Our own Antão Almada (Strategic Software Development Director) gave a very detailed talk at Universidad de Extremadura for a course on the international development of videogames using open source software.
The video presentation offers up an extensive compilation of Augmented Reality applications and how they are developed, amongst others.
Recently YDreams partnered with North American firm Canesta to produce its latest Augmented Reality 3D demo for CES 2010 in Las Vegas.
Portuguese TV program ‘Futuro Hoje’, hosted by Lourenço Medeiros, dedicated to covering the latest technology has to offer, visited the company to see for themselves what we were up to. More in the video below:
I had a great time at the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality 2009 (ISMAR09). I met lots of amazing and smart people. It’s great to see the faces and talk to people I’ve been following on blogs, twitter and videos.
I’m an engineer so I like to know what makes AR “tick” but, nowadays I’ve been more interested in the interaction side of AR. The first couple of days I attended the “Science and Technology” sessions but, on the last two days, I decided to check the “Arts, Media and Humanities” sessions.
My first reaction to the “Arts, Media and Humanities” sessions was that they had little to do with AR but, I had a great time. One thing artists do very well is question the system.
I had the same feeling about the keynotes. They were great and presented by very interesting people but, were they related to Azuma’s AR definition? At the first glance, they weren’t:
Mark Mine (Walt Disney Imagineering) – Showed how a make believe world is done. (I had the chance to ride all the attractions of “Future World” at Disney Epcot and it is AWESOME.)
Natasha Tsakos (Up Wake) – Did a performance in synch with projected videos. (I did enjoy the show and had the pleasure to talk to her. She not only did the keynote but also participated in the conference and seamed honestly interested on its technological side.)
Pattie Maes (MIT Media Lab) – Presented the famous “sixth sense” project. (Some people argue that it’s not AR.)
Was the ISMAR09 organization wrong to bring these people or was it like an artist questioning the AR state of the art?
Azuma’s AR definition is correct and I agree with it from the point of view of a computer vision scientist but, is there AR beyond it?
“Sixth sense” involves a projector just like YDreams’ interactive floor projections. In the following video you can see “Virtual Garden”, one of the first applications we created.
I recently wrote about what technically Augmented Reality (AR) is all about and, this time, I’d like to express my opinion on the user experience and interactivity (or lack of it) of current AR applications.
Although AR has been around for a long time, its applications have been limited to controlled spaces and are usually costly. Only recently, thanks to the rapid evolution of computers and cellular phones, the general public has had the chance to try it out.
The release of FLARToolKit, an open-source port of ARToolKit to AS3, made this technology available to any Flash developer. It all started with GE’s “plug into the smart grid” and since then everybody is doing it. Unfortunately, most of these applications only show an object floating on top of a marker. This prompted Anatoly Zenkov to create the following sarcastic “Me too!” video:
This raises the big question, what does augmented reality add to the current interfaces and user experience? From the online AR applications I’ve seen, not much. Check out the presentation of John Mayer’s AR video clip at the Adobe MAX 2009. Really cool, for 5 minutes. Notice that the presenter, although enjoying it and smiling, has to change hands holding the marker. Arms become heavy after a little bit in that position. Moving the marker, moves the virtual camera, allowing to see the scene from different points of view. That can also be done with a mouse, like in Street View of Google Maps. The frame rate is awful. Flash brought us back 20 years on 3D programming…
Mobile AR applications suffer from these same problems. What does it add compared to the oriented map displayed by the Maps Ap with pins for points of interest?
On the map I can better visualize distances and best routes. It’s a bit like comparing analog and digital speedometers. When looking at the pointer of an analog speedometer, even at a glimpse, it’s possible to see, current value, relative position to minimum and maximum values, rate of acceleration, etc. The digital meters are cool but most cars have the analog meters…
I don’t want it to sound like AR is useless. It’s quite the opposite. It’s just that, although the concept exists for a long time, real world applications are still in their infancy.
Virtual reality went through this same process in the late 90’s. It failed to deliver most of the promises but it’s still used where it makes sense. Let’s see where AR will fit in…
Augmented Reality (AR) has been all over the web recently, but is everybody talking about the same thing? Is everybody talking about the whole scope of AR or just a subset? Even inside YDreams we disagree on some of this…Wikipedia, while not the holder of the ultimate truth, is a good place to start from. The AR definition, as of 9/30/2009 15:11 (UTC), is the following:
“Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with-, or augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, [...]. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally usable.”
Well, I agree with this definition even though it might be prone to several interpretations. I’ve highlighted the parts I think are important and I’m going to explain my interpretation.
António Câmara will be one of the featured speakers at this year’s addition of PICNIC, underway in Amsterdam from the 23rd to the 25th of September.
António Câmara´s presentation, focusing on Augmented Cities, will explore how Augmented Reality (AR) as a platform can bring new life to cities using a ‘Powers to Ten’ approach: Augmented Reality used on a micro-scale to visualize the intricate workings of utility networks; at an intermediate scale using virtual sightseeing units, and other digital signage; and at the macro-scale with large scale interactive projections.
