On the near-term horizon — that is, within the next 12 months — are two categories that are changing the way museums interact with their patrons and global community: mobile apps and social media…
Two to three years out, is where we will begin to see widespread support of two technologies that are experiencing growing popularity within museum education and interpretation: augmented reality (AR) and open content. By nature, museum educators create bridges between objects, ideas, and visitors, and augmented reality can allow this to happen more fluidly and easily than ever. Open content is changing the way museums make images, documents, and other ephemera from exhibits and collections available, with the goal of placing rich media and information online that is licensed forsharing, reuseor even (if licensed for derivative works), for remixing…
at four to five years away from widespread adoption, are the Internet of Things and natural user interfaces (NUIs). Both technologies create opportunities for interaction. The Internet of Things… is fueling considerable innovation in how devices communicate with each other and with us. Exhibits that will make use of natural user interfaces that react to touch, movement, voice, and facial expression are going to be more intuitive for museum patrons…
A new mobile application from Kimberly-Clark’s Pull-Ups Training Pants leverages mobile games featuring Disney characters and augmented reality to help moms and children stay motivated throughout the potty training process
Man takes virtual augmented reality girlfriend for a walk in the park | The Verge
Augmented reality (AR) hacks are really starting to take off… a Japanese YouTube user has produced a video of a virtual date with computerized J-pop star Hatsune Miku.
Using Asus’s Xtion Pro sensor, “alsionesvx” takes Miku to a park, demonstrating her position in the real world by having her stand behind a tree. He even interacts with her, moving her tie and hitting her on the top of the head
Aurasma
Aurasma is proud to announce that during our first year since our official launch we have worked with more than 6000 partners to deliver augmented reality campaigns and promotions across multiple industries including publishing, music & film, fashion, automotive, sports, education, retail and tourism. Also, downloads of the Aurasma Lite app and our partners’ branded apps now total more than 4 million across over 100 countries. We estimate reaching the 10000 partner mark by the end of the year.
A couple of Boeing researchers created heads-up displays for engineers to overlay schematics on top of their work, reducing the distraction of double-checking a blueprint every few minutes. Despite the concept’s age, the paradigm still has an advantage over the smartphone. Something that floats in front of you is part of your senses, something you have to check and re-check is just a computer.
Rendering Synthetic Objects into Legacy Photographs (by Kevin Karsch) - this is very cool, I can’t wait for this to become available in an easy to play with form.
(via See The World As A Virtual Art Gallery With This App @PSFK) Beer brand Becks plans to turn everyday locations into works of art with its new augmented reality app. As part of its Green Box Project, Becks continues to commission independent talent in art, design, music and fashion and have their works scattered across the city.
Introducing Suwappu! (by d3ntsulondon)
Think of augmented reality as the pop-up books of the 21st century
The cover of the magazine features a popular German TV personality who comes to life in an interactive video unlocked by holding a smartphone up to the magazine. Other augmented features in the magazine include an illustration that becomes 3D, an interview with additional exclusive quotes and a crossword puzzle whose answers appear when viewed through the smartphone.
In the last 6 months 1.6 million people used Layar at least once. The active user base amounts to 716.000 people who used Layar in the past 30 days.
(Independent Film Channel) IFC polled its member base for short descriptions of their favorite places in the towns they lived in or visited, then picked the place-descriptions that best suited the IFC’s brand (“Always on, slightly off”) to upload into a Foursquare database. Foursquare users can now opt-into getting those tips pushed to them whenever they check in near one of the annotated locations. It’s a chance to effectively say, “I want to see this town as IFC fans see it.” For marketers, this has got to be incredibly appealing, and for urban explorers it could be one of the best examples yet of effective Augmented Reality.
