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English HoloChess: Star Wars’ AR chess soon will be reality
May The Fourth, the famous Star Wars Day, is passed but the fever for one of the most loved sci-fi sagas in the world is not gone at all: today we talk about it in relation with augmented reality.
How many of you have seen Episode IV: New Hope? Out in 1977, many will remember that it featured a pretty curious game: it was a holographic chessboard with little alien creatures figures in pure sci-fi style. Well, now the creator of the game decided that the time has come to make it real, thanks to augmented reality.
Some days ago on Kickstarter appeared a new crowdfunding campaign for a game called “HoloGrid: Monster Battle”, that is no less than a version of the famous HoloChess.
The idea is from Phil Tippet, creator of the game and of the scene in the movie, the developer will be the game studio HappyGiant.
HoloGrid will use a technique known as photogrammetry to scan and create 3D renditions of physical objects: Tippet is physically creating the models to scan and insert them in the game.
For now it won’t be exactly the game we saw in the movie, but a version that could be enjoyed thanks to cards and a game board. The plan, however, is to create a version pretty close to the one we all seen.
The Kickstarter campaign will be used to fund the creation of the app for iOS and Android. For HappyGiant this is the first time in the field of AR: “This is our first step into a new world of AR gaming,” says the president Mike Levine, “and while we are launching it on mobile initially so everyone can play it, our long term vision is to bring it to emerging AR and VR platforms.”
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
Space Invaders…in space! Sidekick Project by HoloLens and NASA
Do you remember Project Sidekick? It ‘s the name of the collaboration between Microsoft HoloLens headset and NASA: two samples of Microsoft’s new product for augmented reality vision have been sent to ISS, the International Space Station, for testing and studying the use of alternative realities in space.
The first step, actually, was to test the headset off the coast of Florida during a NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) mission, held underwater to simulate absence of gravity and extreme conditions. After this test, HoloLens reached the international team of astronauts to be tested in orbit. Sidekick Project has two modes: Remote Expert Mode and Procedure Mode; the first one lets experts on the ground see through Skype what the astronauts are doing, helping them with difficult and delicate tasks, the second helps astronauts learn how tools and machines work. All this is possible taking advantage of augmented reality.
Sam Scimemi, director for International Space Station at NASA headquarters, said about these tests that “HoloLens and other virtual and mixed reality devices are cutting edge technologies that could help drive future exploration and provide new capabilities to the men and women conducting critical science on the International Space Station.”
For sure HoloLens is pretty handy in situations in which it’s necessary to be supported by the ground base o to fix a broken machine, but this doesn’t kill the recreational side of the device; Tim Peake and Scott Kelly, part of the ISS Team, took advantage of this to have a pause from work and test augmented reality in space, but another kind than the one you could expect: in the video they play an interesting Space Invaders match in the air 😉
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
Angry Birds The Movie and its augmented reality promotion
Augmented reality, no doubts about it, is the perfect marketing’s ally: Experenti is an example of this, and there are other countless demonstrations. One of these is the promotion of the new Angry Birds movie: Rovio, producer of the mobile videogame loved all over the world, used augmented reality as a main aspect of its marketing campaign.
The movie will be premiered in cinema soon, but if you are a fan surely already knew about this: Rovio activated a promotional campaign that was hard to miss for the players.
Based on experiential marketing, the campaign took advantage of the experience offered to the fans: for the purpose, Rovio created a brand new game, “Angry Birds Action!“, in which the famous little birds are main characters of a puzzle set in a top-down 3D world; however this is just a first step: the lines between game and real life have been blurred by the so-called “BirdCodes“, QR codes that can be found on the movie’s official merchandise and also in its credits. Scanning the codes, and only doing this, will be possible to activate some extra parts of the videogame.
Rovio announced the print of a billion codes distributed all over the world: they can be found on the official merchandise produced in collaboration with other big brands as McDonald’s, H&M, Pez and Lego. Once found the code, it will be possible to scan it with a mobile device and, through augmented reality, enjoy some exclusive content, unblocking new parts of the game. Every company will have a special branded mini-game and to play it will be necessary to scan the code every time: this is how Angry Birds will incentivize the users to physically visit the retail stores or buy the products to own the codes.
