Virtual Reality Book Overlays 71
fiannaFailMan writes "The Magic Book is a technology that allows a user to look through a handheld viewer with a built-in camera and see 3-dimensional models as if they float above the book. The software is clever enough to keep track of where the page is, so if you move the book, the model moves with it. One application is displaying content telling the story of the America's Cup. You can download the application and use your own webcam to view this, minus the 3D effect of course."
3D Instruction Manuals? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:3D Instruction Manuals? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:3D Instruction Manuals? (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, I can see IKEA's new slogan now.
"You don't have to be rich, or even smart."
Re:3D Instruction Manuals? (Score:2, Funny)
3D Porn!
does it work (Score:1, Funny)
Re:does it work (Score:1)
Damn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Damn (Score:2)
Re:Damn (Score:1)
Isn't that a given?
Why only with books (Score:3, Interesting)
Imagine the applications for this with household objects, items at a museum, body parts, mechanical components.
Build it into eyeglasses and have an informative heads up display.
Why even with books? (Score:3, Interesting)
You don't even need to improve the pattern recognition.
I've seen other applications of this kind of technology: they just use a big obvious target the camera can track. You can put them on the wall, on a table, wave them around, the 3d projection follows the target. Put coded targets around the museum displays so the software can see where to project the image, and it'd just work.
So your "book" could be reduced to a
Re:Why only with books (Score:2)
Or what about... (Score:1)
The puzzles would ship with a software disc that had a piece database for recognition purposes.
Make the puzzles using one of those 3D "printers" and you are in for hours of fun, with assistance (when you want) it, and you end up with a physical 3D object at the end.
3D is awesome! (Score:4, Interesting)
Right now, for example, we represent 3 dimensional shapes in a 2 dimensional manner. A cube is represented as three rhomboids in a plane. This gives us a representation of what a 3D object would look like in 2D. So far this has worked out great, primarily because except for actually building a 3D model, we are limited to drawing cubes in 2 dimensions.
Having a third dimension will make the representation of length, width, height a piece of cake. However, the real benefit will be the possibility to draw 4-dimensional shapes like hyperspheres and hypercubes in 3 dimensions. Whereas 2D screens limited us to representing 3D objects, a 3D screen will allow us to represent 4D objects.
With physics rapidly moving towards multi-dimensional theories about our universe, it makes sense that we start using screens that can help us visualize what those higher dimensions look like, even if our own minds are unable to grasp the true natures of those shapes.
Dancin Santa
3D is better for the eyes (Score:3, Informative)
To say nothing of the physiological impact. In the human eye, rods [wikipedia.org] outnumber cones [wikipedia.org] by a huge margin; but we rely more on cones when focusing on bright 2D surfaces, like a computer screen. Therefore, some physicians believe that prolonged and repeated computer work disadvantages the eye over time because of the underutilization of rod cells. I can't confirm that specific theory, but I certa
Re:3D is better for the eyes (Score:2)
yawn. (Score:4, Funny)
wake me up when larry (as in flynt) is using it..
Re:yawn. (Score:2)
Well, pretty soon Larry(as in Laffer) will be using 3d technology!
Re:yawn. (Score:2)
Re:yawn. (Score:2)
Re:yawn. (Score:2)
High-tech books (Score:4, Insightful)
Nevertheless, BlackMagic still looks like a View-Master [fisher-price.com], which will prevent some people from seeing it as a serious innovation. I wonder what it will take for this or (more likely) a different technology to be accepted eventually as a hardware standard by textbook publishers, fine art books, etc.
To put this into a broader context, we've already seen numerous proprietary technologies for making children's books interactive; we also have companion CD-ROMs, online rich media supplements, audiobook alternatives for an increasing number of titles, books bundled with audio recordings, and telephone book reading services offered by libraries. Most of these technologies "liberate" the text by adding sound, while only the multimedia supplements liberate illustrations. Therefore I appreciate BlackMagic's achievement, which, like LeapFrog's LeapPad, localizes the enhancements--as opposed to the CD-ROM (et al) that are inherently detached from the book itself.
This is old technology... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, this seems to be a pretty trivial, and almost useless, implementation of the ARToolkit [studierstube.org]. If you're going to have to wear goggles anyway to view part of the material, why not just put the whole book in memory and display it that way without having to go through the complicated and clunky "augmented-reality" step?
