Inventing Interactive
It seems like there’s a crazy amount of AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) stuff happening right now. I recently posted about my experience with VR and storytelling at Sundance. But there’s a lot of other technology out there — and over the past week or so my browser has, apparently, been overflowing with tabs of […]
A couple weeks ago I was at dinner with some friends. At some point, talking about recent trips, people wanted to see pictures. As iPhones ware passed around (always a little worried that swiping to the next photo might reveal something not intended to be shared), we realized that we could exchange photos with Apple’s […]
Google Project Glass got a lot of buzz a couple months ago when it was first announced. The idea of real-life augmentation built into a pair of glasses showed some really interesting potential uses. But it also highlighted general fears that augmented reality could remove it’s users from really engaging in the world — instead […]
I’m a dork for liking flying and airports as much as I do. It’s not based on any modern reality, just nostalgia for what it used to be like. And one of things I used to love at airports was, while waiting for a flight, going to the observation deck and watching the planes. So […]
Nike, as part of their Jumpman campaign has created a series of commercials called Dominate Another Day, or D3. And the really cool new blog, Huds and Guis, has posted some background information as well as all six videos. Head-up displays, augmented reality, and transparent screens; They aren’t the deepest fantasy UIs, but they’re still […]
Greg Tran’s recent thesis at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, entitled Mediating Mediums, is a fascinating study looking at the cross section between augmented reality and architecture. Specifically he’s interested in moving augmented reality from the digital to the material — so that the augmentation is, essentially, “real.” That’s probably way too much of […]
Qualcomm recently announced the winners of their Augmented Reality Challenge. The challenge was part of a promotion of their AR SDK for iOS. And the winners are pretty cool: 3rd Place: “Danger Copter” by five grad students at USC. It’s a great idea (and my favorite of the winners) — you walk around a very […]
Here are three interesting vision scenario projects from Michaël Harbourn, a designer currently studying in Paris. There’s a fascinating aspect to these projects — I’m not sure if the student, foreign (non-US), or product-design orientation is the source. But his use of morphable surfaces, and quiet, almost meditative, presentation style, is pretty neat. Aeon is […]
At the recent MobileMonday 21 conference, Kevin Slavin (co-founder of Area/Code) gave a fascinating talk on the field of augmented reality: “Reality is plenty, thanks.” And in her blog, Helen Walters gives a great summary: Slavin makes the case that much of the current work in AR is wandering down the wrong street (albeit one […]
Jeremie Francone and Laurence Nigay just published their work for the iPad and iPhone that uses head tracking to figure out where you are, and then adjust the on-screen image to give a 3D feeling to the display. And it looks really cool — 3D without the special glasses. The demos are part of their […]
Here’s a charming Augmented Reality vision piece, “Medley,” created by Mattias Wozniak and Björn Svensson as part of their Masters Thesis at Lund University in Sweden. It’s full of great, beautifully delicate, examples how AR could be incorporated into everyday life. A nice contrast to some of the alternative nightmarish advertising or boring corporate scenarios. […]
Nintendo’s 3DS Augmented Reality games look pretty cool. You place AR cards down, and the handheld gives you a magic view. Nothing especially new, but it’s beautifully done and looks quite responsive. The Archery game, shown here, looks great. It makes me want one 😉 (Link via Engadget.)
London’s Natural History Museum recently opened the interactive film “Who do you think you really are?” It’s the inaugural experience in their David Attenborough Studio lecture theater — a 64-seat theater where each seat has its own tablet computer. The 50-minute film teaches visitors about evolution using a mix of techniques. It looks like an […]
Get your 3D glasses back out — there’s more red-blue goodness ahead! Keiichi Matsuda, who created Domestic Robocop, has a new project: Augmented City. The architecture of the contemporary city is no longer simply about the physical space of buildings and landscape, more and more it is about the synthetic spaces created by the digital […]
Cool UI in credit card commercials? These two 2009 commercials from Chase for their Blueprint Visa cards demonstrate not only some advanced interaction models, but upcoming technology ideas, too. The “Couch” ad features a magic paper bill, with qualities similar to Caprica Paper. The bill lets a customer touch an item to get more details […]
Take a look at this charming new game for the Nintendo DSi — Rittai Kakushi E Atta Koreda which roughly means: “3D Hidden Images: Found it! Here it is!” The premise is simply: explore 3D scenes and find hidden letters… Tilt the device around to see the scenes from different perspectives. What’s beautiful is how […]
Check out this crazy augmented reality scenario by Keiichi Matsuda. Done as part of his masters in architecture, he describes the film: The latter half of the 20th century saw the built environment merged with media space, and architecture taking on new roles related to branding, image and consumerism. Augmented reality may recontextualise the functions […]
When I first saw Peter Greenaway’s film “Prospero’s Books” I was drawn to the innovative use of layering and multiple images to visualize the 24 books that made up the film’s arc. I was inspired. I wanted to explore ways to create interactive books with the richness and complexity as the books in the film… […]