At Georgia Tech University's Augmented Reality Lab:
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Dissertation on "games in place"
Stumbled onto this short video, which seems within the realm of my dissertation research. Thought it would be worth posting and following up soon with the author, John Martin, a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Visualizing augmented reality - a pilot
Here are some ideas from a company called Najork about how AR could change the way things look in the world:
Augmented reality business cards
Yet another example of how augmented reality can change business communication (but don't you think the guy on the left of this card at least could have dressed up a bit for the occasion?)
Friday, October 9, 2009
A digital magazine to Flyp over
This interview with Flyp editor Jim Gaines shows not everyone is asleep at the wheel in journalism circles. Here's the video description:
"FLYP is an independent media startup trying to reinvent the magazine online, not just by posting print/image/sound/video content to a website, but by rethinking what digital story-telling and the next-generation magazine might become. The presentation/design aesthetic is built into the architecture of the story, intended not just to make a story look pretty, but to pull a visitor deeper into the ideas or narratives. Text, image, sound and video are elements to be juggled based on their effectiveness in telling pieces of a story. No one element consistently dominates. Navigation through articles is meant to suggest a kind of digitally tactile sensibility.
Even though its physical form is ephemeral electrons, FLYPs origins are anchored in the physicality of the traditional magazine. Each story is a small multimedia production project in itself. Text is important on this site, but image, sound and video arent just supporting media; various media take turns in the lead, depending on the story or idea. FLYP tries to combine the high-design richness of a glossy print magazine with the dynamic potential of a media-rich website in ways that suggest that a general-culture publication can be a compelling window on culture. Editor-in-chief Jim Gaines was formerly managing editor of People, Life and Time magazines."
"FLYP is an independent media startup trying to reinvent the magazine online, not just by posting print/image/sound/video content to a website, but by rethinking what digital story-telling and the next-generation magazine might become. The presentation/design aesthetic is built into the architecture of the story, intended not just to make a story look pretty, but to pull a visitor deeper into the ideas or narratives. Text, image, sound and video are elements to be juggled based on their effectiveness in telling pieces of a story. No one element consistently dominates. Navigation through articles is meant to suggest a kind of digitally tactile sensibility.
Even though its physical form is ephemeral electrons, FLYPs origins are anchored in the physicality of the traditional magazine. Each story is a small multimedia production project in itself. Text is important on this site, but image, sound and video arent just supporting media; various media take turns in the lead, depending on the story or idea. FLYP tries to combine the high-design richness of a glossy print magazine with the dynamic potential of a media-rich website in ways that suggest that a general-culture publication can be a compelling window on culture. Editor-in-chief Jim Gaines was formerly managing editor of People, Life and Time magazines."
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Innovative ideas about augmented reality interfaces, without markers
This research project at the University of California - Santa Barbara shows how far we have come in this technology in just a few months.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Mobile Storytelling at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site - Audience Evaluation
Here is the first section of the survey I have been conducting to evaluate the potential mobile audience and its needs and wants at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site:
Questions 1-10
Click Here to take survey
And here is the second set of questions (11-18):
Click Here to take survey
Questions 1-10
Click Here to take survey
And here is the second set of questions (11-18):
Click Here to take survey
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
At the Dawn of the Augmented Reality Industry
Keynote speech by Bruce Sterling of Wired:
Video: Bruce Sterling's Keynote - At the Dawn of the Augmented Reality Industry from Maarten Lens-FitzGerald on Vimeo.
Maptor, not just a flashlight
Also an augmented reality map projector (warning: video accompanied by breezy Muzak-like track):
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
KickStarter.com
Those looking for ways to microfund small projects might want to consider KickStarter, which uses Amazon.com's payment system to process "venture" capital.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Using augmented reality to fix a BMW
This is sort of strange in a cyborgian way (think of the mechanics in the shop all walking around with these sorts of goggles on), but it demonstrates a practical use for augmented reality:
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
yellowBird -- 360 degree immersive video
This is fascinating. You can click and move around the 360-degree view -- not a static one -- within the crowd at a concert. Seems like there could be a lot of innovative uses for this kind of technology.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Another perspective on Chris Anderson's "free"
Wired editor Chris Anderson is making the rounds to promote his book "free," this time on The Colbert Report. It's an interesting argument to make.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Chris Anderson | ||||
| ||||
"Base Ball" at the Fort
Local filmmaker Mark Dodd recently shot and edited this clip of me playing "base ball" as part of a historic reenactment at the Fort Vancouver National Site in Vancouver, Wash. Thanks for sending it this way, Mark!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wired's Chris Anderson talking about "free"
Fascinating interview with Wired's editor, on Charlie Rose show (Free is here to stay; But what's the pet for our penguin?):
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
More advances in digital holograms
I'm trying not to get too sidetracked on these, but the development of this technology is a fascinating realm of augmented reality. Here are a couple of projects by a grad student from Japan, named Julien Pilet, doing work at the EPFL labs in Switzerland:
And this one:
And this one:
Jeff Watson presentation on locative media and responsive environments
Stumbled upon this slideshow of a recent Jeff Watson lecture that had some interesting factoids about locative media:
Locative Media And Responsive Environments
View more presentations from Jeff Watson.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Combining augmented reality and social networking
Found this application (and video) that supports the concept:
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Topps 3D Live - Another AR example
This takes the digital hologram past the model and display phase and into simple manipulation of the hologram, augmented reality for a mass market. This has to be one of the earliest commercial ventures into this realm. If you know of any others, please post them.
