Augmented Reality

This BBC News article talks about the Dynamic Respiratory Endoscope, an augmented reality system, which lets vets assess live pictures of a horse's airways as it gallops at full speed. From the article: "The pioneering equipment could replace traditional methods where a horse is examined while running on a treadmill.

The University of Glasgow's Equine Hospital acquired the endoscope as part of a joint venture with horse training firm, Mark Johnston Racing.

The instrument will be used in the university's newly-launched Performance Horse Clinic.

Dr Patrick Pollock, senior clinician in equine surgery, said: "Within the animal kingdom, horses are considered to be elite athletes because of their unique anatomy and physiology.

This Wired Gadget Lab post reports the University of South Australia's Wearable Computer Lab is building the 100-sq.meter AR visualization center to improve AR quality and serve as a 'magic box' for related visual technologies. From the article: "Augmented Reality projects have most recently focused on war games, but a new lab at the Mawson Institute for Advanced Manufacturing will bring this tech closer to home. More specifically, it should jump to the car showrooms of America within years, ultimately leading AR systems to become compelling presentation programs.

This Popsci.com article reports a new pair of specs may let you tag your world as easily as you tag a blog post. From the article: "Tagging has become a popular standard in Web content management. If you can enter a field of data somewhere, chances are good you can also attach tags. Tags let a user associate that data with a subject matter, much like a card catalogue in a library. When that user goes to retrieve the data, they need only remember a keyword or two to find it. All the posts on this blog, for instance, have tags to denote the topics covered. Social bookmarking sites allow users to tag their links. Photo sharing apps like Flickr do it as well. It's a helpful convenience for when you're out with a camera or in with a laptop.

Just imagine if you could tag everything you saw with your eyes in the course of a day.

This ScienceDaily article reports scientists at the University of Illinois have created the first mixed reality state in a physical system using a virtual pendulum and its real-world counterpart. From the article: "Through bidirectional instantaneous coupling, each pendulum "sensed" the other, their motions became correlated, and the two began swinging as one.

"In a mixed reality state there is no clear boundary between the real system and the virtual system," said U. of I. physicist Alfred Hubler. "The line blurs between what's real and what isn't."

This Journal article takes a look at augmented reality games that require students to uncover solutions in spaces where the real mingles with the virtual. From the article: "Researchers are ramping up traditional MUVEs, developing games that require students to uncover solutions in spaces where the real mingles with the virtual.

NOAH PATEL REMEMBERS the first time aliens descended on his math class at Thomas A. Edison Middle School in Brighton, MA.

My blogs:

Interactive Multimedia Technology
http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com

Technology Supported Human-World Interaction
http://tshwi.blogspot.com

TechPsych
http://techpsych.blogspot.com

This ZDNet Emerging Technology Trends Blog post reports that, according to a brief news release from Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, researchers from NASA and Lockheed Martin have successfully tested a software for a robotic extension device that has been shown to dramatically improve astronauts’ ability to perform remote tasks on the International Space Station (ISS).’ From the article: "Their usage of augmented reality has been developed to be used with the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), which is scheduled for 2008 and works in conjunction with the current Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS). And they concluded that their system should be used for space shuttle missions and on the ISS.

This ZDNet Emerging Technology Trends Blog post reports spanish researchers have developed and successfully tested a computer simulator allowing visually impaired to drive. From the article: "This system is called SERBA (short for ‘Sistema Electro-óptico Reconfigurable de ayuda para Baja Visión’), which means ‘Reconfigurable Electric-Optical System for Low Vision’ in English. This innovative system is based on a reconfigurable device known as FPGA (or Field Programmable Gate Array). This means that it can easily be reprogrammed to be used under different circumstances. In fact, if his vision declines, a user of the SERBA system will just download a new version of the software adapted to him, without the need to buy a new device.

Jena from InterSense sent me an email reporting their technology has been incorporated into an augmented reality (AR) installation of the acclaimed desktop-based interactive role playing game, Façade. As a part of the Grand Text Auto exhibition taking place from October 4 through December 15 at the University of California, Irvine’s Beall Center for Art + Technology, this new version of Façade utilizes InterSense’s VisTracker system as a means to track the players in real time as they move freely throughout the scene.

This Networked_Performance article explores the concept of augmented reality. From the article: "“Augmented Reality has been around as a concept for a long time. It has very often been described in images of the future as enhancing the real world with additional layers of digitally created information. As more people are becoming aware of virtual worlds and seeking to build within them they, in general, start with trying to recreate some element of Real Life. This may be representations of themselves as avatars, existing buildings and offices they frequent. real world metaphors such as chairs, tables, presentation screens. This is something I have observed as the willingness to engage with virtual worlds has extended past gamers and early adopters.