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English Magic Leap: the mysterious startup wanting to bring magic to the real world
During last weeks we already talked about some headsets and wearables on Experenti’s blog: from Hololens to Vive, from Google Glass to Sony SmartEyeglass; maybe we saw just the prototypes, but we know what to expect.
Today, instead, we are going to talk about a mysterious project that is keeping on their toes the Augmented and Virtual Reality enthusiasts from all over the world: about a year ago, Google invested no less than $ 542 million in a startup called Magic Leap. Of course, everyone started to wonder what was at the back of Magic Leap’s project to interest a colossus like the big G. The situation became thorny as the answers didn’t come.
What we know about Magic Leap is that they’re working on a wearable, probably a headset, which blends Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, and that it’s not meant to be used as stationary. Nothing more. Aren’t you starting to be curious too, now?
The world of the web and technology enthusiast was expecting some answer from the recent Reddit AMA that Magic Leap’s CEO Rony Abovitz held about a month ago. When the users asked Abovitz how he’d explain Magic Leap, he replied in an even more confusing way: “You can think of us as techno-biology,” he said. “We believe it is the future of computing.” Then he explained his meaning of techno-biology: “is the proper application of technology to our biology that leads to the experience of magic.”
From what can be understood, it seems Magic Leap will be different from other headset for a main point: if they put you in a virtual world, Magic Leap will focus on take the magic in the real world. He added that their technology is called “cinematic reality” and it’s not based on the use of stereoscopic 3D, but on Lilliputian projector to shine light and images into the user’s eyes instead.
After that occasion, another one filled the curious with expectations: in march, Rony Abovitz was supposed to appear at TED to talk about his company’s mysterious work. At the last moment, unluckily, the company deleted this and another appearance for reasons unknown. They sent a video, though, that left the users without words: this is what’s apparently happening in Magic Leap headquarters:
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
Dead Men’s Eyes: an app that brings past-worlds to life
Imagine you could live in a past era through the evidence it left: buildings, streets, artifacts. If history is your passion, probably you already did and also thought many times: “if only I could have a time machine!”
It seems that now someone passed from the simple thought to the action: his name is Stuart Eve, he is an archaeologist and he’s working on an app for mobile devices called “Dead Men’s Eyes” that could take in front of our eyes and – why not? – all around us, the past. How? With Augmented Reality, of course!
First Eve built a system based on a smartphone, an Arduino microcontroller and a Unity3D application. As a second step, he went through the sites recording his path and ideas, and then he recreated the landscape in a coordinate-based mapping program. Last step: he created the structures and placed them into their proper locations on the map with the Unity3D.
At this point, with just an iPad in the hands he was able to go around and see the past come to life. In the video below, you can have an example of the augmentation of a Roman Fort:
Eve is even more ambitious: he is working on taking to the very place they belonged long ago not just only sight, but also smell and sound of the historical places. This is still a bit to work on, though, but the idea is incredible.
If you are asking yourself: yes, the name of the app is inspired to a book, a short story by M.R. James called ‘Dead Men’s Eyes’ (or A View From The Hill) in which a man uses a pair of old binoculars to view grisly episodes from ages past. Very appropriate, isn’t it?
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en, Museum
NASA tests Augmented Reality glasses to be used on the ISS
Augmented Reality can be very useful for many operations; during these months, we saw it used for various purposes, sometimes on mobile devices, sometimes on headsets. If it can be so useful daily on earth, think how much it could improve the life of astronauts in space. This is why NASA is testing a pair of Augmented Reality glasses that, if successful, are going to be used on the International Space Station.
At first, NASA tried to approach repeatedly Google trying to get them to work on a pair of special Google Glasses, but the Company said they were working only on consumers.
So NASA has partnered with San Francisco-based Osterhout Design Group (ODG) to develop augmented reality glasses that could supplement computers for astronauts. The ODG Company has been building high-tech glasses for commercial and government use for the past six years, and the latest model pack HD displays and cameras, Wi-Fi, GPS, positional sensors and headphones. Currently these glasses have been used mostly for military use, but now the company, while testing also with NASA, is preparing a version for the consumer market.
The primary objective is to help astronauts fixing equipment in space: now they do that just reading printed instructions, but with these new glasses, they would be able to get the directions directly in front of their eyes since they will be uploaded in the headset. This will leave their hands free, also, making it easier to fix.
“As electronic directions and instructions replace paper checklists and longer duration missions are considered, there is a need for tools that can meet evolving demands. ODG’s technology provides an opportunity to increase space mission efficiencies and we are pleased to explore its potential in human spaceflight while also advancing its use here on earth.” said NASA Johnson Space Center Engineering Director Lauri Hansen. “Just put the glasses on and say ‘Next step,’ and you’re looking through an instruction manual”.
The glasses are currently being tested in NASA’s underwater Extreme Environment Mission Operations lab before being used on the ISS.
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
Beauty industry and Augmented Reality: Sephora’s new digital strategy
Have you ever thought to the perfect bond between beauty industry and Augmented Reality? Probably there’s no technology more suitable for trying on make-up and learning how to use it, and Sephora seems to know this very well.
