The Augmented Reality Blog

Patti Maes from MIT showcases her ongoing research, veeeery promising indeed:

Here’s the Ray Ban AR app “Virtual Mirror” from last year:

And here’s the Glasses Direct AR app from this year:

They are pretty similar (they’re actually the same :) ) and may very well be starting a larger trend of “virtual product sampling”: try shoes, pants, glasses, hats, bags etc. No more unrepresentative quircky 3D models in flash, just wear them virtually first.

I expect Amazon and other big retail companies to adopt this kind of virtual sampling soon.

Configuring these kind of AR apps can be a bit tedious, but it’s a promising start.

A very slick AR application.

Unfortunately you need to install software (yikes). But fortunately there’s a youtube sample video :)

Note the interesting sharing feature:

1. paint:
2. save:
3. share it on facebook or youtube:

Nice. Even nicer is doing it in the real world!

I like the apps that are more than merely objects on markers. Especially if they make you discover and interact.

That’s exactly what KIA did with it’s Cee’d AR app.

Cee'd application screenshot

The plot:

1. print four ‘magic’ markers (which illustrate the position of a manual gear stick).
2. keep two cards at a time in front of your camera
3. discover a feature of the car

The funny thing is they don’t tell you up front which card combination will result in which car feature being shown.

There’s a combination which shows you a rear-viewing mirror in which you can see yourself :) and a steering wheel which you can turn (by moving the cards).

This is indeed fun, interactive way of discovering the car.

CRISTAL is positioned as an alternative to the many remote controls we have in our living room. But that doesn’t do any justice to the really coolness of this application of (highly interactive and informational) AR. Watch this video:



Some argue that it will take a long time before this technology will break through due to the fact that infrared is the current standard communication technology for remote controls and the devices they control. That will not be an issue for very long, though, since devices at home are increasingly inter-connected through home networks. TVs, laptops, computers, iPods, mobile phones already often have WiFi built-in. The only thing we’ll need to be worried about is viruses :)