Re:This is old technology... (Score:2)
The sibling to my comment [slashdot.org] has it absolutely correct, but I thought I'd give a potential answer to your question:
I'm guessing it's because it would be expensive. You would need amazing resolution in the display in order to provide legible text.
The whole thing is pretty dumb though, it's a total gimmick. It would make much more sense to me to have a mod
it's a commonly-used GPL toolkit (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:it's a commonly-used GPL toolkit (Score:1)
ARToolkit is available for linux, mac, windows, solaris etc. it's fairly straight forward to use and the mailing list are quite good at helping folk iron out problems.
I think doing something like magic book is more of a feat of designing the interface and the 3d models than a feat of the character recognition, although the work on magic book is a few years old, cant remember how old and cant be bothered checking it out.
basicly ARToolkit makes fi
A Diamond Age (Score:1, Offtopic)
other use (Score:3, Funny)
Re:other use (Score:1)
Re:other use (Score:2)
"other use : porn?"
Nope. Can't be done. You have to hold the book with one hand while holding the viewer with the other. Trust me, I already RTFA.
You could do it with a strap-on viewer...
That guy... (Score:1)
Re:That guy... (Score:1)
Underwhelmed (Score:4, Insightful)
VR goggles have their uses but they are mostly for applications where you are already wearing goggles. Me and my snow buddies have been speculating for ages about a pair of VR ski goggles that would use sonar or radar to overlay a contour map of the hill when you were flying down in low contrast conditions... handy for avoiding the death cookies.
nice demo, useless application (Score:2)
DIY (Score:3, Interesting)
I have read the article (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I have read the article (Score:2)
Nick
Re:I have read the article (Score:1)
Especially as the full functionality could be provided with a bare CD a webcam and some sort of head mounted display. The book that is advertised as the key componnet is really unnecessary.
vajk
Re:I have read the article (Score:2)
i just gave it a go (with the webcam) and basically you can rotate the 3d object by rotating the "book" itself - very simple and very effective - kids would indeed find this easy and fun.
It's much easier to rotate something in the real world, that you can see and feel than with a mouse.
Combine that with the glasses so you are seeing 3d objects in the real world..
very cool.
Re:I have read the article (Score:2)
Imagine the implications... (Score:2)
Simple head tracking device (Score:1)
Re:Simple head tracking device (Score:2)
Set up a "level" in the real world with "patterns" at strategic points - incorporated into the design of the level perhaps so they weren't immediatly obvious - enough of these that wherever the user looks there is enough to establish where in the level they are (and what they are looking at..)
Create the same thing in a 3d engine, and you can then have monsters running at you in a real world situation
I can't think of a practical use for this (Score:2)
I can appreciate the underlying technology of pattern recognition and virtual reality, and I can understand the allure of dabbling with it, but this combination doesn't make any practical sense. Why bother with a book?
I can recall those Sony Vaio computers with built-in cameras that came out years ago included software that allowed you to use the camera in a way similar to a barcode reader. It could recognise matrix type 2d code [denso-wave.com] that looked like pixelated squares.
The technology used for this BlackMagic
Dear Penthouse Forum... (Score:1)
[SPROING!]
Future (Score:1)
we see Wi-Fi taking off in smaller devices.
* Let's say your skiing and these b/w
symbols are on the signs and "current" trail,
weather, hazard information pops up. It's not
cost effective to have the signs electronic
(not to mention theft), but a Wi-Fi Goggles
with real-time info would be helpful.
Or with GPS...
* Let's say you're skiing and you've lost your
kid who is equipped with a GPS unit, and these
b/w symbols are on the signs and pop up 3D
arrows to the kid's locati
New tech = Old tech recycled... (Score:1)
Makes me want to cry. (Score:2)
Nobody, and I do mean nobody, has the first idea that HitLab didn't invent the AR toolkit. Nobody in any of the government funding agencies has ever downloaded the source and seen copyrights from Japanese university researchers all over it. And HitLab get MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FUNDING for doing this.
I like Mark (Billinghurst, in the picture) and he *is* a very clever guy. But
Re:Makes me want to cry. (Score:2)
They are primarily researching interesting HCI applications of the tool-kit rather than pushing the expansion of the libraries themselves, except where necessary.