Some months ago (June 2014) the company launched in its shops an Augmented Reality mirror that was adding the make-up to the customers’ face; this made the choice of the right product easier for everyone, who could see live the colors and shades on the skin.
The video below is right about this functionality:
The study of sales and trends highlighted how video is huge in the beauty industry: it seems that, especially when talking about millennials, sales widely increase when there are multimedia contents. Sephora, after analyzing data, decided to use this occasion and to experiment with Augmented Reality. Through the app “Sephora-to-go”, the customers will be able to get augmented content just focusing on the faces of more than nine brands’ founders, including Kat Von D and Laura Mercier.
After scanning the images, the customers will see product videos, interviews, images and YouTube playlists, and the links to Sephora’s site for every product, so it will be easy to purchase directly from the app.
Augmented Reality is a part of Sephora’s new digital strategy. It includes also the app The Pocket Contour Class that, uploading a selfie, analyze the shape of the face and gives tutorials on that base, and the so-called Beacons, part of the app Sephora-to-go that reminds the customers special promotions, birthday month benefits, and get a reminder to take advantage of in-store services like mini-makeovers.
- Pubblicato il Advertising @en, Augmented reality @en
Experenti and San Benedetto together to augment water bottles packaging
As you probably already know, Experenti is a company working with Augmented Reality and Experiential Marketing; this means that we help our clients to make their promotional strategies unforgettable, giving to the user not only the essential information about the product or the service, but also gifting him a true experience through Augmented Reality.
We already recommended to you our Press Kit, which you can download and then use to try our app (free and available for Android and iOS) and get an idea of our work; nonetheless, today we add a new project that we just ended: it’s the work that Experenti made for the famous company San Benedetto.
Our intervention was in range of the promotion of Aquavitamin, non-alcoholic drinks with high content of vitamins in San Benedetto water, and consisted in the creation of a mobile app and of the relative Augmented Reality tags for the product. Aquavitamin’s advertising has been printed on the plastic of water bottles’ package and, once you download and start the Aquavitamin app, you just have to focus it and enjoy your advert experience: all the colored little bottles will appear in front of us through the smartphone’s screen and you will be able to go along and choose the one you want to know more about.
Working with us, San Benedetto found a highly engaging modality of promotion for their Aquavitamin, and also a way of giving all the information about it: colored images and videos will be available on the mobile devices of every San Benedetto customer.
You want to know something more? Watch our explanatory video:
- Pubblicato il Advertising @en, Augmented reality @en, Experenti @en
Ingress soon on Android Wear smartwatch: a deeper look on the AR Game that betters your life
It’s been online from 2012 and soon it will be available even for Android Wear smartwatch. Who knows what we are talking about?
About the game Ingress, of course.
If you don’t know what we are talking about, here is a short description: we are sure after you will want to try it!
Ingress is a mobile videogame developed by Google and based on Augmented Reality, since it’s played directly on the real geography of the places around us. It works like this: once you downloaded the app and accessed the game, you are asked to join a faction choosing between Enlightened and Resistance. You can’t change the faction later, so be sure of your first choice. At this point, through your phone’s GPS, you will be localized on a map resembling Google Maps, just more sci-fi. Immediately you will be able to see some big lit up points: these are the “Portals”, generally put where historical and artistic spots are. The colors of the Portals will be different, depending if they are neutral or conquered by the Enlightened or the Resistance. Physically moving around we will collect Exotic Matter (XM), an unknown form of energy found on the entire planet, which will allow us to interact with the Portals. The aim of the game, of course, is to conquer the portals of the opposite faction, attacking (Hack) and then defending them with Resonators and Mods.
Ingress is not only an interactive game, but also an app that helps us to know better the world we have around through Augmented Reality: some Portals, in fact, are in interesting places we never even knew the existence of. In addition, in an age in which a lot of us pass hours and hours sitting at the desk, a game based on the physical interaction with the places we have around is good for health and exercise.
Ingress is an example of a playful activity that, thanks to Augmented Reality, affects positively on the users’ life. Ingress is available for Android and iOS and it’s free; what faction will you choose?
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
HTC and Valve together for Vive: the future of gaming will be augmented
Reading the news about Augmented Reality seems to be no doubt on the passage from mobile to wearables. Today, to further prove it, we talk of the announcement of a new headset: the name is Vive and will be created by HTC in partnership with the popular gaming company Valve Software.
What are the features of HTC Vive?
Talking about the design, HTC prototype looks similar to Facebook’s Oculus Rift headset, but there’s a substantial difference compared to other competitors: Vive, other than the headset, comes with some base stations” that you place inside your room and handheld controllers, so the device can track your physical motions and your moves in reality are transferred in the virtual reality.
As you can imagine, this key feature is widely related to the world of videogames; after all, Valve is the owner of the famous gaming platform Steam, which counts for not less than 125 million active accounts, and surely is not a detail that can remain in the background.
Nonetheless, HTC didn’t think only to gaming for its Vive, but also to other possible application fields; using HTC chief Peter Chou’s words:
“Virtual reality will totally transform the way we interact with the world, and will become a mainstream experience for the consumer,” he said “Attending real-time concerts, learning history, watching an incredible movie, reliving memories through photos or shopping experiences will be transformed.”
