Augmented Reality hits the mainstream - A darling of technorati Marvel is bringing it home
Posted by Jon Peddie on August 6th 2009 | Comments Closed
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Software Review
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3d
marvell
boeing
avatar
startrek
augmented reality
mattel
Immersive Technologies’ AR demo.
If you’ve ever seen a yellow scrimmage line appear in the field of a football game, you’ve experienced AR (Augmented Reality), which is a term credited to Thomas Caudell in 1990 when he was with Boeing. Lots of companies and universities have experimented with it, and there are games being played on mobile phones in Japan right now (you point your camera phone at a place and on your screen is superimposed a graphics image of a treasure or a monster).
At San Diego Comic-Con 2009 last week, Mattel showed a new line of action figures based on Twentieth Century Fox’s upcoming epic action-adventure film, Avatar, that incorporates AR based on Total Immersion’s i-TAG technology. This is the first time this technology has appeared in a retail toy product. The toy line will feature heroes, creatures and vehicles straight from James Cameron’s much-anticipated film, which is set for release in December 2009.
Each action figure, vehicle and creature in the product line will come with a 3D web tag, called an i-TAG, which can be seen with a webcam. Scanning the i-TAG reveals special content onscreen unique to the corresponding product. Exact content varies for each item, but could include biographical information, additional images and animated models of the figures. When the i-TAG for deluxe figures, vehicles or creatures are placed under a webcam, animated 3D models will “come alive.” Players will interact with engaging, evading or defending moves. Place two i-TAGs from the “Battle Pack” together and the 3-D images will interact with each other.
Try this at home kids
You can play with this stuff now. Go to http://www.t-immersion.com/ and watch the video about Star Trek. Then print out the Star Trek poster and hold it in front of your camera (you’ll have to download a plug in—it’s safe.) Click on “try it now.”
That will take you here, and after the app loads if you put the poster in front of the camera you should get the effect shown here.
In the photo you can see the camera at the top looking down at the poster. But notice, the Star Trek image is gone (on the screen) and in its place is NCC1701 and a star field behind it. You can tilt the poster and the NCC1701 model will tilt. You can put hand under the camera and you’ll get under the star field image. We’re talking hours of entertainment here, and be sure to go through the training session because when you’re finished you can fire the phasers and torpedoes and go warp speed.
If you like AR, here are some more examples.
Young developer Jonas Jager has built on the success of previous augmented reality business card applications to create a system (built for a class project) that uses a business card with an AR marker with QR Codes to enable onscreen visual information to be displayed including models, photos, and real-time updated status information (from Twitter, FaceBook, etc) to be displayed onto your business card.
See can see a video of it here.
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Commenting is not available in this section entry.Jon Peddie
Dr. Jon Peddie is a pioneer of the graphics industry, starting his career in computer graphics in 1962. After the successful launch of several graphics manufacturing companies, Peddie began Jon Peddie Associates in 1984 to provide comprehensive data, information and management expertise to the computer graphics industry. With those same goals in mind, he left JPA to form Jon Peddie Research in 2001 to provide a more customer intimate environment for clients, and to further explore the business of multimedia. Peddie lectures at numerous conferences on topics pertaining to graphics technology and the emerging trends in digital media technology. Recently named one of the most influential industry analysts, he is frequently quoted in trade and business publications, and contributes articles to numerous publications including as well as appearing on CNN and TechTV, and a contributor to Advances in Modeling, Animation, and Rendering. Peddie is also the author of several books including Graphics User Interfaces and Graphics Standards, High Resolution Graphics Display Systems, and Multimedia and Graphics Controllers. Jon Peddie is recognized as one of the leading analysts in the country by AdWeek Magazine.
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