http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/blair Thoughts on AR, technology and anything else I feel compelled to talk about Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:43:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I was just reading Mike Zyda's article in the December CACM on games and computer science education.  It discusses the technical game education program they've created at USC in the CS department, and gives a nice overview of why they are doing things the way they are.  Seems like a ... http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/blair/2010/01/15/game-education-lipstick-on-a-pig/ For those of you interested in AR, Jarrell Pair's recent post on the state of AR is a pretty good summary. In general, I agree with Jarrell, although I am probably a bit more optimistic that he appears to be;  for those who've read my previous posts, that may seem surprising. ... http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/blair/2010/01/05/jarrells-state-of-the-art/ While I usually reserve this spot to comment on the AR stuff other folks are working on, I thought I'd take this opportunity to comment on something we just released. My colleague Maribeth Gandy and I create a small startup this year called Aura Interactive;  while we are doing a variety ... http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/blair/2009/12/17/aura-interactive-launches-santavision/ I'm not quite sure what this means, but it is probably a good thing: Zemoga, a pioneering digital marketing and innovation firm, today announced the launch of its augmented reality (AR) practice, designed to further the company’s work in this groundbreaking technology that has taken the marketing world by storm. [...] “We built ... http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/blair/2009/12/02/zemoga-launches-augmented-reality-practice/ Most people who know me know that I remain unconvinced of the usefulness of wearing projectors around your neck, despite all the cute fake mocked-up demos that people do.  But, if you are going to do something with projectors, that isn't going to work "in the real world" anyway, why ... http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/blair/2009/11/29/art-hack-nikon-projector-camera/ If I look at the misquote in this article, I'm struck by what a difference a small concept makes. I'm quoted in the article as saying “When the graphics effectively align with specific parts of the real world and we get this tightly accurate form of augmented reality, people start to really ... http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/blair/2009/11/03/interesting-article-interesting-misquote/ Over the last few months, I've talked to countless reporters, and answered questions via phone and email. It occurred to me the other day that it might be good to start sharing some of these questions and answers here, so more people can see them; if I'm going ... http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/blair/2009/11/03/some-thoughts-on-ar/ Looking back over the summer, it's almost comical to re-read the sometimes-frenzied excitement at the possibility that the iPhone will support AR with OS 3.1. The possibility was exciting, even to those of us not trying to keep a small company afloat;  the idea that there would finally be ... http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/blair/2009/09/23/has-ar-taken-off/ Ok, this is cute.  I wish I thought of it.  A use of FLAR (Flash AR) for something ... almost useful?  And, most ironic of all, it's by the US Postal Service!  I'm almost giddy! http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/blair/2009/05/26/usps-uses-ar-for-real/ It looks like someone may actually make an AR game for the DSi;  the GhostWire game that someone created on the Nokia phone is now going to be ported to the DSi. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_vz3rnLxgc[/youtube] Some folks would say this is not "really" AR, since the graphics (ghosts) are not tightly, accurately, spatially registered with ... http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/blair/2009/05/26/ghostwir-coming-to-the-dsi/