Digital holograms via Flash
I have no idea what I could do with something like this in a practical sense, but it will be fun to think of possibilities:
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Mobile storytelling project at Fort Vancouver National Site
I'm working on a new mobile storytelling project in the vicinity of the Fort Vancouver National Site in the Portland, Ore., area, where the Oregon Trail ended for many settlers.
As part of this, I'm conducting a survey of the potential audience and trying to determine what will work best, including the technology to use, the format of the content and the core narrative structure that will have the biggest impact and leave the most flexibility in terms of artistic expression.
In preparation of the survey, I interviewed a neighbor, Dave Griffith, who has an iPhone 3G and an interest in local history. He graciously is allowing me to put a summary of his responses on the blog as well, in case it might provide insights to anyone else working on mobile storytelling projects.
To begin with, he noted, the iPhone doesn't allow applications to run in the background, which means a potential audience member would have to have the appropriate program loaded on the right device and have it ready to go to even start engaging with an interactive mobile presentation. Those are a lot of obstacles to overcome, including trying to create a universal medium when standards are evolving and shifting and each mobile device right now has different applications to do different things.
Let's say, though, that we can create a mobile presentation that can be accessed by the majority of the devices -- including the iPhone, the G1, the Palm Pre and the BlackBerry Storm -- and that they all, or most of them, can use the material in the same basic ways. Griffith's point extends to the idea that somehow these people are going to need to know to have the specific application loaded and ready to go, and any technical glitches between the application and the material will be negligible. How would this mobile story be publicized, especially at the location? How can this material be accessed by the most people, in the easiest way? Those are important questions.
If he could access such a piece, Griffith said he would like that to be a multimedia blend of text, images and video, not just a chunk of text, or a photo or a video. He was intrigued by ideas I floated about following in the footsteps of history while a nonfiction anecdote played itself out, or by interactive mysteries or games, that could be broadly labeled as historical fiction. But when I brought up the possibilities of social networking as part of that, including interacting with other participants as they followed along with the story as well, he said he did not have an interest in taking the idea that far and that he likely wouldn't use such a feature.
In terms of specific content that would interest him, he leaned toward contextual enrichment via real maps, photos of artifacts and journal entries, plus other information that provided details of the ways in which people, especially famous or quirky people, lived in the mid-19th century, when Fort Vancouver was at its apex in history. Yet he thought it also would be fun to experience that kind of material as part of a game, or mystery, or tour, particularly one that was family-oriented and would include children in the process.
All good fodder to keep in mind for later steps.
As part of this, I'm conducting a survey of the potential audience and trying to determine what will work best, including the technology to use, the format of the content and the core narrative structure that will have the biggest impact and leave the most flexibility in terms of artistic expression.
In preparation of the survey, I interviewed a neighbor, Dave Griffith, who has an iPhone 3G and an interest in local history. He graciously is allowing me to put a summary of his responses on the blog as well, in case it might provide insights to anyone else working on mobile storytelling projects.
To begin with, he noted, the iPhone doesn't allow applications to run in the background, which means a potential audience member would have to have the appropriate program loaded on the right device and have it ready to go to even start engaging with an interactive mobile presentation. Those are a lot of obstacles to overcome, including trying to create a universal medium when standards are evolving and shifting and each mobile device right now has different applications to do different things.
Let's say, though, that we can create a mobile presentation that can be accessed by the majority of the devices -- including the iPhone, the G1, the Palm Pre and the BlackBerry Storm -- and that they all, or most of them, can use the material in the same basic ways. Griffith's point extends to the idea that somehow these people are going to need to know to have the specific application loaded and ready to go, and any technical glitches between the application and the material will be negligible. How would this mobile story be publicized, especially at the location? How can this material be accessed by the most people, in the easiest way? Those are important questions.
If he could access such a piece, Griffith said he would like that to be a multimedia blend of text, images and video, not just a chunk of text, or a photo or a video. He was intrigued by ideas I floated about following in the footsteps of history while a nonfiction anecdote played itself out, or by interactive mysteries or games, that could be broadly labeled as historical fiction. But when I brought up the possibilities of social networking as part of that, including interacting with other participants as they followed along with the story as well, he said he did not have an interest in taking the idea that far and that he likely wouldn't use such a feature.
