlays for lanes and vehicles, lane detection, lane change warning, vehicle detection and low distance information.

The system is designed to work in good lighting conditions during daytime for visible lane markings on highways and country roads and for detection of regular cars. For operation, a fix mount is required. You have to follow the safety notes and consider the setup instructions for optimum performance.

Tired of shooting at virtual people? Come on kids. Daddy got a new toy for your iPhone. Finally you can blast your friends… This game is based on the color tracking method like we used it for Augmented Pong. After you defined the opponents shirt color you can go on playing. I like the idea of using the iPhone as tool which engages you to run through your city instead of sitting at home and playing the Sudoku App…

via engadget mobile

Alright, so here’s our future according to Nokia: we are wearing clunky bracelets at night, are permanently stalked by some weird guy and our communication will heavily rely on emoticons. On the plus side: we won’t have to readjust our behavior because data structures will still be navigated using text menus.

So even though Nokia deserves appreciation for coming out with a future scenario in the first place, it is sad that they apparently didn’t have the will to make it coherent. To me, it seams like they had a great vision which then has been gradually watered down in order to make everyone in the company somewhat happy. This is sad, but it’s even sadder that this kind of creative destructivism is something quite common in todays industry.

(via Jens Franke)

UPDATE: Woah, vimeo totally crapped the quality of the video! Just try out LogoSpace and see for yourself.

Some of you might recall our little AR-Pong, where we explored color tracking. Now we created this little experiment with motion tracking. What’s happening is that the logo follows the motion on the screen, while newly born particles always flock towards the center of the motion. It’s not a multi blob tracker (it only detects one center of motion), but it’s a nice thing to play with.

We’ve been using a modified Version of Justin Windles tracker and some stuff from Allen Chou.

You can try it yourself – provided you have a webcam – right here.

Nearest Tube is one of the first augmented reality apps created for the new Apple iPhone 3GS. 2D tube maps are so oldschool! This one tells you where the nearest tube station will be directly displayed in your environment by using the new video and compass function. When you load the app, holding it flat, all 13 lines of the London underground are displayed in coloured arrows.

By tilting the phone upwards, you will see the nearest stations: what direction they are in relation to your location, how many kilometres and miles away they are and what tube lines they are on. If you continue to tilt the phone upwards, you will see stations further away, as stacked icons. If you are owner of a new iPhone 3GS and you´re living in Chicago, Washington DC, Paris, Berlin, Madrid or Barcelona you can join beta testing by sending an email to contactus[at]acrossair[dot]com with your iPhone UDID Identifier code and your city location.

We think that the iPhone is the perfect mobile hardware for projects like this. Six years after the Handheld Augmented Reality project at TU Graz started their pioneer work with projects like the Invisible Train, a real multi-user Augmented Reality application for handheld devices, this technology enters the mass market.

After marketing guys have found out, it could be cool to map products as rotating 3D object on markers it´s time for the real apps. It´s time for applications which help us out during our everyday life. Where is the next hospital? Where can I find a cheap accomodation? Where are my friends now?…