Now while this might not be as visually impressive, the implication of this little application is very very exciting. You might be asking what
AR (augmented reality) is so i'll give you a little definition.
Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally usable. Artificial information about the environment and the objects in it can be stored and retrieved as an information layer on top of the real world view. The term augmented reality is believed to have been coined in 1990 by Thomas Caudell, an employee of Boeing at the time. -wikipedia
Okay now that the highbrow lingo is out of the way and everybody is with me (hopefully) i'll continue rambling. Hollywood has been playing with the idea of AR for years now, but no one really stopped to think that we could actually do it in the real world. The first time i physically came in contact with AR was when i saw a demonstration of the Sony eyepet for the Playstation 3, although at that time i was not aware that i was dealing with actual AR.
A cute little monkey dog cat thing for you to play with
The eyepet game allows you to interact with your virtual pet via a little camera mounted on you television that connects with your Playstation 3. There are various things you can do to your pet like tickle him, pet him, play games with him etc. Now while this might be a very basic form of AR it's still impressive. To see more go to www.eyepet.com.
Being an advertising art director my mind naturally flared up with ideas of how to implement this into my field, and this also made me think of how potentially annoying this technology can become if abused (of course it will be). Ads will explode in your face and you'll literally have to swim through those pop-up ads. So naturally i googled and googled and youtubed some to find the best example of advanced AR in the future and this is what i stumbled upon:
click here to see more www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSfKlCmYcLc
How awesome is that? Hats off to Keiichi Matsuda for creating this video clip of a domestic robocop. Personally i'm looking forward to seeing this technology develop as soon as possible, but for now i guess we'll have to stick to the wonderfull world of iphone apps.
Oh by the way Paul Verhoeven said the reason why he did the Robocop movie was because it was a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ. The Christ influences include the death and resurrection of Murphy (robocop). His hand is nailed by a bullet. He stands in crucified fashion and his body is pierced with many bullets and the last bullet is delivered to his brow. He is taken to the hospital where he his reconstructed. He is then resurrected as half human and half machine. Jesus at his resurrection was also changed. In the end there is the scene when RoboCop goes towards Boddicker and he walks on the water. Talk about strange influences.
Say your...um...prayers
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