For the Weekend: Upcoming Events

What’s a better pun: the Singularity or that creepy 1997 Sam Neill movie. 

We have all sorts of events coming up that should (and shall) be brought to your attention.

ARE- the Augmented Reality Event in Santa Clara, May 8-9.

Join metaio as we showcase all of our Augmented Cities, the newest developments in junaio, and the latest AR device demos. While you’re there, you can also enjoy panels and presentations from the top industry leaders and technology luminaries around, and network with designers, developers, and business professionals interested in the potential of Augmented Reality. Speaking from metaio will be CEO Dr. Thomas Alt, Sr. Sales Mgr Lisa Murphy, Lead iOS Developer Jacob Ervin, and Director of R&D Ben Blachnitzky. Hosting the “Auggies”, the annual AR startup / new tech contest will be Business Development Mgr. Brendan Scully, and yours truly (Trak Lord) will be presenting metaio’s entry.

If you still haven’t registered, feel free to use our discount code, METAIO375, for 25% off the registration price. Register today, and we’ll see you in Santa Clara!

[ARE 2012 Registration]

arOCCUPY - May 1, International

From the the developer behind the arOCCUPY movement and the King’s Boat Installation earlier this year, we have a very cool, international “non-violent Augmented Reality protest” and anyone in the world can participate. Initially the event will begin in Bryant Park in New York City, 11:30 AM EST, but there is room for participation remotely from anywhere in the world. Visit the links above for more info!

aumentame 2012 - April 28, Tarragona, Spain

If you’re in the Tarragona area you should certainly stop by this event that will cover advances in Augmented Reality and how we can apply them to education. Read more about aumentame (“Augment Me” in Espagnol) at the link above or at the website.

That’s all for now! Make sure to check our Twitter and Facebook pages for all of the regular updates, and subscribe to this nifty, informative and well written blog. It’s called “the junaio blog”. And the button is right over there.

C’mon. You know you want to……

 

 

 

…enjoy your weekend!

junaio in Education: SCARLET and aumentame 2012

I let metaio Business Development “Guy” Brendan Scully pinch-hit for me on this one. I’ve made a huge mistake. 

Greetings fellow augmenteers, this is Business Development Guy Brendan Scully coming to you live from the new metaio San Francisco headquarters here in the heart of the Mission District, ground zero for high-tech tinkering and hipster America at large. And what could be more hip than liking AR before it was cool? I think you guys would fit right in.

Today’s topic: Education! We have two new junaio happenings to report and both involve the merger of augmented reality with education.

Our first example is project SCARLET, an extraordinary group of people who are using junaio to link augmented information to primary texts and resources at University of Manchester. With junaio, students can bring outside information into their study of special collections materials that would otherwise be difficult to access due to the limited availability and delicate nature of the materials (these things can be hundreds of years old!).

Sponsored by the UK government through the JISC, SCARLET addresses a very subtle, but important problem in current methods for studying old books:

“Students must consult rare books, manuscripts and archives within the controlled conditions of library study rooms. The material is isolated from the secondary, supporting materials and the growing mass of related digital assets”.

Figure 1: Making Dante so fun, it's a sin! (I can't read French. Trak?!)

(Trak, please leave my caption above as-is. Also please leave this line as-is)

[I did.]

The fact that special collections librarians will allow an augmenting smartphone into their controlled bookrooms, but ban laptops and computers tells me something about mobile AR usability. PC’s are too dangerous? Too bulky to be around fragile things? I’m sure their reasons have to do with human usability, and we couldn’t agree more.

Check out this great post by Allison Cullingford and the Team SCARLET blog for more info.

In other news:

Aumentame 2012 is coming in 2 days!

On April 28th, 2012, Tarragona will host it’s own event centered around Augmented Reality in Education

“The Association Espiral, Educación y Tecnología together with Rovira i Virgili University, [will hold] on April 28, 2012 the 1^st Meeting Espiral-URV under the title “Augmented Reality in the Classroom”, a meeting point in which teachers and professionals will share experiences and projects on the use of this technology in education.”

By organizing this meeting Espiral Association aims to provide a forum for the exchange of experiences, ideas and news, to spread the use of Augmented Reality academic environments, thus becoming an institution pioneer and visionary in this field.

Espiral: http://www.ciberespiral.org

Universidad Rovira i Virgili  http://www.urv.cat/en_index.html

Our junaio certified developers Ediam Sistemas will be there speaking on AR in education, be sure to check them out!

