5 ms·

Amazing 3d iPhone app

31 points by davidedicillo 17y ago

JunkDNA 17y ago
Looks interesting from the video... but is it really as compelling in person?
- revolvingcur 17y ago
  It's nothing like the Johnny Chung Lee videos, but it's about as compelling and well-executed as the technique allows. I was at least 99 cents-worth amused.
jbeda 17y ago
I just bought it ($0.99) and it is pretty cool. It feels very physical. However, there is some noise in the accelerometer that causes some slight jiggling as you hold it. (Perhaps my phone is starting to die -- I wouldn't doubt it.) Some dampening here might help, but that would introduce latency. There are only really 3 models/rooms so it is only really good for showing off to other people.
jdee 17y ago
its a bit sluggish on my 3g....certainly not as impressive as in the video
- dpcan 17y ago
  Nice video. Choppy on my phone. I want my dollar back.
- petercooper 17y ago
  I bought it and didn't find it that impressive but don't regret the purchase as such. One of the biggest issues is that the viewing angle of the iPhone 3G's screen is so poor that when you turn it at the harder angles, you can barely see it.. or maybe I need to crank my brightness up to max to compensate.
tbgvi 17y ago
That's impressive, but it seems like more of an exercise for the developer. Its probably something I'd look at once and forget about.
gmurphy 17y ago
As you would expect, it works much better if you close one eye - with binocular vision the effect mostly disappears. If you watched the video, you've pretty much seen the extent of the app.
- garyrichardson 17y ago
  I was disappointed to see that it was $0.99. I expect something a little more functional, like a game or something that lets me play with the parameters for $0.99.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
jrockway 17y ago
For maximum effect, you need one for each eye, and some head-tracking gear.
kaddar 17y ago
iDesktopVR provides the effect for free, but for simple targets only
allwein 17y ago
I think this is nice as a proof of concept, but there's really no meat to it. I could see some pretty innovative games being possible with these methods though.
jurjenh 17y ago
I started something similar a while ago, but more like a window manager. It would track the user's movement and recalculate all the window positions based on the perceived head position - making the monitor more like a real window. This would enable you to peek behind window edges by moving your head to the side or up/down. The main barriers I faced was the processing power required to monitor the user's position accurately - needing a camera with relatively good resolution (to get accurate depth perception) and good frame rate (to reduce latency). Also, what to do when another person enters the scene? (Keep tracking the primary / previous target) Also, using it as a 3d desktop / window manager is probably not worth that much drag on your system - but I could see it being quite useful for cad systems / 3d modelling / prototype development. Also, developing this way could lead to some interesting developments in the UI field - there's already some development here for the disabled, so is not entirely new - but hasn't really made it to the mainstream desktop...
tienshiao 17y ago
There was an iPhone game released in July that uses the same effect for a ball in maze type game. http://www.dromsynt.com/diorama/ http://www.dromsynt.com/diorama/
mortenjorck 17y ago
They should use this technique for the stack-peeking feature on the Nexus One gallery app: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E1mSSBKEPU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E1mSSBKEPU
chaosmachine 17y ago
This isn't a new idea, in fact here's an app that does the same thing with nude women. NSFW, obviously. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8U6ik6ryQo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8U6ik6ryQo I suspect this got removed from the app store in the recent smut purge, though.
- elpuri 17y ago
  That's not the same thing. Your video shows an app rendering frames of animation back and forth using the accelerometer data. The app in the posting uses the sensor data to calculate the orientation of the device and then uses that to manipulate the 3d engine camera location and orientation to create an illusion you are peeking to a 3d world.
ZeroGravitas 17y ago
There's a Nintendo DSi games based on this concept: http://tinycartridge.com/post/413663037/dsi-motion-tracking-in-rittai-kakushi-e-attakoreda http://tinycartridge.com/post/413663037/dsi-motion-tracking-... I believe they use the built in camera to sense motion, as there's no accelerometer in the DSi.

