Sunday, May 09, 2010

Why Mobile Augmented Reality doesn't work

I came back yesterday from Sweden. There, I was in an international conference where I had a work to present.

Being a Nexus One owner, I was very excited before the trip. Applications like Layar and Wikitude would be helping me a lot there, in Stockholm. I didn't know anything about the city, so this Augmented Reality (AR) apps could have been helpful, but it didn't.

Why ?

Are not those AR applications useful ? Yes, they are. But in order to use them, as well as Google Maps, Navigator and Googles, you need internet connection. And here it is when my problems arise.

Enjoying here, Spain, a 3G data connection, I asked about prices in Sweden. They're cheap as far as you have a swedish telephone company, but coming from abroad the things are really different. How much different ? 10 euros / 1 Mb. Yes, it's not a joke.

And that's not something between Spain and Sweden, it seems it is a common problem when traveling in Europe. Fantastic.

So Google and others are providing fantastic solutions and we cannot use them when we're in the perfect situation to use them: when we're abroad.

Thanks we're in a European Community !!! Just enjoy the following picture you can see at Layar website. See the world ! ... if you don't mind to pay a lot for it ;)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

New ways of reading books

Following my previous post, here another example on how iPad and the new tablet devices are going to change the way we read, learn and interact with books and magazines:

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Multitouch devices and education

We have been discussing a lot about the possibilities of multitouch interfaces, speculating about their real advantages over traditional interaction paradigms.

But now, with the current explosion of the iPad and a huge assortment of new multitouch tablet devices to come, we have now real and fully functional applications.

The example of the following video is really very representative. It's really a good example on how these new devices, multitouch enabled, with the new refreshing way of approaching to user interfaces, can undoubtely change fields such as education, magazines, books etc.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

AR at SkyNews

A very interesting AR demo from Total Immersion at SkyNews. Visit this specialised AR French company website for additional online demos and videos.

Without any doubt, Augmented Reality is becoming more and more popular.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Do you want to learn processing ?

Very nice set of 5 tutorials with which you can follow an introduction to processing.
In the last one, a final little demo is generated using input audio and displaying the different band levels in an interesting fading effect.

Created by switchboard (Andy Best).

Processing Tutorial #1 from Switchboard on Vimeo.



Processing Tutorial #2 from Switchboard on Vimeo.



Processing Tutorial #3 from Switchboard on Vimeo.



Processing Tutorial #4 from Switchboard on Vimeo.



Processing Tutorial #5 from Switchboard on Vimeo.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Yes, it's still a prototype, but ...

In the following video from a company called TAT, you can see a prototype of an AR mobile solution of theirs really fantastic. It is a prototype but it looks potentially very interesting.

The problem is legal issues and private rights. What do you think ?

Augmented Reality in one hour

I have discovered a very interesting video describing AR technology in about one hour, focusing on mobile solutions. It is part of the youtube O'Reilly channel. Although it is difficult nowadays to have one hour free, and the sound is very bad, it is really worth watching it.