An example of this is the promotion of movies and TV shows: the company announced also other partnerships with Lionsgate and HBO.
For now HTC Vive is available only in the Developer Edition, but the company said that around the end of 2015 will be released also the Consumer Edition. Do you want to be the first to know? Keep an eye on their site http://www.htcvr.com/
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
Sony SmartEyeglass and Attach: the Developer Edition will arrive in March
At CES 2015, Sony presented two interesting new entries in the Augmented Reality wearable devices market: Sony SmartEyeglass and SmartEyeglass Attach.
SmartEyeglass is Sony’s answer to Google Glass: a pair of glasses as in the case of the Cupertino company, but with some significant differences. The first difference is clear: while Google Glass are not catching the eye at first gaze, Sony SmartEyeglass have thick frames resembling ski goggles; consequently, they are not particularly discreet. In addition, SmartEyeglass have to be worn with a disk pinned to clothes: this is the battery and the remote for the glasses, so the user doesn’t have to vocally communicate with the Android system. This is a pro because the user will not have to say in public what he is going to do, but also creates a privacy issue: the people interacting with him will never be sure if they are being captured on screen. Last but not least, there’s a big difference in the display: while Google Glass have a delimited view on a side of a lens, SmartEyeglass have a display integrated in the lens and monochromatic, with layered vivid green written information. Even in this case there are pros and cons: the focus of the layered elements on Sony’s product will be easier, but the view will be mostly occupied with data. To make an idea of how this device works, watch the presentation video:
Another product presented by the japanese company, maybe even more interesting, is Sony SmartEyeglass Attach: it’s a little device that can be attached at the side of our glasses and sunglasses to turn them into head-mounted displays. As for Google Glass, SmartEyeglass Attach creates in front of one of your eyes a discreet display that can be easily ignored until required. The battery in this case is inside the little device, so it doesn’t have to be pinned to clothes as we seen for SmartEyeglass. At CES, the SmartEyeglass Attach was already on the Sony glasses, so it was not possible to try it and be sure of the ease of the attachment on the glasses, but the device seems to be very light and easy to use.
While Sony SmartEyeglass Attach doesn’t have a release date yet, the Developer Edition of Sony’s SmartEyeglasses first seen at CES 2015 are now available to pre-order from Sony for £540 plus VAT (circa 670 euro).
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
Mattel and Google together for the new View-Master
Who never tried View-Master? Maybe you don’t know its name, but surely, looking at the images of this article, something will come in your mind. Presented for the first time in 1939 at the World’s Fair in New York, this toy headset accompanied generations of children, surprising them with its 3D images. In the past, this seemed pure sci-fi; today, on the other hand, it’s like prehistory of technology, and in fact Google and Mattel created a partnership to modernize the toy viewer. How? With Augmented Reality, of course!
The new View-Master will run on the Google Cardboard platform and will have special contents in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality for children and families. The two companies, which gave in last days the news of the production of the new 3D stereoscope, said that the headset would work with any type of smartphone on any operating system.
Obviously, some changes have been made to the original device: the images disks are now “Experience Reels”, and they’re not inserted directly in the viewer but they just remain in front of the user. What is inserted in the headset is instead our smartphone, with which we’ll aim at the reels. The famous View-Master’s side button, that in the original device was used to roll the disks, now is used to choose the options that will appear in front of our eyes once we focus on the Experience Reel.
As you can see in the video below, this will immerse us in a unique, highly interactive experience.
View-Master will work also with all the other Google Cardboard apps, that you can download here.
Another surprise is the price: since View-Master is basically just a plastic phone holder, the device is only $29.99 (with one experience reel included); the Experience Reels will be sold in multiple packs for $15.
It seems that View-Master will be released next October.
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
“Piero della Francesca – Il disegno tra arte e scienza” – Art and Augmented Reality
Passionate about Art and Augmented Reality? At Palazzo Magnani in Reggio Emilia, Italy, there will be the exhibition you are waiting for: “Piero della Francesca – Il disegno tra arte e scienza” (The drawing between art and science) is held from March 14 until June 14.
This isn’t only an exhibition showing the amazing works of Piero della Francesca and the other protagonists of the theory and practice of perspective drawing and architecture of Italian 15th and 16th centuries, but also an occasion to enjoy the Italian Renaissance Art through multimedia installations and Augmented Reality apps.
About a hundred works will be displayed, accompanying the visitor along a path that follows the various chapters of “De Prospectiva Pingendi” (On perspective in painting), one of the most important testimonies of the work made on perspective by Piero della Francesca, so that walking from a room to another will be a bit like leafing through the treaty’s pages. The drawings of the treaty are transformed into 3D models and the famous “Ideal City” of Urbino, one of the masterpieces of Renaissance perspective, will be explained through Augmented Reality.
If you want to see an example of the use of Augmented Reality in art, just download Experenti’s app (free for Android and IOS) and use it on the “Museum” tab of our Press Kit: after seeing our WOW experience you will not want to miss the exhibition!
- Pubblicato il Architecture, Augmented reality @en, Museum