[update: Check out Raúl Reinoso's presentation on Education & AR at Slideshare]

Well that about does it junaioverse: work hard, have fun and augment everything.

He made me do this.

-B

For the Weekend: May Day May Day

We also have a new certified developer. I have the most unsurprising sense of deja vu right now. 

First things first, I am happy to welcome Buena la Vista Interactive to the Valhalla that is the junaio Certified Developers. Based in Germany, BLVI is no stranger to either Augmented Reality or metaio‘s technology, and we’re thrilled they’ve joined us on the junaio side as well. Check out this clip from one of their projects:

 

 

So what’s this crazy photo up above about? Mark Skwarek, AR activist and developer behind the OCCUPY AR and King’s Boat installations is organizing yet another worldwide augmented reality protest- the arOCCUPY MAY DAY. He’s already got a bunch of people involved (check out a map image here) including a talented group of artists and developers, including Brooklyn’s Devotion Gallery. If you’re in the New York City area on May 1st, be sure to walk down to Bryant Park and check it out. Here’s the Press release, and enjoy your weekend!

#######

PRESS RELEASE

arOCCUPY May Day by Devotion Gallery 

Opens May 1st at 11:30 am, Bryant Park. The show will move locations to Union Square at 2:00 pm. It will move to Wall St. at 5:30pm. The augments will remain at these locations permanently.

 

Global Call — Augmented Reality Occupation of May Day 2012!!

OCCUPY this upcoming MAY DAY with Augmented Reality! [and plz be active in the real world May Day as well].

 

arOCCUPY May Day is a non-violent action meant to send a message to the 1%.  The global community will be heard in the heart land of the 1% and maybe in your hometown!

 

Artists and activists from around the world are called to join the arOCCUPATION of May 1st 2012.

Brooklyn based Devotion Gallery will show the AR intervention live, on site in the NYC’s Financial District.

Devotion Gallery website:

http://www.areyoudevoted.com/

 

Submit ideas for the show in 500 words or less.

Include a 640 x 480 pixel image [or higher].

Send submissions to mark.skwarek1@gmail.com

If you are new to AR and have a great idea I might be able to help.

 

Don’t let your country go un-augmented!

arOCCUPY May Day’s main location started in NYC’s Financial District and has been spreading across the globe. Sydney, Australia; Brasília, Brazil; Hammam Sousse, Tunisia, Africa; Graham, North Carolina, U.S.; have recently signed on as other arOCCUPY locations.

If you would like to have an arOCCUPY May Day in your community we would love to help.  Tell us where you are and we will bring the occupation to you!

For more info on arOCCUPY May Day contact organizer Mark Skwarek @

mark.skwarek1@gmail.com

 

Participating Artists [current]

 

Mark Skwarek
John Craig Freeman
Paul McLean
The 4 Gentlemen  
Dan Loudfoot-Montford
Patrick Lichty  
Tamiko Thiel
Todd Margolis
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes 
Aequitas
Warren Armstrong
Alan Sondheim
Will Pappenheimer
Wafa Borgès

 

Past Press form fall 2011

 

Please get involved locally-

Technology [augmented reality] cannot replace people! The movement needs people on the ground. arOCCUPY May Day needs you to take part in the real world! more info here-

http://maydaynyc.org/

–
Mark Skwarek

 

junaio Transportation Channel Contest Open to Developers!

We will be also be crowning a Mr. and Mrs. Mobile Augmented Reality. 

Who wants a junaio Plugin? If the answer is “me”, then you best get devving. Ever wanted to develop a location-based mobile augmented reality experience? Now’s your chance to do it and get something in return for your efforts.

We invite you to build the Public Transportation channel in your city, state, country or … even for the world! If you accept this invitation (at whatever level, city or country), please send us an e-mail letting us know you’re interested.

Your response will automatically enter you to win a junaio Plugin (valued at $10,000)! This will allow you to custom-brand your channel and expand your business opportunities.

Contest entrants will be evaluated based on:

• Uniqueness of the channel concept (new, creative ways to display the information)
• How up-to-date the content is within the channel
• Reach of channel
• Included technologies / creativity (add navigation to the station in a unique way, unique filtering of relevant stops, innovative display of the information, making it a game, etc.)

 TO ENTER THE CONTEST, YOUR CHANNEL MUST BE SUBMITTED BY APRIL 30^TH 2012 11:59PM. Submit your intent to compete to developer [at] junaio [dot] com and we’ll fill you in on the rest. 

After April 30^th, we will close all applications and begin evaluations. The winner will be judged by the junaio Development and Marketing Team, as well as junaio users. The winner will be selected by mid-May, followed by a public announcement in late-May.

