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This morning brings a revamped augmented reality app to the scene known as Point. Before today, the software was known as IntARact, but along with the new name, users will now find the ability to interact with videos — a neat trick for an app that was previously limited to print ads, logos and the like. At its core, Point allows advertisers to engage their audiences by turning run-of-the-mill ads into interactive experiences. To get your toes wet with this new offering, you’ll need to stumble upon a Point-enabled bit of media and have the app installed on your smartphone. The Point AR browser is available for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian and Windows Phone, which you can find by entering “Pointart” into the search field of your phone’s app market. If you’re curious to see a few Point-enabled sample ads, just grab the app and hit up the IntARact link below.

Continue reading Point brings augmented reality ads to your phone, now with interactive videos

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Don’t think the festivities surrounding Pong’s 40th are limited to official channels. Sander Veerhof of the Netherlands is marking the occasion in his own way with an augmented reality version built as a Layar plugin. Instead of batting the ball across a TV screen, players play across whole continents: anyone who’s been online recently is fair game as a fresh target, and the camera’s field of view gives a sense of where opponents reside in real life. Games won’t be nearly as fast-paced as you might remember from that classic system from the arcade or living room. However, they’ll still be reminders that people worldwide have a soft spot for the Nolan Bushnell title that arguably started the video game industry — and global Pong sure beats a game of global thermonuclear war.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Alt

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Source: SNDRV, Layar

Been keeping up to date with the quirky robotic ball named Sphero? We’ve been wondering when its Augmented Reality Engine would finalize into a full-fledged app since we first witnessed it as E3 as a simple 2D tech demo. Well, Today is the day that this Android and iOS-controlled ball makes it first official-release steps into the world of AR — the engine has grown up, powering Orbotix’s latest free app, Sharky the Beaver. While the game itself is still admittedly silly and demo-like since we saw an early adaptation in August, there’s no question that the AGR is now is a polished state.

As a refresher, unlike other implementations that require a stationary marker, Sphero serves as one that can move around your area, while also relaying information about its position. The 3D character on screen rotates its directions as you spin Sphero, and, as you can see above, it even allows you to pick the ball up while it’s being tracked. The frame-rate of tracking in the app itself looked very smooth, and it does an admirable job keeping track of the ball, even if it ends up off-screen. At the point, gameplay is limited to flicking cupcakes on the ground that Sharky goes to automatically, and there’s no word on if and when we’ll see the features shown off in the early version (namely, the part where the Sharky part of the name was actually a key element, as you chased people on-screen to get their cupcakes). All in all, we’re more curious than anything to see what else the folks at Orbotix will come up with in the realm of AR — for more in the meantime, check out the our video hands-on after the break.

Continue reading Sphero’s Augmented Reality Engine gets fully realized in Sharky the Beaver (video)

Filed under: Misc, Robots, Software

Sphero’s Augmented Reality Engine gets fully realized in Sharky the Beaver (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From existing tech like Face Unlock and Google Goggles to patent filings and Project Glass, it’s clear that Google sees augmented reality and image recognition playing a big part in our computing future. It makes sense, then, that Big G subsidiary Motorola has bought Viewdle — a Silicon Valley company that builds face, object, and gesture recognition technology for mobile devices. We don’t know how much MMI paid for Viewdle, but we do know, thanks to a statement obtained by the good folks at TechCrunch, that the two firms “have been collaborating for some time.” So, hopefully Android will reap the benefits (and fix those Face Unlock flaws) in the not-so-distant future.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Googlerola buys Viewdle, ups Android’s augmented reality and face recognition game originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 21:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japan’s unique language makes calls to other countries a challenge: locals often don’t have much choice but to brush up on someone else’s language or hope there’s a Japanese speaker on the other end of the line. If all goes well with NTT DoCoMo’s planned Hanashite Hon’yaku automatic translation service, international calls will be as comfortable as phoning a store in Nagano. As long as a subscriber has at least an Android 2.2 phone or tablet on the carrier’s moperaU or sp-mode plans, the service will automatically convert spoken Japanese to another language, and reverse the process for the reply, whether it’s through an outbound phone call or an in-person conversation. The service will bridge cultures starting from November 1st, when it will translate from Japanese to Chinese, English or Korean. Indonesian, Thai and five European languages are coming later that month. If you’re not that patient, NTT DoCoMo will provide a holdover on October 11th through Utsushite Hon’yaku, a free Word Lens-like augmented reality translator for Android 2.3 that can convert text to or from Japanese with a glance through a phone camera.

Continue reading NTT DoCoMo preps automatic translation from Japanese through Android, leaves no one an island

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

NTT DoCoMo preps automatic translation from Japanese through Android, leaves no one an island originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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