Back in 2009 we published a post highlighting 8 video games that feature photography. One of them was Fatal Frame, and an upcoming spin-off of the game will involve using an actual camera during gameplay. Shinrei Shashin, which translates to “Spirit Photo”, is being developed for the Nintendo 3DS, and makes heavy use of the portable game system’s 3D-capable cameras. Imagine playing the game in a dimly-lit room, and seeing a ghost in your room through the camera — horror games may soon become a whole lot more creepy thanks to built-in cameras and augmented reality. No word on release date, or whether the game will be available outside Japan.
In addition to slowly replacing the need for compact cameras, the cameras found on mobile phones will also have a huge impact on how we live our lives in the area of augmented reality. Word Lens is a crazy new free app for the iPhone that translates between Spanish and English in real-time in the video feed, allowing you to read the world in your language through your cell phone. As this technology becomes available for more and more languages, it will change the way people survive in foreign countries.
As the cameras on mobile devices are used more and more for augmented reality applications, one thing we’ll undoubtedly see more of is augmented reality gaming, where the real world becomes part of the game. The above video shows some test footage of the upcoming game “Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner”, which uses the camera on the iPhone (or iPod Touch) to turn real locations into places you need to defend from the Empire’s attack.
Content aware fill was mind-boggling enough when it came out earlier this year, but what if the same concept could be applied to video… while the camera is recording? That’s the idea behind Diminished Reality, a topic being researched by Jan Herling and Wolfgang Broll at the Ilmenau University of Technology in Germany. Basically, you select something in the scene against a uniform background, and it disappears from the resulting video. Pretty crazy.
Barcodes can be found everywhere, but using existing barcode systems with ordinary cameras require that the barodes be printed large or that the camera be placed close to the code. MIT’s Bokode project is a new system that magically stuffs barcodes into bokeh, allowing ordinary cameras to be used as barcode readers from a distance. The codes are contained in little points of light that only turn into codes when viewed through an out-of-focus camera lens. You’ve probably seen how little bright points of light grow into larger and fainter points of light when you defocus. Read the rest of this entry »
Streetmuseum is a new (and free) augmented reality iPhone app created by the Museum of London that allows you to browse historical photographs in various parts of the city.
The app leads you to various locations around London using either the map or GPS. Once you’re there, click the “3D View” button, and the app will recognize the location and overlay the historical photograph over the live video feed of the real world, giving you a brief glimpse into how the past looked.
We’ve seen projects that overlaid historical photos over modern ones, but this is the first time we’ve seen an augmented reality app do it for you in real time. Here are a few more examples:
If only this were available in every big city around the world.
This is one of the coolest gadgets we’ve seen in quite some time. The Parrot AR.Drone is a quadricopter that you control visually through wifi using your iPhone or iPod touch. The quadricopter has a built in camera that displays the real time view of the drone on your screen while you control it. We’re not sure if still photography or video capabilities are built in, but this could open the door to making simple aerial photography accessible to the general public.
What’s even cooler is the fact that the AR.Drone comes with augmented reality games for both single and multiplayer. This means the real world is turned into the battleground, and you can either have aerial fights with virtual enemies or your friend’s quadricopter!
Parrot is currently showing off the carbon-fiber toy at CES 2010 in Las Vegas, and there isn’t any word on the pricing or availability yet. If the price is anything reasonable, you can be sure these things are going to be flying off shelves!
To whet your appetite even more, here’s a super-awesome video demonstrating how the AR.Drone works:
What’s even cooler is the fact that the AR.Drone comes with augmented reality games for both single and multiplayer. This means the real world is turned into the battleground, and you can either have aerial fights with virtual enemies or your friend’s quadricopter!