The campaign was possible thanks to the collaboration between Rovio and Zappar.
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
The first images of the long-awaited Pokémon Go
Do you remember Pokémon Go, the long-awaited augmented reality version of the videogame Pokémon? Among the fans it’s a race to figure out, or even just guess, some more clues: in fact, the collaboration between Nintendo and Niantic Labs seems to be one of the most secret ever happened.
After the announcement last September, basically there were no other words about the videogame: the majority of fans thought (and hoped) that this version will be released during the 20th anniversary of the game, but these are just hypothesis.
Now, finally, there’s something concrete to talk about, since a leaked video appeared on the web, probably recorded by an attendee to a speech by Niantic Labs’ CEO John Hanke at SXSW, that shows Pokémon Go’s gameplay. From what is visible, the Pokémon will be visualized on a map of the surroundings; tapping them they will be zoomed and put inside the real world scene we have in front. This vision, unluckily, doesn’t show the battle, but it will make possible to choose among different Poké Balls. In the leaked video we can see the capture and the escaping of a Ivysaur, and also a pop-up menu appearing on the screen, making it possible to choose, as we said, the right Poké Ball.
The videogame’s gameplay is pretty similar to the first and famous product by Niantic Labs, Ingress, in which the player walks in the surroundings that, thanks to augmented reality and a mobile device, are a battle field with portals for the factions to conquer.
The leaked video, anyway, shows how the videogame will look and it is pretty far from what expected from the video demo released some time ago, in which Pokémon Go seemed to be more complex and advanced. To swipe off all the doubts, we can just wait for the official release, at the moment yet without a date.
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
[VIDEO] A fight on your desk with Unreal Engine 4
Videogames lovers, this news is for you: imagine you can take you favorite shooter to your work desk and being able to play it between your coffee cup and the computer screen. It is possible thanks to Unreal Engine 4, and a video published by the developer Ádám Horváth demonstrates it:
Unreal Engine is a graphic engine for videogames created by Epic Games and known for the videogame Unreal and its famous follow-up Unreal Tournament; its code is open to the developers, so they can create applications and develop entire videogames using it as a base.
The actual version is Unreal Engine 4, presented in 2013 and released in 2014, and it is the one we can see in action in the incredible video by Horváth: the developer himself shoot with his phone a video in which we can see some character with very good graphic fight one with each other among common use objects placed on the desk. We can’t stop looking at the fighters, but actually the true main character of the scene is augmented reality. It is thanks to the Augmented Reality plugin for Unreal Engine 4 that developers can use the engine to create AR experiences.
There’s more than the highly detailed characters’ graphic: for sure two things standing out are the perfect and real-time shadows and some kind of collision detection, as one thug hits a mug and slumps to the floor.
It seems that the future of videogames is already here: if not in our hands right now, for sure it is just around the corner.
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
Project Tango puts Star Wars characters in front of our eyes
Do you remember Google’s Project Tango? It is the project of a platform working on the Android operative system that joins augmented reality, 3D technology and mobile. Google calls it “mixed reality“. Created some time ago, in 2014 it was opened to the developers so they could have the chance to create projects and products fully capitalizing on its possibilities; with it, Google created two devices for the tests, the Peanut Phone and the Yellowstone 7-inch tablet.
Let’s take this base of information and actualize it to this last period, in full Star Wars mania: what could possibly coming from it? Of course nothing less than a perfect union of augmented reality and the movie characters!
A group of developers, going under the name of Trixi Studios, released a video showing Project Tango in action…with a bit of Star Wars! Here it is:
In the video we can see the digital version of the famous BB-8 drone and also some Stormtroopers and Boba Fett: a user goes around some indoor and outdoor ambient of a place that seems a mall, and in the while he fights groups of enemies on his tablet. The scene is recorded in a video taken directly with Google’s mobile device: we can see different real locations all around the characters, completely immersed inside them; the various scenes of the videogame come to life directly inside the real space, with pretty amazing effects, as the Stormtrooper coming out of the portal.
Star Wars fans, don’t be mislead: the video is not a teaser for a product we will see on the market, but just a simple demonstration; as we can read in the message at the start of it: “This video does not demonstrate an actual product in development; it is just to show possibilities of available Mixed Reality Technology. No copyrights is claimed in content. We are just huge fans of Star Wars!