In terms of specific content that would interest him, he leaned toward contextual enrichment via real maps, photos of artifacts and journal entries, plus other information that provided details of the ways in which people, especially famous or quirky people, lived in the mid-19th century, when Fort Vancouver was at its apex in history. Yet he thought it also would be fun to experience that kind of material as part of a game, or mystery, or tour, particularly one that was family-oriented and would include children in the process.
All good fodder to keep in mind for later steps.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Born Digital
Just finished "Born Digital" by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, which addresses the idea that people born after 1980, when computers emerged, dubbed "digital natives," haven't known anything but digital technology, so they therefore live differently than those born before 1980. The World Wide Web, by the way, didn't appear until 1991, even though it seems now like it's been part of our lives forever.
I read somewhere recently, too, that the gap between generations right now is the greatest since the Vietnam war era, with the country having a distinct split on the direction it should follow.
The "Born Digital" book covers many of the issues and ideas that have emerged from this fissure -- related to such topics as privacy, quality of information, pirating, learning and innovation -- in layman terms. Even though it was written by a couple of attorneys, and it's about a technical field, the writing style and language clearly were aimed at a mainstream audience. Sometimes, I found that tedious, in terms of repetition and unneeded context. But I suspect those who haven't read much in this field would need that framework to understand the points.
That said, here are a few excerpts from the book I found interesting:
* In 2006, Tower Records liquidated, and by 2008, iTunes was the largest music retailer in the U.S.
* If you are not a digital native, you still can be a "digital settler," helping to shape this new world, even though you weren't born into it.
* If the VCR didn't ruin the movie business, why will digital file sharing kill the music industry?
* "I think the reason why print magazines are still very popular is because you kind of have the feeling, okay, this is like one issue, and this is what happened this week. And on the Internet ... there's no beginning and no end. -- An 18-year-old Harvard student."
* In 2007 alone, 161 billion gigabytes of digital content was created, or 3 million times the amount of information in all of the books ever written. Experts predict in 2010, the world will produce nearly a trillion gigabytes of digital content.
* A person's short term memory can only hold seven items at once.
* When people are overloaded with information, they tend to respond with simpler and shorter messages. Hmmm, Twitter?
The chapters on digital dossiers and information overload were the most striking to me, making me rethink some of my views on sharing information online as well as the ways in which I handle the glut of knowledge. The authors use the metaphor of a tattoo as a way to think of something a young person might leave in cyberspace that will haunt them the rest of their lives.
Much of this confirms my mantra on web design: simple, straightfoward and clean. As I work on building brettoppegaard.com into that vision, and transform it for mobile screens, (and the more I use mobile apps on my G1), I'm getting convinced that the less complexity, the better.
- Brett
I read somewhere recently, too, that the gap between generations right now is the greatest since the Vietnam war era, with the country having a distinct split on the direction it should follow.
The "Born Digital" book covers many of the issues and ideas that have emerged from this fissure -- related to such topics as privacy, quality of information, pirating, learning and innovation -- in layman terms. Even though it was written by a couple of attorneys, and it's about a technical field, the writing style and language clearly were aimed at a mainstream audience. Sometimes, I found that tedious, in terms of repetition and unneeded context. But I suspect those who haven't read much in this field would need that framework to understand the points.
That said, here are a few excerpts from the book I found interesting:
* In 2006, Tower Records liquidated, and by 2008, iTunes was the largest music retailer in the U.S.
* If you are not a digital native, you still can be a "digital settler," helping to shape this new world, even though you weren't born into it.
* If the VCR didn't ruin the movie business, why will digital file sharing kill the music industry?
* "I think the reason why print magazines are still very popular is because you kind of have the feeling, okay, this is like one issue, and this is what happened this week. And on the Internet ... there's no beginning and no end. -- An 18-year-old Harvard student."
* In 2007 alone, 161 billion gigabytes of digital content was created, or 3 million times the amount of information in all of the books ever written. Experts predict in 2010, the world will produce nearly a trillion gigabytes of digital content.
* A person's short term memory can only hold seven items at once.
* When people are overloaded with information, they tend to respond with simpler and shorter messages. Hmmm, Twitter?
The chapters on digital dossiers and information overload were the most striking to me, making me rethink some of my views on sharing information online as well as the ways in which I handle the glut of knowledge. The authors use the metaphor of a tattoo as a way to think of something a young person might leave in cyberspace that will haunt them the rest of their lives.
Much of this confirms my mantra on web design: simple, straightfoward and clean. As I work on building brettoppegaard.com into that vision, and transform it for mobile screens, (and the more I use mobile apps on my G1), I'm getting convinced that the less complexity, the better.
- Brett
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Two new augmented reality apps
New augmented reality apps for G1, Layar, and for iPhone, ARToolWorks; story is here, and video is below; this sort of location-awareness evolution is happening right now:
Friday, June 26, 2009
Clay Shirky: How social media can make history
Quite a bit of interesting information about the innovative disruption of social media in this video lecture, from TED and tech writer Shirky:
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Mobile storytelling presentation
Would like to have the audio as well, but the slides have some interesting notes on them to look further into:
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