IKEA goes the Matrix Way

Dudes, makes me thrilled of all the money we graphics guys will be making in the future !

Virtualized reality has been exploited like never before in this web-based add. Take a look and rejoice. Thanks Somu (and his chain of MSR godfathers) for pointing this out !

Augmented Coliseum

Are you a fan of the battle robots ? Now you have more reasons to rejoice. Inami Laboratory has built a cute application which uses augmented reality to produce awesome effects when the robots battle with each other.

Two robots battle with each other on a planar surface. A virtual battleground is projected onto the plane which might contain ditches, hills and (anything which your imagination permits). The robots can also fire virtual laser blasters onto each other. The blazing fire effects are shown in a cute way.



The demo uses a novel projector based tracking system - "The main novelty of PTS is that we no longer need cameras for tracking receiver. Instead, the receiver’s path can be recognized through projection from any ordinary display. This is achieved by resting a PTS receiver on top of the subject, where a projector will discharge spot-image to the subject and the receiver will pick up necessary data to be evaluated by an internal algorithm to keep track of the receiver. This novel tracking system can also be implemented in multiple vehicle tracking and control. "

Learn from the horse's mouth and also download a cute video : Maki Sugimoto and Dr. Masahiko Inami

Kobito Virtual Brownies

Kobito Virtual Brownies is one of the coolest demos of augmented reality that I have seen. This gave me a funny feeling that reminded me of the fairy-tale stories of elves.



What we have for the demo is a table, a small cubical box, and an LCD screen in front of the table.

The box keeps moving in a random way on the table.. all by itself, nobody touching it ! When you look into the LCD, you find a gang of 3 lilliputian like creatures (called Kobitos) jumping around on the table and pushing the box.

Now the really freaky part is that you can pick up the box and push it around. If you look in the LCD, you find that the kobitos are getting pushed by the box. The LCD functions like some kind of a magical mirror !!

The kobitos are AI characters and they are programmed to jump and frolick on the table and push the box once in a while. The display is generated by capturing the scene on the table through a camera and blending the CG characters of the kobitos into the scene through augmented reality.

Technically, they did a very good job, with occlusions and shadows being handled very well. The animation of the kobitos is also done impressively.

What moves the box by the way !? It is an electro-magnet that sits under the table and listens to the instructions from the kobito computer program. Coooool!

Salutes to Dr.Makoto Sato and his team from the Tokyo University of Technology. Take a look at their page. Though it is in Japanese, it has one cool flash movie of the demo. Also available is a detailed (English) document of their demo.

Hug Shirts

As the sensors and actuators become cheaper, smaller and inconspicuous, why not use them in making clothes ?



This is an exhibit that caught my eye in the annual cyber-fashion show. The orange colored circles on the shirt cover a consortium of electronics, wires, pads and sensors. These are very light and non-intrusive as you can see from the picture.

Now, you can monitor your temperature, heart beat and other parameters and send them via blue-tooth to your cellphone. Then you can SMS this information to your sweet-heart and if she wears a hug-shirt like the one shown above, she can take the hug from you.

A smart idea and I hope to see these bulk-produced in affordable prices :) Are you listening, cute circuit ?

Seelinder

(After a looooong period of laziness, I have woken up to post my siggraph experiences)

I spotted this particular exhibit in the Emerging Technologies section. It is a cylindrical display screen which keeps rotating at a high speed. The pixels on the screen show an image/video. But the interesting part is that the image will change depending on the viewpoint. i.e, walking around the cylinder will give you the impression that you are moving around a 3D object. Take a look at the (badly blurred) pictures that I have taken from two different angles while walking around the cylinder.

This technology is a highly suitable candidate for a marriage with image based rendering (one of the hot research areas in CG) A 3D object can be photographed from multiple cameras and displayed onto this cylinder. The final effect would be something similar to the 3D holograms of Starwars.

Siggraph 2005 website says, " The display's most innovative technique reconstructs light rays in all horizontal directions with high density. This is realized with a rotating barrier with slits and high-speed light sources such as LEDs. The system also includes a method of light-ray control that enables representation of lightfields from a set of photos taken from all sides of an object."

The biggest plus for this technology is the non-invasiveness, ease of use (unlike VR helmets and stereoscopic glasses) and the fact that this can be used for multiple audience at the same time. The exhibitors did not mention about the possible costs of the display, but mass production should bring these down. This will have a high impact on the fields of advertising, gaming, entertainment and the like.

Currently, the major drawbacks include the low resolution of the display and the blurrieness that appears as the cylinder rotates.

The people behind this technology are Dr. Tomohiro Yendo and his students from Nagoya University, Japan.

Hello

Here I'll post interesting stuff that I come across in the world of entertainment, special effects, gaming, animation, graphics etc..