Well this is a nice garnish Nokia’s put on its new Lumia 900 superphone: an augmented reality app—called City Lens—that might actually be worth a damn. And it might make Nokia Maps the undisputed champ. More »
If there’s one problem with 3D modeling and printing its that you never really know what you’re going to get. That’s where Augment comes in. It’s a new program for phones and tablets that allows you to see 3D printed objects in an augmented reality display, thereby allowing you to see what an object will look like before you start the print process. It works with most major 3D modeling formats and you can download and view items from Thingiverse with one tap of a button.
The founders are all engineers and CS majors. CEO Jean-François Chianetta has been programming since he was 8 and the CTO Cyril Champier has a background in cognitive sciences. The CMO, Mickaël Jordan, is an open data guru.
The project is self-funded and they currently have 20,000 active users. They’re offering a paid version of the service to certain customers who can then add a “See This On Your Wall” or “See This In Your Room” feature to their websites. For example, users can click a button on PrintedArt.com and see the painting or print they’re about to buy right on their wall.
The service also supports STL, Collada, OBJ, 3DS and Blend files and can open them on any iOS or Android device. This allows 3D hackers to offer a one-step process to visualize objects on the fly. In short, it adds real augmented reality to the already vibrant 3D modeling services out there.
“I started Augment as a side project 1 year and a half ago. I wanted to do photo printing in poster size. Since smartphones were around, I had the idea to create an augmented reality app to visualize the posters directly on my wall to see what size was the best fit,” said Chianetta.
“It’s a simple way to add an iteration before building the first physical prototype,” he said.
You can download for iOS or Android and all you need is to print out a special pattern on a normal sheet of paper to add a little augmented reality to your drab, soulless existence.
Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 secrets may have been spilled – in part – already, but the company is still teasing ahead of its big NYC event on Wednesday this week. Latest is a short video for what looks to be an augmented reality app, pulling together the company’s City Lens technology – released as an updated Windows Phone beta earlier this week – with social networks.
The brief clip hints at how the camera will work with social networks such as Facebook and Foursquare, along with pulling ratings from online, for places nearby. In the video demo, it’s for a shoe store, with indications of how much kudos the retailer has with your social contacts.
It’s not clear at this stage whether the information would actually be overlaid on top of a real-world view, as we know augmented reality and as City Lens works currently, or if that’s just a bit of visual gloss for the teaser. Windows Phone’s live tiles on the homescreen might be a good way of flagging up more subtle suggestions, though you’d need to be paying attention to the screen to regularly notice them.
Nokia September 5 teaser:
SlashGear is headed to NYC tomorrow for all the Nokia news, so join us in the morning as we look through the Lumias, apps, and more. There’s a round-up of all the leaks so far here.
Nokia City Lens for Windows Phone:
Nokia teaser tips City Lens augmented reality for WP8 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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With just a day to go, Nokia has pushed out another brief teaser, this time pointing towards more map-based contextual functionality. It looks like whatever the company’s got up its sleeves, alongside any new Lumia hardware, should include some map-based social network chops and City Lens features — not much of a shocker given that the latter has just shed its beta status.
Update: Nokia’s throw out another video — which reveals that its good-looking star does manage to find those shoes. Phew. We’ve added it after the break.
Continue reading Nokia invites you to stay tuned, offers augmented reality teaser (updated)
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Nokia invites you to stay tuned, offers augmented reality teaser (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Sep 2012 03:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Nokia first kicked off the City Lens beta back in May. That was just four months ago, but it feels like an eternity in the mobile space. The wait has come to a welcome (if abrupt) end with the finished version quietly reaching the Windows Phone Marketplace for Lumia owners. From initial appearances, the augmented reality app is functionally the same as its test edition. Point the camera and you’ll be shown points of interest in your field of view, with ratings and directions to get you on your way — if you’ve seen Yelp’s Monocle mode, you’ll know the score. Don’t be surprised if the source link doesn’t initially work, as City Lens is slowly trickling out to Microsoft’s servers, but do expect a quicker trip to the sushi bar when the app is in your hands.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile
Nokia City Lens exits beta, gives a window on the world to Lumia owners originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Sep 2012 08:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You remember Sphero, right? Last we checked in with its creators from Orbotix at E3, the $130 robotic ball was getting ready to act as a 3D controller and the guide point for an Augmented Reality Engine. This week, along with the release of a firmware upgrade, a few new free apps have been released, including two that’ll let you use that 3D controller functionality. Better yet, Orbotix has given us a sneak peek at the progress it’s made on the AGR since we last checked it out. Join us past the break if you’re curious to find out more.
