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Microsoft's Augmented Reality, Video Photosynth
Al writes "Microsoft demonstrated new augmented-reality software for cell-phones at the 2009 TechFest conference, which was held this week in Redmond. Instead of using GPS or WiFi triangulation, the prototype system relies entirely on scene-recognition to identify its position and add virtual objects to a video picture of the real world. TechFest is a showcase for lots of projects at Microsoft's various research labs. Other technologies on show included Photosynth for video, an image-tracking system for handwriting, a way of refining image searches using colors, and a 3-D version of Microsoft Surface."
Nothing beats making love to an older woman. Like fine wine, they only get better with age...until they ferment into vinegar.
;)
Older women are best for sex because they are no longer menustrating. You may think that the onset of menopause would make for poor sex but I assure you that, because of the tightening of the vagina and the intense hot-flashes and enthusiasm which accompany such drastic hormonal change, sex with post-menopausal women is preferable to sex with airheaded, greasy interns. The lack of menstruation will guarantee that she will never use that lame "period" excuse for turning down your sexual advances.
Ah -- one more thing -- older women also have a leg-up because, unlike younger tarts, they can initiate and carry interesting conversations without their man's help and they also know when to shut up and let their man have a word in edgewise.
Remember that older women have been known to trigger Oedipal associations which remind you of the bliss of being cuddled, suckling breasts all day, all of your needs attended to. The weathered, leathery skins and voices of older women will take you so far down memory lane that you'll shit your britches with ecstasy! By the way, to prevent her from shitting hers, please remove her colostomy bag and plug her cannula before sex. Plugging her cannula with your penis is not advisable.
The Build-Up: the sultry seduction, the giggly phone calls, the intimate dinner, and then the foreplay. My lips slowly caress her leathery cheeks, then move slowly downward across her vagina-like neck, slowing down at her breasts 2 feet below her neck and finally settling another 2 inches further down onto her mature, trimmed, prolapsed vagina.
Coitus: Ever watch those porn films where the man's penis is so thick that he actually begins to pull the woman inside out - revealing her interior pinkness - on every outstroke? Well, the vaginas of older women tend to be tighter, yet more elastic. What does this mean for you? It means that you could be hung like an Asian and still be able to pull your woman inside out like the biggest and blackest of the studs do.
The Afterglow: This is another area which older women excell in esteem-building because they fall asleep immediately after your ejaculation, which means that you did a good job. She may want a cigarette, but before she falls asleep, you need to remember to administer her oxygen. Side note: the oxygen is also good for foreplay as its effects are much like those of Amyl Nitrate (aka "poppers", a powerful heart stimulant which Mac users take to loosen up their sphincters before anal sex, but I digress) without the drastic effects on the heart.
The Day After: Don't be offended if she forgets to call you or if she forgets who you are. It's not you, it's her
Microsoft speeds too much money on research that they fail to turn into products.
How we know is more important than what we know.
being real
Why the fuck can't Microsoft stop copying Apple and Linux and do something ORIGINAL? Apple did this in 2004!
What the fuck.
...Microsoft already had augmented reality tech running on everything? Seems to be the only explanation for about 1/2 of everything they do/
it's all mine and you can't have any.
I have always wondered whether Google Maps uses similar technology. Otherwise how are they (Google) able to show continuously smooth images of a neighborhood?
They should come out with videosmith, like songsmith but it generates a video for what you're singing!
When you see it with their cell phones, sometimes it suddently display a text with that background. Is like magic!
Too bad that text starts saying "A problem has been detected and Window has been shut down"
What is with all the Micro$haft astroturfing lately on slashdot? Does CmdrTaco need cash to buy more penis enlargement pills?
The ARToolKit which uses openGL has been around for several years. Many have begun the process of porting this over to cellphone architectures. I wouldn't be surprised to see this on cellphones more readily than it has been in the past several years.
Perhaps this is a sign that Redmond is finally starting to focus on being really good at a focused area instead of generally mediocre (or worse) at a huge number of things. It would be a welcome change. Now if we could just convince them that it's cool to port stuff to something non-Windows after a fashion. I don't have any issues with them releasing early versions of things for Windows, but refusing to open themselves up to a larger market is a bummer. I suppose they could make Windows enjoyable to use - in which case I wouldn't mind so much.
