AR Weekly Digest #57

1. Google launches Glass Development Kit preview

At an event in San Francisco on Tuesday, November 19, Google released its new Glass Development Kit (GDK), a set of tools that allow developers to create experiences without relying on the cloud. It will finally allow developers to make real, native apps for Google Glass. While there have previously been extremely limited Glass apps that used the Mirror API, developers now have full access to the hardware. By tapping into the hardware without a connection, apps can access things like the GPS and gyroscope. It’s more like putting a smartphone on your head, and less like creating a complementary companion device.

By releasing the GDK, Google has turned Glass from a neat toy into a platform, one that is ripe for development and open to the public. The bottleneck that is currently holding Glass back is its limited physical distribution, with a likely low five figure number of headsets in the wild today.

Google showed off a few of the first native Glass apps, and one of the coolest among them was Wordlens, a real-time, augmented-reality translation app, which translates printed text in foreign language into language you can understand.

URL: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/google-launches-glass-dev-kit-preview-shows-off-augmented-reality-apps/

2. Choose your ski resort with Monarch Airlines

Monarch Airlines is making use of augmented reality to promote its ski routes this winter. Monarch Mountain, a 360-degree virtual reality guide to ski resorts served by the airline, has been created in a direct marketing campaign by marketing agency WDMP.

Visitors to the Monarch Mountain will find themselves transported to a stunning virtual ski slope, with high quality graphics and a 360 degree ‘Photosphere’ view complete with realistic falling snow and sound – all aimed at building excitement in independent skiers around the coming ski season and creating the desire to plan and book their next ski trip with Monarch.

Navigation around the mountain is possible by moving and tilting a smartphone or tablet to travel around and access new areas. By touching icons, consumers can visit each of the ski resorts accessible via Monarch’s routes. The campaign does not require any app to be downloaded; it can be accessed from the Monarch Mountain website.

Liam Gibson, Direct Marketing Manager at Monarch Airlines, comments, “Last year’s campaign used Augmented Reality to create the ultimate ‘Destination Inspiration’ experience for Skiers and in doing so, our best performing Direct campaign. This year we are pushing the boundaries even further by using the latest technology to put our curious and digitally savvy independent skier right on the ski slope.”

URL: http://lbbonline.com/news/wdmp-virtual-experience-for-monarch-ski/

3. Zombies from Hell – 3D shooter on pizza box

Video games and pizza have always gone together. With the new Zombies from Hell game they come literally in one box. Leading New Zealand pizza chain Hell Pizzas has hired digital marketing agency One Fat Sheep to develop a world-first 3D zombie shooter on a pizza box which is already available for download.

Players point the camera on their phone at a Hell Pizza box, which is needed to play the game. Viewed on the screen of their smartphone, the box then “opens” into an interactive 3-D map of Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch, with a Hell Pizza store which player has to defend from hordes of marching undead.

Ben Cumming, Hell CEO, says: “We loved the idea as soon as it was pitched. Not only is it a first in our industry, it fits the brand and our audience perfectly.”

Hell customers can win rewards such as free sides and pizza with their next purchase; unlock levels with new zombies & weapons and share their in-game achievements across social media.

URL: http://kotaku.com/in-new-zealand-you-can-play-video-games-on-your-pizza-b-1468603080

4. Re+Public Launches Innovative Urban Art Augmented Reality App 

A creative collaboration between The Heavy Projects (Los Angeles) and PublicAdCampaign (New York City), Re+Public has created its first mobile app that allows users to interact with urban art in New York, Miami and St.Louis. In all of these cities the app digitally augments murals, add additional dimensions to them so that people can actually be a part of 3D experience.

At the moment the app is only available on mobile devices, but plans for the Re+Public app go far beyond smartphones and tablets. It is expected to be “a visionary initial step in the coming future of digitally augmented urban spaces that individuals will view and interact with through wearables.” The Re+Public app will soon expand to include projects in more locations around America, as well as in other countries.

 Note: if you are unable to visit these cities, you can still trigger the augmented reality experience from mural images on the Re+Public website. Click Here to view mural images.

URL: http://www.republiclab.com

5. Mixing Drinks and Mixing Music With Augmented Reality

AR-Mixer-TabletThe app, called AR Mix, created by a mobile marketing firm Somo Global in London, shows that augmented reality can be technically impressive, exciting, and very fun. The idea of the app is to have each spirit bottle play a vocal track, while each soft drink that can be mixed with spirits contains a beat. By putting the bottles in front of the mobile device so that through image recognition the app can recognize and play the music. Everyone can turn into a DJ and be able to manipulate each track by turning the bottle or a can around in front of the camera. A spinning record appears to show which one is playing, and by moving the camera closer or further away, the volume can be raised and lowered.

“There’s no practical reason why you’d need this – until it gets accurate enough to make music using real world objects – but it’s a really fun tech demo and a sign of things to come.”

URL: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/augmented-reality-mixer-app/

AR applications:

  1. Sea Ray 510 Fly Interactive Tour
  2. Swipart
  3. Holocard
  4. F+S
  5. Effex
  6. glasses.com for iPhone
  7. Lumos: Sun and Moon Tracker
  8. AprilTag
  9. AAR Presenter
  10. Clever Look Supersized
  11. hAPPy Holiday
  12. Noah’s Ark AR
  13. Popular AR
  14. Spy Quest ‘Cursed Diamond’ A.R. Lite
  15. Moonwalker7 Business Card
  16. RealityTouch HD
  17. Crib Gogh AR
  18. BeInteractive
  19. V-Strom AR
  20. clikAR
  21. Brookfield AR
  22. asiTag
  23. arEvent
  24. MIPview AR
  25. Little Gems

Prepared by:

Augmented Pixels
3D Augmented Reality Solutions

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