Tiger beer iphone app – Augmented Reality and Chinese Food!

Anyone who reads dazed and confused mag may have see the chines new  year supplement in the latest issue, within this  there is a very small mention of a supporting iPhone application, liking any free app I downloaded and was pleasantly suprised with what I recieved. I love flight control and have played it for many hours ( drawing based iPhone game) and Tiger seemed to have taken this idea and turned it into a china town delivery game with similar appeal to flight control but with a little more depth.

What I really liked was within the restaurant and bar finder when you are looking around using the AR view they have included some floating chinese lanterns, that I think is a really nice AR touch in line with the theme of the app, the AR its self is pretty stable, and I love Chinese food   and especially if it is mixed with a bit of Augmented Reality!

App available here

Iphone Augmentation

As an iphone user it seems like ive been waiting forever to get some AR on my phone. The first that I tried was Yelp, an app i had had on the 3G but when it was transferred to the 3gs I had the oppertunity of testing out the Stealth AR browser… simply shake the phone for a good few minutes and a message appears saying” Monicle activated” this it seems was slipped by the apple approval team and was the first stealth AR launch as a beta its quite jumpy and not that accurate.

This video show you how to unlock the app…

Since then the SDk has been released and  seems like there is a new AR browser every day and I have been downloading most of them.  I previously reviewed Wikitude (now available on the iphone).

Nearest tube has been widely publicised and is probably the most stable and accurate browser I have tried, albeit limited to just tube stations!

Robotvision is a key app as it uses not just selectabel search data from bing ie atms, hotels etc ( which I did not find to be that comprehensive) but it starts integrating social media into the app which is what really caught my attention as  you can overlay twitter and flickr content into the browser whilst this does not have more than a novel use at the moment this will evolve into a more personal experience based around my friends, contact and peers displaying info that i will find useful….

Simple but effective… Car Locator allows you to mark a location then use an AR interface to find your way back, so not just usefull for finding you car, but your tent at a festival or you way out of the woods… i used it on my mtb last weekend when riding in a big wood and without it i might still be there!

So browsers are all good, but its the games I have been waiting for and it seems that they are being held back a bit in the snadbox… not a game but a good preview of what might be to come firepower gives you an augmented reality machine gun…

One of the first games to come out is Fairy Trails… not my cup of tea but replace the fairys with German storm troopers and we might be getting somewhere..

Not AR but very amusing! Smack Talk

I had to feature this app, its not AR but it makes everyone laugh… worth every penny! £0.59

Not Ar

Chris Angle AR 3d Maze

I am constantly waiting for a really playable AR game so was pleased to see that there was AR 3d maze…

but
the 3d maze created by circ.us for US Tv show Chris Angle, really lacks the engagement and playability I was hoping for, its too much of a gimmick rather than an enhancement to the experience for me. Playing with a piece of paper held up in front of my face quiet close to the screen – did not do it for me i am afraid..

Future Vision

Ok not the slickest looking shades! But this is a key step into truly realising the potential of mobile augmented reality, the mobile applications we are starting to see are limited  by having to use the phone as a viewer, releasing the user from having to move round with the phone in front of them will be a key step forward. This is certainly early days for this application and Lumus state that they wont be on the market until 2010.

The Lumus solution is suitable for an extensive range of applications in both consumer and professional markets. The following are some typical examples:

• Mobile TV and video primarily from next-gen cell phones and portable media players. Cellular service providers are spending billions of dollars on infrastructure to support mobile TV and over 100 million cellular phones will be video enabled by 2010. With Lumus’ huge screen, service providers and device manufacturers can provide the ultimate solution for “location shifting” and “time shifting”, freeing consumers from their living room couches to watch movies and favorite shows or play games wherever they want – watch what they want, when they want, where they want.
• Mobile gaming enabled by next-gen cell phones and portable gaming consoles – playing on a large screen anywhere. Furthermore, the addition of 3-D content brings mobile entertainment to a whole new level.
• Personal and private viewing of video and data content, enabling viewing on a personal screen – which no-one else can see – at home, in the office or on the go.
• Professionals seeking to inconspicuously perform multiple tasks together, such as:
  • Viewing content (text messages, e-mails, attachments, alerts and mobile Internet) in the middle of meetings
  • Giving a speech without looking down at notes
  • Watching stock tickers throughout the day
• PDA manufacturers and content providers seeking to offer large-screen applications for small devices, making mobile computing far more efficient.
• Professionals and organizations seeking enhanced interactive information delivery, such as:
  • Museums, tourist organizations and educational associations
  • Physicians wanting to be able to keep their eyes on their patients while having the ability to also receive important information, such as critical patient data, X-rays, or even live images from an endoscope
  • Pilots in the military, commercial and recreational markets
  • Military applications such as personal displays for combat soldiers, where the difference between keeping your head up and looking down at a PDA or map can mean the difference between life and death; similarly, personal displays offer augmented reality capabilities which can significantly improve effectiveness