All footage is captured live, and recorded directly on the tablet device (which resulted in some framerate loss). No post editing was done to the video imagery.”
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
Project Tango ci mette di fronte ai personaggi di Star Wars
Ricordate il Project Tango di Google? Si tratta del progetto di costruzione di una piattaforma che giri con sistema operativo Android e che unisca realtà aumentata, tecnologia 3D e mobile. Google la chiama “mixed reality“. Creata qualche tempo fa, nel 2014 è stata aperta agli sviluppatori perché potessero sviluppare progetti e prodotti che sfruttino appieno le sue possibilità, con due device creati ad hoc per i test, il Peanut Phone e lo Yellowstone 7-inch tablet.
Prendiamo dunque queste notizie e contestualizziamole negli ultimi giorni, in piena fase Star Wars: che cosa ne poteva uscire? Ovviamente niente meno che una perfetta unione di realtà aumentata e personaggi del film! Uno dei gruppi di developers, che si fa chiamare Trixi Studios, ha infatti rilasciato un video che mostra Project Tango in azione…con un pizzico di Guerre Stellari! Eccolo:
Nel video possiamo vedere le versioni digitali dell’ormai famosissimo robot BB-8, oltre a qualche Stromtrooper e Boba Fett: un utente si aggira per alcuni ambienti interni ed esterni di quello che sembra un centro commerciale, e nel frattempo combatte alcuni nemici sul suo tablet. Il tutto è registrato in un video girato direttamente con il mobile device di Google: possiamo vedere gli ambienti reali tutto intorno ai personaggi, che sono completamente immersi in essi; le varie scene del videogioco prendono vita direttamente all’interno dello spazio reale, con effetti, quale quello dell’uscita dello Stormtrooper dal portale, a dir poco strabilianti.
Fan di Star Wars, non illudetevi però: il video non vuole essere il teaser di un prodotto che vedremo sul mercato, ma semplicemente una dimostrazione; come recita il messaggio iniziale, infatti: “Questo video non è dimostrazione di un prodotto in sviluppo; serve solo per mostrare le possibilità della Mixed Reality Techology. Non si possede alcun copyright sul contenuto. Siamo solo grandi fan di Star Wars!
Tutto il filmato è stato ripreso live e registrato direttamente sul tablet (infatti c’è stata un po’ di perdita di definizione). Non è stato fatto alcun ritocco successivo al video.”
- Pubblicato il Gamification
Manus : i guanti per la realtà aumentata
Che la realtà aumentata sia in grado di regalare delle emozioni uniche e indimenticabili è ormai cosa indiscutibile.
Vivere e scoprire ambienti virtuali, osservare oggetti in tre dimensioni senza che questi siano realmente presenti, queste e altre ancora sono le opportunità che la realtà aumentata offre agli utenti, fin ora però tali esperienze “aumentate” hanno sempre visto coinvolti solo due dei nostri sensi la vista e l’udito, e se fosse arrivato il momento di allargare le sensazioni coinvolgendo anche il tatto?
Da qui l’idea di una start up olandese di dar vita a dei guanti per la realtà aumentata che consentono di toccare e controllare oggetti presenti nel mondo virtuale.
I guanti per la realtà aumentata, sono stati presentati, riscuotendo enorme successo e curiosità in occasione dell’E3, il grande evento del settore videogiochi, svoltosi a Los Angeles.
Il dispositivo Manus è costituito da un paio di guanti senza fili, con delle piccole scatolette nere, che consentono a chi li indossa di sentire gli oggetti “aumentati” come se questi esistessero realmente, offrendo così un esperienza ancora più coinvolgente.
I guanti sono dotati di alcuni sensori in grado di rilevare i movimenti delle mani, questi sono presenti su ogni singolo dito, in modo tale da percepire e considerare con estrema precisione ogni singolo movimento delle mani di chi li indossa. Una volta captati i movimenti, i relativi dati vengono inviati mediante Bluetooth e mediante un software open-source ad un visore per la realtà aumentata come ad esempio Microsoft Hololens.