Steve Jobs demonstrated the Reality Distortion Field as far back as 1982, when he took over the Macintosh project.
So... instead of using wifi and GPS for pinpoint accurate pinpoint awareness, Microsoft's answer is of course the less efficient and error prone one: nothing but image recognition. How will this perform in low light conditions or areas that haven't been previously photographed and added to the database?
I already have Wikitude on my Android phone and it's outstanding, so I don't see a breakthrough or any innovation here. Just another example of MS doing things the harder, slower, more error-prone way and calling it "innovation."
Reminds me of a book I read last month, Rainbows End.
People run around with 3d goggles on that overlays 3d graphics over the real world, for work and fun.
The author lives here in San Diego, so it was fun to hear him talking about people overlaying Terry Pratchett-style graphics over the interstates I drive on all the time.
A choice video demo-ing the original technology can be found here.
Not mentioned in either of the two original links, but this page features a clip of the augmented reality technology:
http://gamesalfresco.com/2009/02/24/microsoft-to-demo-augmented-reality-at-techfest/
"You can justify anything by putting it in quotes, adding a famous name and making it a sig" - Albert Einstein
This reminds me of the Altered Reality Quake suit that was mentioned in a 2002 slashdot article.
Steve Jobs is coming back in the summer-time theatrical release of
WEEKEND AT STEVE'S
a rip-roaring tale of intrique and espionage, by the famed producers of "Weekend at Bernie's" and "Uncle Ernie's Holiday Camp". Rated PG-13, so bring the kids, and bring your hankey, you'll need it! So much fun for the entire family. Coming this summer!
My concern, as Luddite as it sounds, is that it takes us further and further from reality. It augments our perception of what reality really is. Nothing will be satisfying enough unless it has an overlay on it, apparently adding "value", but in reality, detracting from it. Sure there will be benefits from such technology, but everything is a two-edged sword.
Warning: The building you are about to enter may contain a virus. Are you sure you want to proceed?
That was fair.
Anybody got a link to the swarm of news reports about the millions they spend on Vista's startup sound? I'm Googling it and apparently it's been deleted from the Internet.
I can't be the only one who remembers that theatre of the absurd. And really - how do you delete stuff from the Internet, anyway?
Help stamp out iliturcy.
despite the a.8d exciting;
I have always wondered whether Google Maps uses similar technology.
Image stitching has been around for a long time, and Photosynth is based on a lot of technology and research developed elsewhere.
Photosynth caught on because (1) there are lots of images to stitch now, (2) because they did a good engineering job stitching images that were taken under different conditions, and (3) they did a good engineering job on the UI.
I've played a game on a Nokia phone that utilises the camera and some software just like this too. you then need to turn around (yourself with the phone in your hand) to shoot down enemies from all around you (including up and downlooking too). The software was even sophisticated enough to understand walls and objects in RL that enemies could hide behind!
Here be signatures
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Great nonintrusive interface. Now if someone could come up with an opensource version.
There were some guys doing this for the Google developer's contest on Android back in the day: http://www.enkin.net/
There's a video that shows you how well it worked -- don't know what happened to them, though.
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
The point of your parent is that crediting Microsoft with pioneering these algorithms is sort of akin to saying Al Gore invented the Internet.
While Microsoft may have in fact taken augmented reality into the domain of cellphones and made the tech more accessible and mainstream, they should not be credited with inventing the technology.
None of this is to say that the grandparent (TubeSteak's post) suggests Microsoft invented this technology. I'm only pointing out that all of this defensive and aggressiveness over Microsoft is really unhealthy and, more importantly, unnecessary.
blog
Isn't this photo thing nothing more than replacing a simple solution (GPS) with an extremely complicated one??? Way to go, MR! Your string of impractical duds continues.
Please note that decavolt is a known anti-ms troll. That is all. Bye.
That was the first place I ever heard of Augmented Reality. Really though, I'm just a bit afraid of AR obscuring what needs to be seen when walking down the street, kind of like how some FPS games make you play through this little window that isn't obscured by the HUD.