3D California

Ah, there you are! It’s time for another short article on the insides of augmented (and virtual) reality techniques. One of the big challenges is that we need to put in the exact same position our real camera and our virtual camera when trying to merge real and virtual objects. This means that our real camera must be able to communicate its coordinates from a reference object, which will have a virtual representation. So the point is: given a real world (let’s say, ours, for example) we need the coordinates of a moving object. This position detection, or tracking, how can we do that?

I, robot arm

The simplest solution is to use the object robot arm equipped with angle or slide sensors. Moving the object will change the angles and distances measured, which can be detected by a computer that will update the virtual object’s position using the new values. It can even be double sided, if your robot arm is equipped with sensors AND motors, then it can have a force feedback, to prevent you from entering solid (virtual) objects. You can see an example below of a haptic (i.e. linked to the sense of touching) device. The main problem we have is a quite limited range, because the arm is usually expensive, and building an arm that has more than 50 cm^3 of liberty of movement is not easy.

A whole new (magnetic) field

Another way to detect an object’s position is using a magnetic field. There are different ways to do it, but many of them are really similar. The plan is to generate a magnetic field with an electromagnet, and to measure the intensity of this field along the 3 directions of space: the closer to the source, the more intense. And we can have the distance from the source to the sensor in all 3 directions, thus giving the coordinates, et voilà. How can we do it? This is a question of physics: if we make a small circuit that has a coil in it, then when there is a moving magnetic field, there will be electricity in the circuit, and we can measure the amount of electricity. It’s the same principle that we use to generate electricity in power plants. But there is a problem. We need to know the shape of the magnetic field we generate, and it’s highly dependent of the environment we’re in, and especially the presence of metal objects. So this is a great system, but if someone brings a metallic chair to watch it, it will not work anymore. And how can I talk about magnetic tracking without mentioning another device that has been used for thousands of years: the good old compass, which uses the earth magnetic field and a natural magnet to point North and help lost travelers. Well even this old trick found its way to Augmented Reality:

Let’s throw our friends into outer space!

While we’re talking about compass, we may also consider another (more recent) technology that can be used for tracking, and that has a huge range, it’s Global Positioning System, better known as GPS. Imagine. You’re on a road, but you don’t know where. You have a friend, on the 30^th mile of the road. If you know that you’re 10 mile away from him, then you’re either on the 20^th mile or on the 40^th. Now if you know you have another friend on the 50^th mile, and you’re 10 miles away from him too, well, you know where you are. And you’ve just created a one dimensional GPS. For a three dimensional one, you need 4 friends. So let’s say your friends are satellites revolving around the Earth, and their position is known. If you can tell how far you are from each of them, then you can derive your own position. So your 4 satellite friends, who have very precise clocks in their electronic parts, will send a message containing the current time, and this message will travel through space at the speed of light to get to the GPS device in your car. So when you compare the message you receive and the current time, there is a slight difference due to the travelling time, and knowing the speed of light, this time difference can become a distance to the satellite. And thanks to your space friends, you now know the closest path to the nearest grocery store! GPS is used for most of the Augmented Reality features we can find in iPhone apps today, when it points a direction and a distance, it uses GPS. But there are some limitations to this principle. GPS is not very accurate for most devices, and even if you can get your position with an error of less than a meter, many Augmented Reality applications require something more like a centimeter or even a millimeter. And GPS does not give you your orientation, so even if you use a compass, you will still need other informations to have all the informations we need. Pretty much all we can do with a GPS alone for Augmented Reality is something like that :

So that’s it for today, but the “part 2” will soon be there for you 3D fans. We’ll be talking about infrared light, accelerometers and gyroscopes and finally Computer Vision. Stay tuned !

Vancouver 2010 Winter Games are the olympic edition with the largest social media coverage: from Facebook to Twitter, everybody’s talking about sports in Vancouver, throughout the world. Both media companies and individuals are enthousiastic at sharing information, pushing new statuses or encouraging their idols.

In this social mediatized world, Yahoo! is probably one of the most visible companies, with its FanCouver initiative on Flickr, Twitter and other medias. But the most impressive idea was developped by Total Immersion and Helios Interactive Technology . Their A/R demo based on face tracking features clearly illustrates an innovative way to integrate users / consumers / fans to a brand new kind of experience.

This demo opens a wide spectrum of application, from fashion to online games. Imagine you could compete (in realtime?) with the fastest skiers or dress with the trendiest ski clothing like Lindsay Vonn? Augmented Reality is not science fiction anymore, it is raw science at reach of hand.

Like most geeks do, Mac Slocum says most user manuals are worthless: they usually display poorly written text and confusing diagrams. Although I don’t have such a negative point of view, I must admit that most user manuals don’t match the same quality level as the products they are delivered with, especially products designed abroad with user manuals poorly translated…

Of course, there are many reasons why user manuals are poorly written and designed: most users don’t read them anymore.

• First, most products provide the kind of user interfaces that do not require users to spend hours reading their user manual. Phones, cameras, TVs or cars have very nice and intuitive user interfaces, that most users can understand the moment they touch it.
• Second, there is a kind of general acceptance about product user interface standards: even if hardware look different, the embedded software makes product look very similar. There is not much difference between two Android or two Windows mobile cellphone: they share the same operating system, and can share the same apps.
• Third, why should a company spend dollar in massive redactional efforts while social media and user generated content will provide most users with the level of information they require: how to activate this feature, how to get rid of that one, or how to develop a product expertise, through blogs, forums or online videos?

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At CES in Las Vegas (January 2010) the French company Parrot introduced a new flying machine for entertainment, and maybe for other purposes in the future.
It is a drone allowing to explore new experiences, mixing video, game and real world thanks to augmented reality technology.

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My friend Steph could not be more realistic when he wished me an ‘augmented’ year. Why? Just because 2010 seems to be the first year … when you can send ‘augmented wish cards’!

Hallmark Cards, the number one designer of greeting cards, with more than 50% market share in the US announced a line of ‘augmented reality cards’. With price range from $2.99 to $5.99, these augmente reality cards are as much easy to use and send than more traditional cards. Hallmark interactive demo is clearly intended to families, not geeks or techies.

Who said a greeting card could not speak or dance in 3D?

The year of its 100th anniversary, Hallmark Cards is definitely still a company with a vision for innovation.