AR Weekly Digest #53

1. Smart Augmented Reality System Makes Vehicles Transparent

The problem of being stuck behind a truck on a narrow road for many miles is nearly over. Researchers from the University of Porto in Portugal, led by professor Michel Ferreria, are developing a system integrated into a car which can help drivers see what is going in front of a bus or a car moving in front of them.

The technology, called See-Through System, will be integrated into a car and it is likely to be very helpful in preventing accidents as drivers will have more information about the road ahead and can take proper and safe decisions when it come to passing a large vehicle. This kind of system might eventually help prevent accidents by giving drivers more information on the road ahead.

The idea behind See-Through System is simple: technology will allow drivers to see the live feed that the front facing camera fixed in the bus or truck is transmitting to a LCD screen of other cars. The new system has been tested in a driving simulator and on the road. It was presented at the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) this October.

There is one limitation of the system that is known at the current stage of development – video delay around 200 ms, but professor Ferreria argues: “Our tests show that the latency of up to 200 milliseconds translates to about 10 meters at high speed and won’t make any difference with safety in real-world driving”. But to see the real possibilities and drawbacks of this augmented reality system, we will have to wait till it is formally launched.

URL: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/ideas/2013/10/this-clever-augmented-reality-system-lets-drivers-see-through-cars/

2. Yamaha Introduces Augmented Reality Advertisement

As autumn and winter holidays are getting closer musical instrument and audio product manufacturer Yamaha Corporation of America decided to synchronize digital and print by introducing new interactive and augmented reality magazine print ads.The print ad offers digitally enhanced content when scanned with an iOS or Android cell-phone or tablet enabled with the Yamaha Hub or Layar augmented reality reader app. As the device is waved over the page, portions of the ad turn three-dimensional and pop-up icons offer portals to unique social, video, photo and informational content.

“Marrying print with digital is where we see the future going rather than completely taking the print dollars and shifting them into pure digital,” says Jeff Hawley, director of the customer experience group for Yamaha.

The new advertisement will appear in the November issue of Drum! magazine, the November issue of Guitar World and issue number 30 of M Music & Musicians. According to Cherian, the ad provides consumers with a fun, interactive way to learn about the powerful and reliable DXR and DXS speakers, which are able to cover large audiences with high definition sound that extends from earth-shaking bass to smooth soaring highs.

URL: http://www.dmnews.com/yamaha-uses-digital-to-jazz-up-its-print-ads/article/317411/

3. Wearable Reference Design from OmniVision Aims to Expand Wearable Devices Market

OmniVision Technologies, Inc., a leading developer of advanced digital imaging solutions launches OmniGlass, a new reference design that combines a wearable display and a camera module for the rapidly growing wearable electronics market. The OmniGlass reference design combines OmniVision’s new ultra-compact and low-power OVP2200 liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) solution, which displays 720p HD videos provided by a 4-megapixel autofocus camera, with the OVP921, a companion chip which can connect with WiFi and Bluetooth radios, and drives the display from 24-bit RGB, MIPI, or USB sources. It also handles all the video input scaling, any frame rate correction required, and keystone correction.

OmniVision positions the OmniGlass system as suitable for everything from smartphone companions for the mainstream market, through to sports wearables and finally to more specialist medical uses.

A prototype of OmniGlass is currently available for demonstrations, and a development kit is available for customer sampling upon request. The OVP2200 is currently sampling, with volume production expected to begin during the second quarter of 2014.

URL: http://www.slashgear.com/omniglass-wearable-reference-design-aims-to-take-glass-rivals-mass-market-14301380/#!

4. Improved Aurasma’s 2.5 Performance and Scalability

HP Autonomy announced the new version of Aurasma – augmented reality platform, introducing new cloud-matching capabilities that enable the app to trigger 50 times more content without compromising speed or performance. In fact, Aurasma’s inability to manage big data couldn’t be resolved for a long time. Moving it to the cloud, however, finally removes this problem. Moving the AR image matching to the cloud means that the resource-intensive processing takes place on the server side rather than on the user’s device. This improves performance and makes it possible to host potentially unlimited AR content in the cloud.

HPA has not outlined any other improvements that come in v 2.5, but if moving to the cloud increases processing power, then that in itself is enough. With Aurasma now in the cloud and more accessible to more users, we should be hearing a lot more about this in the near future.

URL:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hp-aurasma-boosts-scalability-and-performance-for-augmented-reality-with-hp-cloud-2013-10-23

5. Augmented Reality App for European Union Initiative

It is always interesting to see new augmented reality appearing, which are rather original in implementation or bring attention to important issues in society. Such app has been recently launched by CONCERTO – European Union initiative launched by DG Energy in 2003. It has co-funded 58 cities and communities in 23 countries with more than € 175 million. The app has a nice gamification where you can decrease the CO2 bar by installing innovative technology in the 3D environment. There is a variety of energy efficient buildings and even an urban neighborhood available for you in 3D. The app also has information about other ecological projects and 13 videos presenting energy efficiency measures, renewable energies and integrated low carbon technologies, ready to be applied.

New app is available for both iOS and Android and requires marker in addition to it.

URL: http://concerto.eu/concerto/app.html

AR applications:

Prepared by:

Augmented Pixels

3D Augmented Reality Solutions

http://augmentedpixels.com/

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