Next-Gen Augmented Reality Rears Its Unreal Head

andylim writes "Separate teams at Oxford university and Zentium, a South Korean company, are working on next-gen augmented reality solutions, which make it possible to fuse real and 3D computer-generated visuals on the fly using mobile phones. The team at Oxford university has named its solution Parallel Tracking and Mapping (PTAM) and it has licensed its technology to QderoPateo LLC, which has ambitious plans to grow the mobile augmented reality market and create an augmented reality search and gaming engine running for its 'Ouidoo' smart phone. Zentium's solution is called D-Track and is being used to develop the first markerless mobile augmented reality pet, called iKat. D-Track's mapping technology is very similar to PTAM and allows your phone to recognise the space in front of the camera and create an appropriate space for an augmented reality object or pet."

Comments

Re:Interesting...

[Ltap]

I know what the public will do with it - VR porn. As always.

ARToolkit is awesome

[anomnomnomymous]

I've recently started exploring some Augmented Reality toolkits, and I got to say that for now I -really- like ARToolkit: An open source toolkit, which is very easy to set up, and I'm astonished at how good it is.
If you want to fool around with AR, be sure to give this package a go. Very easy to set up, and the results are amazing.

Only downside (imho) to this is that, for now, it only supports .wrl 3d models (VRML 2.0): But other than that, the source is very cool to modify, and I've been able to let it run (albeit slow) on my N900. Still a lot of work to do though.

Oh noes!

[Em Emalb]

This will be a boon to the advertising "industry".

Those bastard spawn of ultimate evil.

Re:Oh noes!

[CmdrSammo]

Ding ding ding...correct! I work in the Computer Vision field and have already seen presentations of plans to overlay ads inside video content. The example shown was your classic soap opera. The program detects suitable advertising surfaces for example a table top or a wall in a scene and then renders an advert in that location. This is then embedded in the video and tada you now no longer have to worry so much about piracy because you have adverts embedded in the pirated video in a way you can't easily cut out. The program automatically calculates the value of an ad location depending on time on screen, angle to camera etc. and gives a web based front end for buying ads from the TV company.

This could, given enough computation power in phones and cameras, allow companies to place ads in our videos and photographs based on location and orientation. Although it is hard to see why this would be better than placing huge billboars - but still I put nothing past an advertiser with enough intent.

Re:Oh noes!

[natehoy]

Although it is hard to see why this would be better than placing huge billboar[d]s - but still I put nothing past an advertiser with enough intent.

[phone rings]
Facebook: "Hello, this is Facebook Advertising. How may I be of service today?"
MegaCorp: "Yes, I've noticed that a lot of people on your site post pictures and videos that have billboards, signs, t-shirts, and stuff that have my competitor's name on them."
FB: "Sir, that's something we have little control over, since the content is submitted by users."
MC: "No, I'm not complaining, I'm making you an offer."
FB: "Please continue."
MC: "I'll give you $50 million to replace every occurrence of my competitor's logo and artwork with my own for one year."
FB: "We'll have it coded by the time the the check clears, sir. Would you like to have your logo added in subtle ways to other photos and videos as well? That's an extra $50 mil"
MC: "Done."

[another phone rings]
Google: "Hello, Google Maps Division, how may I help you today?" ... ...

4. Profit!

Re:I'm not sure I get it -

[Brackney]

AR gaming is but one application. AR's real promise IMO is in fusing digital information with the real world to create a richer environment for people to accomplish various tasks more efficiently. The military has used this concept for years with fighter HUDs. There are smart phone apps that overlay real-estate data as you pan the camera across a row of houses. It's not just about games, and there are a lot of very interesting applications that come to mind for different industries if you start thinking outside the box.

Re:Interesting...

[Vintermann]

4chan is and crap like that is 100% dependent on anonymity. You don't put goatse on your Facebook profile, and you will also be rather careful what you do to people who are actually standing next to you in real life.