31 points by davidedicillo 17y ago

JunkDNA 17y ago

Looks interesting from the video... but is it really as compelling in person?

revolvingcur 17y ago
It's nothing like the Johnny Chung Lee videos, but it's about as compelling and well-executed as the technique allows. I was at least 99 cents-worth amused.

jbeda 17y ago

I just bought it ($0.99) and it is pretty cool. It feels very physical. However, there is some noise in the accelerometer that causes some slight jiggling as you hold it. (Perhaps my phone is starting to die -- I wouldn't doubt it.) Some dampening here might help, but that would introduce latency. There are only really 3 models/rooms so it is only really good for showing off to other people.

jdee 17y ago

its a bit sluggish on my 3g....certainly not as impressive as in the video

dpcan 17y ago
Nice video. Choppy on my phone. I want my dollar back.
petercooper 17y ago
I bought it and didn't find it that impressive but don't regret the purchase as such. One of the biggest issues is that the viewing angle of the iPhone 3G's screen is so poor that when you turn it at the harder angles, you can barely see it.. or maybe I need to crank my brightness up to max to compensate.

tbgvi 17y ago

That's impressive, but it seems like more of an exercise for the developer. Its probably something I'd look at once and forget about.

gmurphy 17y ago

As you would expect, it works much better if you close one eye - with binocular vision the effect mostly disappears. If you watched the video, you've pretty much seen the extent of the app.

garyrichardson 17y ago
I was disappointed to see that it was $0.99. I expect something a little more functional, like a game or something that lets me play with the parameters for $0.99.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

jrockway 17y ago

For maximum effect, you need one for each eye, and some head-tracking gear.

kaddar 17y ago

iDesktopVR provides the effect for free, but for simple targets only

allwein 17y ago

I think this is nice as a proof of concept, but there's really no meat to it. I could see some pretty innovative games being possible with these methods though.

jurjenh 17y ago

I started something similar a while ago, but more like a window manager. It would track the user's movement and recalculate all the window positions based on the perceived head position - making the monitor more like a real window. This would enable you to peek behind window edges by moving your head to the side or up/down. The main barriers I faced was the processing power required to monitor the user's position accurately - needing a camera with relatively good resolution (to get accurate depth perception) and good frame rate (to reduce latency). Also, what to do when another person enters the scene? (Keep tracking the primary / previous target) Also, using it as a 3d desktop / window manager is probably not worth that much drag on your system - but I could see it being quite useful for cad systems / 3d modelling / prototype development. Also, developing this way could lead to some interesting developments in the UI field - there's already some development here for the disabled, so is not entirely new - but hasn't really made it to the mainstream desktop...

tienshiao 17y ago

There was an iPhone game released in July that uses the same effect for a ball in maze type game. http://www.dromsynt.com/diorama/ http://www.dromsynt.com/diorama/

mortenjorck 17y ago

They should use this technique for the stack-peeking feature on the Nexus One gallery app: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E1mSSBKEPU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E1mSSBKEPU

chaosmachine 17y ago

This isn't a new idea, in fact here's an app that does the same thing with nude women. NSFW, obviously. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8U6ik6ryQo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8U6ik6ryQo I suspect this got removed from the app store in the recent smut purge, though.

elpuri 17y ago
That's not the same thing. Your video shows an app rendering frames of animation back and forth using the accelerometer data. The app in the posting uses the sensor data to calculate the orientation of the device and then uses that to manipulate the 3d engine camera location and orientation to create an illusion you are peeking to a 3d world.

ZeroGravitas 17y ago

There's a Nintendo DSi games based on this concept: http://tinycartridge.com/post/413663037/dsi-motion-tracking-in-rittai-kakushi-e-attakoreda http://tinycartridge.com/post/413663037/dsi-motion-tracking-... I believe they use the built in camera to sense motion, as there's no accelerometer in the DSi.