Hasta La Gadget!

Nengajou are the New Year Cards that Japanese people send to each other, customarily arriving on January 1st in a nice pile that you can use to measure your popularity.

Some of this year’s nengajou innovations also reveal two of the big trends of 2010: the growth of smartphones in Japan and the spread of idol groups into the mainstream (most notably AKB48).

Lawson’s has teamed up with idol group SKE48 to offer 26 lucky people the chance to receive hand-written cards from the cute ladies, decorated, needless to say, on one side with an image of the sender and on the other with a personal message.

Since this year has seen the smart phone market multiply and different models emerge to challenge the dominance of the iPhone, it is no surprise to see that augmented reality novelty cards are also available for the Android, “sent” to you by a range of celebrities (including idols, naturally). The nengajou will apparently move and interact with your smartphone, allowing you to get closer to your hero.

If writing out by hand a large stack of cards is not your forte then there are alternatives of course. Leading local SNS mixi has had a digital nengajou for some years now and other services also allow you to send online cards.

However, digital nengajou services seem more like additional versions, rather than replacements. They are especially good for people who only know each other digitally, and in fact delivery services have sprung up for those consumers who perhaps rarely meet and communicate solely as avatars, user names and email addresses.

The usual analog cards seem in no danger of dying out, though, as witnessed by the Japan Post’s street vendors ubiquitous at this time of year, and their haul of some 2 billion cards last year.

Remember how we blogged in October over Japan Rail’s controversial use of Saigo Takamori as the mascot the countdown boards marking the time till the new Kyushu Shinkansen line opens?

Well, as part of the same campaign JR has also recruited Kamakura-based Kayac to create Saigoudoon, a free iPhone app that produces augmented reality versions of Saigo, providing you can find him. Taking the form of a kind of quest, you use the app’s map to check out where Saigo is lurking along the Hakata-Kagoshima line. As the train tracks get closer to Hakata, so too does Saigo. Meanwhile his trademark faithful dog waits patiently at Fukuoka.

If you then actually head to the location the map tells you that Saigo has reached, the app shows you a “giant” image of the leader through your phone’s camera. You are then meant to tweet your sighting.

The app’s website, however, rather forebodingly states that “Saigou is coming” and with the remaining days until the March opening of the bullet train. Given the rebellious history of Takamori, is that perhaps the best slogan?

Continue reading Augmented reality TagCandy creates a virtual taste explosion (video)

Augmented reality TagCandy creates a virtual taste explosion (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kinect hacks aren’t the only projects using depth cameras these days, Intel’s Seattle research lab has also been working on a whole range of projects using what it describes “Kinect style” cameras, and it’s now showing off some of the results. Among the most interesting are a pair of projects that combine a depth camera with a projector for some rather inventive augmented reality applications. One of those examples can effectively bring Legos to life (as pictured above), while the other adds a whole new degree of interactivity to everyday objects, namely groceries — which could let you manage a grocery list using actual fruits and vegetables, for instance, or even warn when you’ve left a tub of ice cream sitting on the counter too long. That’s just scratching the surface, though — the group has also devised a system that can map a room just by walking around with a depth camera, which can then of course be navigated using the very same depth camera and a pair of 3D goggles. Head on past the break for a couple of videos, and hit up the source link below for the rest.

Continue reading Intel research projects bring Legos to life, make groceries interactive

Intel research projects bring Legos to life, make groceries interactive originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 18:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Have you ever stared out into the vast distance and thought “Wow, that’s really beautiful, I’d like to stay and look at that some more. But I’d ALSO really like to go watch Star Wars“?

Everybody has.

But now, thanks to an upcoming Star Wars game for your iPhone, you no longer have to make a choice!

The preview video looks like you’ll be able to shoot fighters over the background of whatever’s on the other side of your phone. From the preview video, it doesn’t appear that the fighters will actually interact with the background (i.e. they don’t seem to fly behind a far off building or any other objects in the picture).

So, at first glance–calling this game “Augmented Reality” (as some are) seems somewhat desperate. For my money, true AR must showcase some kind interactivity with reality. This looks more like a motion-based, first-person shooter that you can use any background you want. I will happily be proven wrong.

According to Augmented Times (though they don’t quote a source), this is “probably” an official Star Wars game and will be available in the app store sometime in in mid-November under the name “Falcon Gunner.”