8 ms·

Disney Research unveils augmented reality books

162 points by dccoolgai 13y ago

seiji 13y ago
Still waiting for proper 'ractives. an iPad could do it now, but we don't have the proper capture/reprocessing frameworks in place (outside of research).
- eblume 13y ago
  I was just thinking how close we must be to "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" (see: "Diamond Age", by Neal Stephenson, referenced by me and seiji here. GREAT book.)
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - hobs 13y ago
    Slow start, insane end, typical Stephenson.
  - lifeisstillgood 13y ago
    But do we know enough to tell software how to raise a child?
    - seiji 13y ago
      There were two versions of primers. The mass market version had auto-schooling (giant boat of threatening asian girls). The expensive ("for royalty/CEOs") version had a live adult person interacting with the child, but the child didn't know a real person was behind it. The child just thought the book was very good at being instructive. The actor of the expensive primer had no way to communicate with the child except through Primer-Approved stories, but the actor would direct and personalize the stories as necessary for the child's life conditions (i.e. "remote parenting").
      - lifeisstillgood 13y ago
        Yes, I forgot. Her "other mother" - thank you. Including the cool escape from abusive home section. What a great book.
GuiA 13y ago
If you find this stuff interesting, check out TEI, the conference at which this was published: http://www.tei-conf.org http://www.tei-conf.org It's an amazing conference that has been going on since 2007- great people, much smaller than CHI (of course its scope is much narrower, and there is a lot of cross-pollination), very high quality and diverse publications. Even though it's an academic conference, it has more of a hacker/DIY feel to it than CHI in my opinion, which is what I love about it. Speaking of which, the deadline for TEI2014 is Aug 1st... back to writing I go :) (and if you're into this, please contact me through my profile! Tangible/embodied interaction is a small world, would love to hear from fellow HNers who are in it)
ioquatix 13y ago
This implementation looks amazing but also seems practically very awkward.. I can't imagine children being so patient and accurate like in the video! We've been doing things like this for years at the HITLabNZ. Check out our latest project, which is free this week! http://colarapp.com http://colarapp.com
- jevinskie 13y ago
  Wow, the demo video is really remarkable! I will try it out with the office iPad tomorrow. Really great job! The video speaks a thousand words even without any spoken words. =) How do you align the coloring book pages from the camera feed? Do you detect the corners of the printer paper or is there some printed, hidden marker on the page?
  - muzzamike 13y ago
    It appears to only work on certain pre-defined coloring pages.
    - jevinskie 13y ago
      Naturally. Those 2D print pages must have 3D models in the app (right?). I'm wondering how the app does feature detection from the camera feed.
      - ioquatix 13y ago
        Our 3D modeller Shun spends about a week per page carefully designing and animating the models. You are correct, they are per page and completely pre-defined. The fun part is colouring in the pages and seeing the results :D Even me, 28 year old male, can have a lot of fun with this app.
        ahsteele 13y ago
        Why don't you guys allow for printing from within the iOS app?
sabalaba 13y ago
Making the markers visible in the infrared spectrum is genius.
- Schwolop 13y ago
  For books and many other print media however, it's just overkill. You can do it markerless just by tracking known content on the page. It's great for tracking within the whitespace however - that's where it's a cunning solution!
dgallagher 13y ago
This is similar to some of the AR games on Nintendo 3DS, with the exception that you don't need to look through a screen to get the effect. You can imagine this on Google Glass too, viewable only by those wearing the HUD.
malandrew 13y ago
They ought to head mount that thing so it follows wherever you are looking.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
joelhaus 13y ago
Did Lucas ever license the rights to anyone for the futuristic chess game on the millennium falcon? Seems like an obvious application of this tech, particularly now that Disney owns the franchise.
- lifeisstillgood 13y ago
  I think we can see the next mobile hardware killer app. I mean the number of cool "what if you did this" reminds me of early days of GPS and indeed GPS in phones
evan_ 13y ago
This looks pretty similar to Jeri Ellsworth's CastAR project, except not head-mounted. http://makezine.com/2013/05/19/jeri-ellsworth-unveils-augmented-reality-castar-at-maker-faire/ http://makezine.com/2013/05/19/jeri-ellsworth-unveils-augmen...