If you have any questions, please let us know how we can help – post your question on the Google Group thread here or contact us through the junaio website.

The junaio Plugin allows you to easily import and integrate AR content into existing mobile applications for Android and iOS. It’s a powerful tool that can turn any project into a winner. Check out the gallery below to see photos from projects built with the junaio Plugin, and email us today to get started!

For the Weekend: inVisible Presence & New CD

Download junaio 3.6. It looks like Vader. 

First up in this week’s edition of FTW we have yet another junaio-based Art installation, this time by developer Steve Bull for the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy. The “inVisible Presence” experience will include 9 channels with around 45 different points of interests, including virtual “busts” that users can click to listen to biographical information about the featured person. From Steve’s blog:
“inVisible Presence – Augmented Reality Busts, the installation by Steve Bull, explores the unusual intersection between sculpture in public places and the most modern digital technologies. It will guide the public down the garden path to stop in search of inVisible Presence. These presences will be seen only on the screens of the visitors’ smart phones or iPads, showing the busts of academics, artists, writers, novelists, choreographers and professors, composers and architects from all over the world. These busts will talk to the visitors about their projects at the Study Center. While literally geo-localized, these traces or presences are superimposed on the reality of the garden, memorializing research work or artistic endeavour that occurred at the Villa dei Pini.”

If you have the good fortune to be in the beautiful coastal city of Bogliasco April 14-22, this is a must-see. Along with, you know, Italy. 

In other news we are very proud to welcome another Certified Developer to our midst,    Digital Delta Design from Buffalo, NY. DDD is already quite proficient with junaio, having developed 4 location-based channels and 3 channels that utilize junaio’s award winning tracking technology to attach digital information to images and surfaces. Says Jim Dailey of DDD:

“We are excited about this opportunity with junaio, and appreciate being recognized as Certified Developers. It’s clear that the manner in which consumers will interact with content and their surroundings is changing due to the introduction and further development of AR. Our relationship with junaio will foster our ability to provide our clients cutting edge methods to embrace their traditional marketing materials and take them to a whole new level. “

We wholeheartedly agree, Jim.

Make sure to check out all of the handy links above (after all, I went through all the trouble to put them there for you) and enjoy your two days of non-working.

See you on Monday for Weekest Links that will mostly be about Project Glass than anything else really. 

junaio: 3.6 dimensions of Augmented Reality

Just trying to turn a phrase. We didn’t actually add 0.6 dimensions of spacetime to our software. 

"My god...it's full of stars!"

The first thing you may notice once you have downloaded the updated junaio is the home screen- no more blue and green psychedelic background! Though I know it will be sorely missed, improving usability is one of our major concerns, and the charcoal background just feels cleaner while making the home buttons and featured channels stand out even more.

Once you stop drooling over the home screen (it’s so…Imperial…) you may notice that we’ve made some nice improvements to usability and performance in addition to the standard and ubiquitous bugfixes. If you’re using junaio on the New iPad, we’ve added Retinal Display support so now all of that 3-D and digital content that we’ve overlaid on the physical world for you is coming in crystal clear.

For iOS and Android in general, we’ve once again improved the 2-D surface and image recognition and tracking, which means you’ll be able to see augmentations on print, signs, posters, images, logos, newspapers, magazines and product packaging with less interruption and an overall smoother experience.

But the big news is that we’ve at last added 3-D object tracking to junaio! Yes, that’s right- the same tracking technology that won us First Place in the 2011 ISMAR Tracking Competition and powers the metaio Mobile SDK 3.1 is now running in junaio. This means that developers can start implementing 3-D tracking configurations so users can experience augmented content on real world objects.

The benefit of using AR software developed by a company that specializes in computer vision is that it’s always getting better. We’ll never leave you with a stagnant product, and we’ll keep researching ways to improve the technology, making it more enjoyable and immersive in the process.

And trust me- we’re in this for the long haul.

For the Weekend: Lulu T-Shirt

Wake up and smell the augmented roses. 

Though they’re not the first to embark upon augmented clothing, but Thai clothing company Lulu T-Shirt has released a line of clothing augmented by junaio. You will have to buy the T-Shirts of course to get the full effect, but you can get a sample of the experience using the image above with the junaio channel “Flower In The City”. Just launch the channel and point the camera of your smartphone at the image above.

Just in case, we have provided you via the Lulu T-Shirt Facebook page this lovely video of the project in action!

See you on Monday for Weekest Links