This however will not be YDreams first visit to PICNIC Amsterdam. The company was represented by Eduardo Dias, company co-founder, at the event for the first time back in 2007; Eduardo Dias, along with NY-based Brand Experience Lab’s (BEL) David Polinchock, gave a presentation about the future of Augmented Reality in Advertising. The meeting of ideas and strategies later led to a partnership with BEL and the creation of Audience Entertainment, a joint-venture to deliver interactive videogames for theaters, stadiums, music venues and others around the globe. The company’s work in AR presented at PICNIC ‘07 also caught the attention of the Economist giving way to an article in theirTechnology Quarterly December 2007 edition.
PICNIC is a unique, three-day festival and inspiring conference complimented by a set of networking events and hands-on technology experiences for top creatives and innovation professionals in business, technology, new media, entertainment, science and the arts.
The event draws a wide audience, from heads of business, government leaders, marketers, artists, designers, producers, investors, scientists and innovators.
Yesterday Bruce Sterling referenced our augmented reality scenic viewer on his blog! Bruce commented that “it was Interesting to see a kiosk application. If you can call that device a kiosk.”
And of course it is so much more than an average kiosk. Dubbed a virtual sightseeing scenic viewer, the totem-like device spins 360º and features a built-in screen and webcam that captures and displays exactly what you see before you on the screen in real-time. The magic resides in the fact that it uses augmented reality to merge virtual digital elements such as video, text and images with real live points in the landscape. Imagine aiming the scenic viewer at the Bastille in Paris and being able to watch a 3D historical recreation of the angry mobs storming the fortress-prison during the French revolution! The possibilities are endless and the Virtual Sightseeing scenic viewer has the capacity to make it real.
Below a video of our first scenic viewer deployed at Pinhel Castle in central Portugal back in 2005:
Lisbon’s National Pantheon also hosts our augmented reality scenic viewer:
YVision, developed in-house by YLabs, our R&D center, is an advanced programming platform that creates powerful interactive multimedia applications that combine technologies such as 3D, physics simulation, computer graphics and gesture interaction, in a stable and efficient environment.
I recently learned that Pedro Alvares Cabral, the man who commanded the Portuguese armada that ‘happened’ upon Brazil, hailed from Belmonte – a small, charming town in north-central Portugal.
The town decided it was time they had a space exclusively dedicated to the Portuguese era of the discoveries – they called it Centro Interpretative de Belmonte. They also called on YDreams to add their special brand of creative technology to this singular museum space.
I was recently there with a film crew to get footage of the center, and not wanting to sound biased or anything, I’ve got to say that all parts involved (YDreams with all the interactive design components, conception and narrative and Pitanga Design with the scenography) did a fantastic job in recreating an unparalleled journey into the era of Portuguese discoveries, and the armada’s first encounters with the new world.
Exploring Belmonte’s Interpretive Center was a lot like a trip to a theme park with the historical contents of course - a treat for kids of all ages. The scenography combined with the design and amazing gesture-based apps made the narrative exciting and alot of fun to explore.
Some of my favorite apps include a huge screen projection that displays and plays the instruments used in popular Brazilian music genres like Samba, Bossa Nova and Chorinho. Arrows on the floor in front of the projection tell you where to step, skip or dance about to ‘magically’ turn the instruments on and off, or create your own unique combination of cool sounds.
In the room next door another interactive app recreates the vibrant pace and sounds of a traditional Brazilian market stall. Wooden paddles with special markers let you see yourself alongside the colorful fruits and vegetables native to the region in a large-sized plasma in front of you.
There is plenty to keep you informed and entertained but don’t take my word alone, pack the family and friends into a car and head over to Belmonte to see for yourself!
For a brief teaser, or if you can’t make it there anytime soon, have a look at what’s on in Belmonte in the video below.
YDreams’ CEO, António Câmara, Ivan Franco and Inês Henriques sat down with ‘Falar Global’, a program on SIC Notícias. which looks at the impact information and knowledge technologies have on our daily lives.
The interview covers a range of topics that include YDreams’ take on what we can expect from televisions of the future, as well as the company’s work in the field of augmented reality, and in transforming the objects and surfaces around us into screens people can interact with.
I always download the “This Week” show, with Dan Fernandez and Brian Keller, onto my portable player and listen to it during my commute. They mentioned the “Show Off” contest on one of the last episodes and I thought it was a great opportunity to literally ‘show off’ YDreams at the Microsoft MIX09 event.
I was busy and left it for later but after a sleepless night preparing a presentation, I suddenly noticed it was the last day to submit a video, so instead of going to bed, I screen captured a couple of demos we’d made using our YVision platform, quickly edited the video on Movie Maker and sent it off.