Augmented Reality Hair Cut

I saw a demo about a year ago of an augmented reality haircut app, but it involved sticking a glyph to your head,so far from the ideal with the progression of face tracking , following on from the optical express example for glasses this is a good execution of AR hair cuts, I prefer the face mapping used in this application to the Optical express system as it over lays the complete template and you simply adjust to your face rather than having to plot each point (may seem trivial but its all about ease of use!).  This demo shows the app off really nicely:

This is a great example of another really useful application of AR you can see this in a lot of hair stylists in the near future allowing you choose your style and colour before they start! – it will jsut be down to the skill of the human elent to get it right!

AR Driving Sales

An app that has a purpose and will in turn  directly drive increased sales is the new glasses direct virtual mirror!

And you dont have to stick a symbol to your head… using face tracking ( you have to mark some key points on your face on the screen using your mouse) the virtual mirror allows you to try on their range of glasses, you can then get them sent to you at home to try and if you hold your prescription already order your actual glasses.. this app works really well and  I think this is the first step in augmented reality shopping..

One day you’ll have a plasma mirror in your bedroom, select your shop and away you go trying on what ever you want with what ever you want, followed by a voice command ” I’ll Take it!’  and it will be on its way to you.. below is a preview of a( not too sophisticated but working “try on” application – limitations for me are the lack of “body tracking” and having to hold the glyph in the first one, but is a good illustration of how it will work:

Mixing it Up – Wrigley 5 Gum AR DJ

This is an interesting one…

Wrigley France have developed an AR music mixer, that allows the user to control the music by positioning of the glphs,

there are 3 flavour based animations which all have seperate and interchangable loops assigned to them, and a forth control glyph that displays a pack of 5 gum.

The glyphs are used as the input device and allow users to:

1) Change the volumes of each track by moving the glyph relative to the central reference glyph.
2) Modify the tracks themselves by rotating the glyphs on their axis. This will add distortion, bit crusher and echo effects.
3) Remove the audio track from the mix by covering or removing the glyphs.

User can save their tracks, add them to the public gallery or send them to their friends.

Some people may think that this is too involved, Are they asking the user to do too much? that depends if the user wants to make there own music video or not! – there are 125 different variations of the basic tracks before you apply any mixing, muting or effects to give it your own personal touch..

I think Wrigley France and their Agency Exposure Uk  ( & Bofswanna who built the AR) should be commended for one of the most interactive and engaging AR apps to date, my be not to everyones taste but I guess its targeted at their audience?! check out the tutorial to see how it works..

Mobile AR Browsers

Mobiles killer app?

Being able to overlay computer generated, location based content over a real world view using your mobile phone ( and eventually your digital shades) to view it…

Its already happening with the find our nearest tube station app for the Iphone 3gs –

But this has limited application – ie finding tube stations 3 companies are working on cross platform browsers that will notonly give you this functionality but dependenat on your requirements everything from shops, events and tourist functionality to social info wherever you are.  You now can turn places into your own hotspots. By leaving traces, messages or objects, you can change how you, your friends and everyone else sees the world. Whether you want to guide your friends to your favourite restaurant, point out a yet unknown sight or add objects.

Metaio have just launched a new mobile browser, ou can view, create, upload, modify, navigate, share, rate or play games with real 3D content anywhere in the real world. Add your 3D and post interactive elements, your favourite photos, twitter messages or anything you can imagine. It will be supporting all major mobile platforms: Starting with applications for the iPhone, Google Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian S60.

AR browsers are not new Wikitude was one of the first, but it was limited to displaying information from Wikipedia and Qype.However they have recently announced that they will be opening up the database , prompted by the release of Layer, which provided a similar browser but they provided an open source api, allowing commercial applications.

Wikitude:

Layer:

There is a great new world here and there will certainly be a fight on to dominate this area- who will be the google of the Augmented Reality Browser World… Google? 🙂

Augmented Toys – Mattel

Lora Cohn, Vice President of Fox Licensing, said:

This is going to be a ground-breaking moment for both film and toy with the introduction of one of the most innovative 3-D experiences ever conceived. Mattel has created the perfect complement to a film that is going to wow audiences the world over with its bold new vision.

Mattel’s ar Avatar figures uare produced by Total Immersion.

This is only the beginning but what a great one.. kids can place their figures in front of their web cams and they will interact with each other, with attack and defensive moves, the range will be in stores in the US from October – and also online – I have to admit that I will be  trying these out.