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Virtual Reality Book Overlays
fiannaFailMan writes "The Magic Book is a technology that allows a user to look through a handheld viewer with a built-in camera and see 3-dimensional models as if they float above the book. The software is clever enough to keep track of where the page is, so if you move the book, the model moves with it. One application is displaying content telling the story of the America's Cup. You can download the application and use your own webcam to view this, minus the 3D effect of course."
Could have many practical applications for those who are a bit crap at following DIY instructions...
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Because children's books have enjoyed most of these book-related innovations, it's easy to overlook the evolution of "book technology" and the ways in which we're bridging the gap between digital media and the printed page.
Nevertheless, BlackMagic still looks like a View-Master, which will prevent some people from seeing it as a serious innovation. I wonder what it will take for this or (more likely) a different technology to be accepted eventually as a hardware standard by textbook publishers, fine art books, etc.
To put this into a broader context, we've already seen numerous proprietary technologies for making children's books interactive; we also have companion CD-ROMs, online rich media supplements, audiobook alternatives for an increasing number of titles, books bundled with audio recordings, and telephone book reading services offered by libraries. Most of these technologies "liberate" the text by adding sound, while only the multimedia supplements liberate illustrations. Therefore I appreciate BlackMagic's achievement, which, like LeapFrog's LeapPad, localizes the enhancements--as opposed to the CD-ROM (et al) that are inherently detached from the book itself.
...It's called a "pop-up book."
Seriously, this seems to be a pretty trivial, and almost useless, implementation of the ARToolkit. If you're going to have to wear goggles anyway to view part of the material, why not just put the whole book in memory and display it that way without having to go through the complicated and clunky "augmented-reality" step?
Haven't seen anyone say this yet, but this is one of many projects based on the GPL ARToolKit. A friend of mine has another project here.
Yet another underwhelming use of VR goggle technology. I can remember when I was working in TV this stuff, along with *cough* interactive video *cough* was going to take over the world. Along with that Philips CD-i player.
VR goggles have their uses but they are mostly for applications where you are already wearing goggles. Me and my snow buddies have been speculating for ages about a pair of VR ski goggles that would use sonar or radar to overlay a contour map of the hill when you were flying down in low contrast conditions... handy for avoiding the death cookies.
I'm not wrong. You haven't thought about it hard enough.