Zerkin Glove. One step beyond.

October 1st, 2009
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Intuitive Interaction with Augmented Reality

What is the Zerkin Glove?

A low-cost, motion and position capturing, data glove for 3D interaction with virtual objects in augmented reality (AR) environments.

What do you mean, really?

The Zerkin Glove, is the most intuitive input device using natural hand gestures – like you’ve only seen in sci-fi movies – with a consumer friendly price.

The glove enables accurate 1-to-1 tracking of one’s entire arm – from shoulder to knuckles – without external reference infrastructure (such as cameras, sensors, scanners) allowing intuitive interaction with virtual objects in augmented reality environments such as games, education, 3D design, training, healthcare and more.

Why is it important?

Augmented reality applications, which promise to change the way people interact with the world, have been largely focused on augmenting one’s field of view with additional information. The Zerkin glove is the missing element for enhancing the interaction in any handsfree mobile AR application.

How does it work?

Thanks to the use of inexpensive off-the-shelf components such as flex sensors, gyros, accelerometer, and compass headings, the glove precisely tracks the slightest gestures in the augmented reality space. Based on a proprietary patent-pending method. The graphics are overlaid relative to fiducial markers using AR tracking software. A pair of see-through AR glasses complements the experience as display for a first person perspective.

Want to know more?: http://zerkinglove.com/

AR Goggles + Mobile phones

September 8th, 2009
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Expect everything from future…

Lumus is preparing this product for early 2011… just be patient.

Wikitude Drive – AR Navigation System

August 28th, 2009
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PRESS RELEASE.
Mobilizy GmbH reveals a preview of it’s augmented reality navigation system, the first fully functional mobile AR navigation system available for the Android platform. Wikitude Drive was developed by the Mobilizy Research & Development group in Salzburg, Austria, to satisfy the curiosity of the developers to see if it was feasible to combine real-time navigation with mobile augmented reality. The result of this quest is Wikitude Drive, a fully-functional, light weight navigational system which overlays point-to-point directions on a camera-view, without the need for maps.

Wikitude Drive boasts the following features:

* * Mobile AR navigation, similar to a heads up display (HUD);
* * Fully functional, map-less navigation;
* * POI 2 POI navigation;
* * Integrated voice commands (additional text-to-speech engine required);
* * World wide navigational data which is accessed in real-time from the internet; o (a mobile internet connection is necessary to access data while in motion)
* * Peer-to-peer navigational functions o Social navigational features will be implemented in future releases
* * Interfaces with existing navigational APIs (for example: NavTeq, Map24, TeleAtlas)
* * Launching for Android and iPhone soon.

ARvertising Note: All these AR browsers (Layar, Wikitude..etc) will get into the REAL THING the day HMD (head mounted displays – lets say “AR sunglasses”..-) will come to stay. Before that, in my opinion,  they are not going to give to final users something really useful (you can’t drive watching your phone’s screen for AR directions, sorry).

Maybe the “pedestrian” versions have one point…

Which AR Mobile Browser you'd prefer?

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Video eyeglasses at SID

August 10th, 2009
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Display Week 2009

At SID,  two companies were showing some outstanding products. They are Lumus Ltd of Israel and Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS) of Germany. The displays of both companies project images on a transparent screen, allowing the user to see the images in front of the eyes and graphics from a computer at the same time.

Lumus HMD

Lumus exhibited a compact glasses-type HMD that enables 3D viewing. Images are transmitted from a separate PC via a cable. The images from LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) incorporated in the glasses are sent to the eyes via optical systems such as a prism and a light guide plate.

Images are focused at a certain point regardless of the positional relationship between the eyes and the glasses. It is not equipped with a GPS or an acceleration sensor, but they can be mounted if necessary, according to the company.

“We expect that it will be used to display navigation information, such as the information on stores and the names of buildings in the direction the user is looking. We heard that Japan is advanced in its understanding of AR of that kind. The price is estimated at several hundred US dollars, but we would like to put it on the market after reducing the size and the weight a little more.”

Said Zvi Lapidot, chairman & CEO of Lumus.

http://www.sid.org/