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DIY Augmented Reality Heads-Up Display
mkwan writes "A PhD student in Melbourne, Australia, has built an augmented reality head-up display using a baseball cap, an Android smartphone, and off-the-shelf optics. It won't win any awards for style or practicality, but it's a fun way to use Wikitude. All we need now is a Terminator-vision smartphone app."
Not nearly as modern, but vaguely related: the Private Eye P4.
It must also augment his reflection in the mirror if he thinks he should go outside with a smartphone and a block of styrofoam taped to his hat.
1. Make mountable earpiece with technician one-ear headset.
2. Link lens to single eyepiece.
3. HUD app.
4. Make deliberately fragile and cheap.
5. Infinite business as geeks the world over keep buying them to crush while screaming that it's over 9000.
He could have reduced the CV value of the gear if he didn't use double mirroring - i.e. the phone could be horizontal, screen down. One fewer mirror is better quality. Software can mirror the screen contents (I tried an Iphone in a similar setup, using the car windshield as the mirror). As a next project, the camera could continuously monitor the user's eyeballs and determine where in the real life and on the screen he is looking at, including depth! Also, whenever an image is shown on the screen to augment reality, the phone uses not plain images but light field camera (Lytro; might go on the hat too) pictures so it can be refocused as the user's eyes indicate various depth. Stuff like this becomes almost practical: http://vimeo.com/timoarnall/light-painting-wifi and add CMU Johnny Chung Lee's techniques for depth simulation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw&feature=player_detailpage#t=165s) and motion tracking (Minority Report). Maybe for better precision, use some laser light to determine the focus depth and exact direction the user looks at. Then Apple should blow 10Bn on converting the entire gear into one fashionable eyepiece, that doubles as sunglasses, available with a black or - much later - white frame. _That_ will bring the CV value down.
Have ask what 'You don't say (so)!' think It is a pus to think such Christ alive!
Obviously.
You're preaching to the choir here buddy.
I guess the whole point of it is to say that it is rather easy to create a (although perhaps rather ugly) HMD. Which is nowhere for use by common folk. The whole point of it proving that there is no real excuse for there not to be on the market other than no demand for it.
Say what you want, but he at least managed to get it working. Which I didn't, and I haven't seen somebody selling one of those.
I don't care if I'm wrong. I only care about everyone obtaining something from the discussion.
Seems like augmented reality has been a popular research area in Australia for a while. At LCA a few years ago there was a presentation by another PhD student on his AR project and I even got to try out the gear (somewhat bulkier than this latest one though):
http://www.tinmith.net/
The TV Hat looks awesome, but it's a virtual reality setup, not augmented reality. You can't see where you're going while you're wearing it.