Filed under: Misc, Gaming, Peripherals
Sphero gets a firmware upgrade and new apps, we get another look at its Augmented Reality Engine (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We live in a stereotypical world, and hence, it is no surprise to hear that Sony attempts to correct the deficiencies that are associated with the field of augmented reality, especially that niggling feeling of interacting with a lively albeit unrealistic 2D character. How does Sony go about addressing this particular issue? Well, we are looking at a new kind of technology known as “LiveAction AR,” which unsurprisingly, has a Japanese schoolgirl starring in it for starters. How about that for a standard issue stereotype, huh?
A demonstration of LiveAction AR showed off an augmented reality woman who stepped out of a wall poster, where she will then interact with you, the viewer. The creepy part (or some others might call it brilliant) would be this – whenever you move around, the character as well as her eyes will also follow in tow, making this the digital version of the Mona Lisa. Talk about increasing the realism factor with a pair of following eyes! Check out the video above to know more about how Sony’s LiveAction AR works in the real world.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sony Smart AR integrated Augmented Reality technology, Sony reflects back on 8 years of augmented reality, excited for NGP,
If you thought Google’s perspicacious searching application was clever before, prepare for a shock. Google Goggles version 1.9 adds support for devices without autofocusing optics, giving those on budget gear a chance to use the real world as a search box. Point it at a QR code containing a URL, and it’ll show you a thumbnail of the page and check its credentials against its blacklist of malicious sites. If it comes up short when searching for a product, it’ll even search for similar-looking items to help you find what you’re looking for, and it’s available from the Play store for free — so you don’t really have any excuse.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet, Software
Google Goggles update brings support for devices without autofocus originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 22:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Here’s an interesting approach to Augmented Reality marketing: turn hats into Zombie heads.
The Zaphat (pronounced like Zap Hat, not Zafat) is a new line of fashion apparel where the logo on the accoutrement acts as the target for an iOS/Android app that uses Augmented Reality to transform the wearer into an avatar of their choice.
In other words, when you wear a special hat, people can look at you with an app and see a Zombie instead of your head and then take a picture of you.
This takes personal branding to a new level and is meant to be a fun experience and a way to create images for your social network.
As long as the hat is comfortable, stylish and competitively priced I find it hard to see what’s not to like here. Being able to make you look like a Zombie is icing on the cake.
The Zaphat (and accompanying app) all developed by Zappar, could easily be popular in youth markets, and is obviously expandable to different pieces of clothing, allowing for an entire doppelganger wardrobe to be associated with any clothing line. That’s an interesting idea.
It’s a novelty product right now but some could say much of fashion is novelty anyway. So really, this product could fit into the greater world of style with nary a dispute by the fanciful lords of fashion, don’t you think?
On a deeper level, as AR technology progresses toward the eyewear prototypes being developed by Google, Vuzix, Lumus and others, a real and alternate way to present yourself to others could become possible, even trendy.
Imagine an entire AR costume party, or an entire stage play occurring where the actors’ costumes are rendered by the eyewear of the audience. Concepts like the Zaphat could be a stepping stone in the path to a future state like this.
Or it could just be a cool hat.
It will be available in the coming months at Zappar.com and at other retail stores to be announced.
The Zappar app is available at iTunes and Google Play
Technology has paved the way for new advances in the field of medicine. We’ve already seen apps such as the Busalert app and the Georgie Android app for the visually impaired. But the researchers over at MIT were able to develop a camera-equipped ring that could help the visually impaired identify objects and read text. It’s called EyeRing, and its creators describe it as a finger-worn device that allows you to point at an object, take a photo, and hear feedback about what it is you just focused on. Pattie Maes, a professor in MIT’s Media Lab, says that the EyeRing can also work as a navigation or translation aid.
It can even help children learn to read. The EyeRing also offers aural feedback through a wearable device. Printed with plastic using a 3-D printer, the augmented reality ring also has a small camera, a processor, and Bluetooth connectivity. A simple double-click to a button on the ring’s side and a voice command will initiate the process. EyeRing can be set to either identify text, colors, or even currency and prices on price tags. Just point the ring and click the button to capture a photo. Images are then sent to your Android smartphone via Bluetooth where an app will process the image and the generate the results via a digital voice. The team is currently working on an iPhone app as well.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Busalert app helps blind people in identifying the arrival time of buses, Google Glass will reach consumer in 2014 says Google Co-Founder,
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