162 points by dccoolgai 13y ago

seiji 13y ago

Still waiting for proper 'ractives. an iPad could do it now, but we don't have the proper capture/reprocessing frameworks in place (outside of research).

eblume 13y ago
I was just thinking how close we must be to "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" (see: "Diamond Age", by Neal Stephenson, referenced by me and seiji here. GREAT book.)
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- hobs 13y ago
  Slow start, insane end, typical Stephenson.
- lifeisstillgood 13y ago
  But do we know enough to tell software how to raise a child?
  - seiji 13y ago
    There were two versions of primers. The mass market version had auto-schooling (giant boat of threatening asian girls). The expensive ("for royalty/CEOs") version had a live adult person interacting with the child, but the child didn't know a real person was behind it. The child just thought the book was very good at being instructive. The actor of the expensive primer had no way to communicate with the child except through Primer-Approved stories, but the actor would direct and personalize the stories as necessary for the child's life conditions (i.e. "remote parenting").
    - lifeisstillgood 13y ago
      Yes, I forgot. Her "other mother" - thank you. Including the cool escape from abusive home section. What a great book.

GuiA 13y ago

If you find this stuff interesting, check out TEI, the conference at which this was published: http://www.tei-conf.org http://www.tei-conf.org It's an amazing conference that has been going on since 2007- great people, much smaller than CHI (of course its scope is much narrower, and there is a lot of cross-pollination), very high quality and diverse publications. Even though it's an academic conference, it has more of a hacker/DIY feel to it than CHI in my opinion, which is what I love about it. Speaking of which, the deadline for TEI2014 is Aug 1st... back to writing I go :) (and if you're into this, please contact me through my profile! Tangible/embodied interaction is a small world, would love to hear from fellow HNers who are in it)

ioquatix 13y ago

This implementation looks amazing but also seems practically very awkward.. I can't imagine children being so patient and accurate like in the video! We've been doing things like this for years at the HITLabNZ. Check out our latest project, which is free this week! http://colarapp.com http://colarapp.com

jevinskie 13y ago
Wow, the demo video is really remarkable! I will try it out with the office iPad tomorrow. Really great job! The video speaks a thousand words even without any spoken words. =) How do you align the coloring book pages from the camera feed? Do you detect the corners of the printer paper or is there some printed, hidden marker on the page?
- muzzamike 13y ago
  It appears to only work on certain pre-defined coloring pages.
  - jevinskie 13y ago
    Naturally. Those 2D print pages must have 3D models in the app (right?). I'm wondering how the app does feature detection from the camera feed.
    - ioquatix 13y ago
      Our 3D modeller Shun spends about a week per page carefully designing and animating the models. You are correct, they are per page and completely pre-defined. The fun part is colouring in the pages and seeing the results :D Even me, 28 year old male, can have a lot of fun with this app.
      - ahsteele 13y ago
        Why don't you guys allow for printing from within the iOS app?

sabalaba 13y ago

Making the markers visible in the infrared spectrum is genius.

Schwolop 13y ago
For books and many other print media however, it's just overkill. You can do it markerless just by tracking known content on the page. It's great for tracking within the whitespace however - that's where it's a cunning solution!

dgallagher 13y ago

This is similar to some of the AR games on Nintendo 3DS, with the exception that you don't need to look through a screen to get the effect. You can imagine this on Google Glass too, viewable only by those wearing the HUD.

malandrew 13y ago

They ought to head mount that thing so it follows wherever you are looking.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

joelhaus 13y ago

Did Lucas ever license the rights to anyone for the futuristic chess game on the millennium falcon? Seems like an obvious application of this tech, particularly now that Disney owns the franchise.

lifeisstillgood 13y ago
I think we can see the next mobile hardware killer app. I mean the number of cool "what if you did this" reminds me of early days of GPS and indeed GPS in phones

evan_ 13y ago

This looks pretty similar to Jeri Ellsworth's CastAR project, except not head-mounted. http://makezine.com/2013/05/19/jeri-ellsworth-unveils-augmented-reality-castar-at-maker-faire/ http://makezine.com/2013/05/19/jeri-ellsworth-unveils-augmen...