Guardate il video dimostrativo per capire meglio il funzionamento e le potenzialità di questi innovativi guanti.
Secondo l’azienda produttrice il dispositivo Manus sarebbe prevalentemente destinato al mondo dei videogames, e dovrebbe rappresentare l’evoluzione e il futuro degli odierni controller.
Gamers non vere l’ora di giocare al vostro videogame con qualcosa di diverso da una tastiera o un mouse, capace di farvi toccare con mano mondi virtuali? Dovrete pazientare ancora un po’, al momento è possibile effettuare solo il pre-ordine dei guanti, sul sito ufficiale del brand, l’inizio delle spedizioni del prodotto è previsto nell’ultimo trimestre del 2015, il costo si aggira intorno ai 250 Euro.
Punto di forza dei guanti Manus rispetto ad altri tipi di periferiche simili, sarà la grande capacità di adattamento, infatti tanti saranno i tipi di visori supportati, da Google Cardboard ai Samsung e cosi via.
- Pubblicato il Realtà Aumentata
Le potenzialità della realtà aumentata in ambito lavorativo
La rivoluzione, già in corso, legata all’utilizzo della realtà aumentata porterà una ventata di innovazione in diversi ambiti professionali, e stravolgerà del tutto il modo di lavorare.
Emozione, esperienza, stupore, il mondo digitale si sovrappone a quello reale, queste le caratteristiche e gli elementi distintivi della realtà aumentata.
Numerosi i campi di applicazione e i settori che potranno trarre dei benefici dall’utilizzo di questa nuova tecnologia.
Vediamone alcuni:
Ambito medico: La realtà aumentata faciliterà il lavoro del medico soprattutto in sala operatoria, luogo in cui, durante un intervento, il chirurgo potrà accedere a diverse informazioni del paziente, come ad esempio la cartella clinica senza distogliere le mani e lo sguardo dalle manovre in atto.
Editoria: Oggi con la realtà aumentata è possibile coinvolgere il lettore in modo innovativo creando delle esperienze di lettura che vanno oltre la realtà inserendo elementi “aumentati” e contenuti extra alla narrazione. Experenti diventa un valido alleato in questo settore, curiosi? Guardate qui!
E se il lavoro non si svolge sulla terra ma nello spazio? La realtà aumentata arriva anche li! Gli astronauti saranno guidati grazie ai visori HoloLens dagli operatori della NASA, i quali, potranno visualizzare quello che accade e fornire istruzioni anche a distanza. Se la tua prossima meta non è sul nostro pianeta e vuoi saperne di più qui le spiegazioni dettagliate!
Videogames: Da oggi il 2d non basta, gli HoloLens porteranno gli sviluppatori di videogiochi a progettare con una dimensione in più, ossia in 3D.
Vuoi che la realtà aumentata migliori e cambi il tuo modo di lavorare?
Scopri come puoi farlo con Experenti!
- Pubblicato il Realtà Aumentata
HoloLens in action with Minecraft at E3: Microsoft amazes the gamers
At the Microsoft keynote from the E3 2015 press conference, that took place in Los Angeles just few days ago, Microsoft presented a long awaited preview of the famous game Minecraft played with HoloLens.
In fact, it was already known that Microsoft and Mojang were developing a version of Minecraft for the augmented reality headset HoloLens, and, as expected, they decided to give a spectacular proof of the potentialities of the game and the headset together.
In front of the E3 public, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer presented the special version of the game with HoloLens in action.
As first thing, the sandbox version of the game, thanks to augmented reality, can be played wherever: in the video you will see that, with just only a vocal command, a complete, playable Minecraft world appeared on a table. The stability of the hologram, even while the man was moving around, remained perfect, as well as the visibility of the objects. The view was perfect even zooming closer, so much to see inside the buildings.
There was a moment when the presenter wanted to follow another player in the game: the vision zoomed on the player and smoothly started to follow the character.
The commands to interact with the game are just the voice or the Microsoft’s “air tap” gesture where you raise your index finger and tap down, but there’s the possibility of using also the typical controller.
The news are many and the public was very happy of these new features; HoloLens is waiting to be out around January 2016 with the special Minecraft version at a very affordable price.
- Pubblicato il Augmented reality @en
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