Only after receiving an email from Dan the following day, ‘asking if the video had no audio’, did I notice that I had an extra day (I had read the deadline date after midnight, thus the date mix-up!) The good news was that I had time to find a great song in Jamendo, add it to the video and re-submit it (thanks Dan).
The honorable mention awarded the video, by our peers at MIX09, goes directly to the great team that YDreams is. Their commitment to excellence allowed me to create this video in just a couple of hours.
Have a look as one of our YLabbies tests some YVision-based apps on Magalhães (the made-in-Portugal classmate pc) with an Intel(R) Atom(TM) N270 CPU @ 1.60GHz and an Intel(R) 945 Express chipset.
With a couple of upcoming YDreams projects related with interactive urban furniture and environments, we couldn’t help noticing REACTIVATE!!, a really interesting looking exhibition, dealing with the concept of Instant Urbanism. (via we make money not art)
We don’t do robots, but that doesn’t mean we don’t find them cool.
Data visualization is such an interesting area, especially when working with interfaces and information design, with results that go from annoying garble to stunning functionality. Take a look at this article about the ‘most interesting modern approaches to data visualization‘, some really great trends here.
Flapi, our in-house Augmented Reality mascot, is in the spotlight again. After a high-profile stint at Engadget, this time Flapi stars in an Exame Informática (a Portuguese leading IT magazine) article and video.
You can find the video below, where Ivan Franco, our R&D Director, talks about YDreams’ work with Augmented Reality, and showcases Flapi and the Interactive Bubbles (in portuguese):
Games Alfresco has just referenced YDreams’ SimVideo as one of the top 10 Augmented Reality engines around (post). The blog is dedicated to the pursuit of the ultimate augmented reality game, and features a lot of information about AR and related developments. Jump to gamesalfresco.com for more.
Following other YDreams’ products with AR, such as the Virtual Sightseeing Scenic Viewer and augmented books, SimVideo extends the possibilities of these technology applications by providing a large set of tracking, simulation and composition functionalities with very low hardware requirements, due to a very powerful proprietary platform.
With this technology we envision applications such as real time competition with F1 drivers during a Grand Prix Tv transmission, the re-enactment of famous movies, performing alongside or replacing ones favourite actors (imagine Woody Allen´s Broadway Danny Rose inverted) and an enormous variety of augmented reality applications.
With SimVideo, video feeds that are either live or pre-recorded can gain new levels of interest through the addition of an individual layer of contextualized interactivity.
SimVideo implements static and dynamic occlusion, static and dynamic shadow casting, collision detection and physics.
Related experiences have demonstrated real characters interacting with virtual objects, new developments already undertaken in SimVideo are leading to virtual characters affecting and controlling real world objects. Soon one will be able to see Flapi turning real lights on and off and other real world objects controlled by virtual characters.
The main idea is merging real and virtual life in a seamless universe that tends to become one.
Microsoft Techdays, one of the biggest tech-events in Portugal, is underway at the Lisbon Congress Center from the 11th to the 14th of March. The four-day event is aimed at “IT professionals, programmers and students” in related fields and is expected to draw over 2000 visitors.
YDreams will be on hand with their ubiquitous Magic Book, a yWalk (interactive floor projection) and one of their latest developments yFaces, an augmented reality-based app that manages to positively surprise users everywhere.
YDreamer Pedro Matos will be participating in a key-note speech about Virtual Coast, a prototype developed by the creative technology provider that runs on Microsoft’s Virtual Earth platform, and will be used by IGP (the Portuguese Geographic Institute) to develop a series of next-generation geographical applications. Antão Almada, from YLabs, the company’s R&D unit, will also give a talk about “building support infra-structures and applications for events such as Techdays” tomorrow at 17:15 in Room A7.
Techdays 2008, March 11th - 14th Venue: Lisbon Congress Center (Centro de Congressos de Lisboa) Portugal
On the 28th of September, Eduardo gave a conference at Picnic’07 about Augmented Reality. The event had some considerable media exposure and apparently caught the eye of Ben Sutherland, a journalist from The Economist, who was preparing a piece about Augmented Reality. The reporter called up YDreams wanting to know more about our work in Augmented Reality. The Virtual Sightseeing caught their eye.
What ensued was a mention in the Technology Quarterly edition of one of the most renowned newspapers in the world, er, yes, The Economist is a newspaper =) :
‘Augmented enjoyment’
“The technology also has less serious uses, however. YDreams, a marketing and digital-media firm in Lisbon, Portugal, has developed an AR sightseeing viewer called VSS. The first such machine, bolted atop a battlement on the 12th-century Pinhel Castle in north-eastern Portugal, delights tourists who tilt it up, down and around for an augmented view of the castle and its surroundings. Place names and explanatory text are superimposed over objects seen through the viewer’s screen, and animated graphics show how some structures were built or destroyed. The number of visitors has doubled since the viewer was installed in July 2006, says Isabel Almeida, who manages the castle.”
(excerpt, read the full article)
