Augmented Reality Based Facades by Studio Maatwerk and Studio 1:1

Woonbedrijf, an Eindhoven-based housing corporation, wanted to spice up the façade of one of its apartment blocks in the city. Design agencies Studio Maatwerk and Studio 1:1 came up with a new take on the paint job: do it in Augmented Reality. Using the façade as a trigger for an interactive AR artwork on your smartphone, the designers left the building an extension in the digital world. Interesting idea. The artwork, which appears when you point a special app to the marker on the building, consists of a game and an animation developed by students at the Eindhovense School, an academy located next to the building. Click here for more photos of the project.

Google Goggles Sudoku Demo by Google

Google has just released an update to their camera app which now enables it to solve Sudoku puzzles. Google Goggles enables interesting augmented reality experiences.

OutRun by Garnet Hertz

Garnet Hertz’s video game concept car combines a car-shaped arcade game cabinet with a real world electric vehicle to produce a video game system that actually drives. OutRun offers a unique mixed reality simulation as one physically drives through an 8-bit video game. The windshield of the system features custom software that transforms the real world into an 8-bit video game, enabling the user to have limitless gameplay opportunities while driving. Hertz has designed OutRun to de-simulate the driving component of a video game: where game simulations strive to be increasingly realistic (usually focused on graphics), this system pursues “real” driving through the game. Additionally, playing off the game-like experience one can have driving with an automobile navigation system, OutRun explores the consequences of using only a computer model of the world as a navigation tool for driving.

MetaMirror AR TV Concepts by Notion Design

Meta-Mirror is a concept application that delivers an enhanced television experience without disrupting the conventional expectations of home entertainment. It allows viewers to access content relevant to the program currently being viewed. The product is a software platform which runs on a secondary device of the users choice, displaying this contextual content over a mirror of the television broadcast. By bringing together live television, real-time contextual information and an intuitive user interface, Meta Mirror is positioned to update television from uni-directional broadcast to two-way interaction. Great projects on Notion’s website.

Magic Projection by Marco Tempest

Last year at TEDxTokyo, Marco introduced and discussed the first ever Augmented Reality magic trick – and this year he premiered his latest Projected Augmented Reality piece for stage. A combination of LED tracking for a projected image, interactive drawing on screen techniques, and just a bit of sleight of hand magic. Telling the story of his own creative process, Marco draws an image on his handheld screen. The image comes to life…and a series of humorous adventures between the performer and his creation begin. More information on Marco Tempest website.

Inside Augmented Reality Conference by Metaio

Metaio threw a great conference on Augmented reality, in Munich, at the end of September. They have posted a lot of videos on their website that are worth watching. Videos can be viewed here.

Magic Book by Camille Scherrer

Great thesis project on the possibilities of augmented reality in animating story. The set-up [a book, a lamp, and a laptop] seems perfectly harmless at first sight. But as soon as you open the book under the lamp … the pages take on new animated and mysterious dimensions … worlds appear and disappear with a direct connection to the actual items printed on paper: animal figures appear over the mountains, peaks emerge in a shadow play, a bird silently flies over, foxes light up the text with their lanterns at dusk … The book’s iconography, inspired from a family album of the 1930s, changes into a virtual fairy tale. More of her work can be seen on her website.

Augmented Reality Architecture App by the NAI

Developed by Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) in partnership with IN10 Communicatie and Layar, Sara is the world’s first augmented reality architecture application. Users of the technology simply hold up their smartphone to see photos, video, 3D models, scale models and other details about buildings currently in situ as well as those from the past and any planned for the future. Although it’s still under construction, those with the app can view a 3D model of how the finished building will look.

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