The Future is Now! -- Lumus' AR Glasses.

Israeli company Lumus has produced a pair of futuristic but otherwise totally wearable glasses that enable you to interact with the world via AR. They also display 1280 x 720 HD video -- also 3D-capable -- without anyone able to see what you're watching.
How they work:

Light pumps in the earpieces send and refract light down the lens. This moves the electronics away from the eyes, offering a lighter, more streamlined experience. The lenses are transparent and display an apparent 87-inch screen about ten feet away. Because each eye display works independently, you can also view 3D video.

"But wait!" you say. "Why not contact lenses? Aren't those sexier and infinitely more discreet?"

Don't worry, those are coming.

Starbucks' AR Cup Holiday Characters

Blast Radius just produced Starbucks' first-ever augmented reality app, and you can swoop it up next Tuesday from your Android or iPhone.

Remember how you used to be able to collect all five mini Barbie dolls or Cabbage Patch kids in a McD's Happy Meal™? It's kind of like that, except not a choking hazard.

The app interacts with various characters that will appear on the company's trademark red holiday cups. When you point your phone camera at the cup, they come to life, and can interact with you or different objects (47 in all!) at the store, like bags of coffee.

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RFID in Yo' Kicks*

For ye futurists in training, WESC gives us Karmatech, a line of tennis shoes outfitted with RFID that users opt to activate once they get home.

The video illustrates the possibilities and setbacks: an RFID-outfitted "social shoe" can automatically update your socnets and flash personalised (if otherwise unimaginative) hello's to you from the brand while you're out in the world, struttin' your shit. (Mini Cooper did something similar using billboards and RFID-equipped keyfobs in 2007.)

Park your foot against the side of a participating bar to get a free drink on WESC, have a photo of you instantly sent to your Flickr, or even access VIP toilets.** o_O

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It's Just Like in 'Bones'!

We get closer to HoloSuites every day. Objectives for next year: holograms capable of physical stimulus and holograms that are self-aware.

LEGO. AR. OASIS. Dragons!

O'er at Intel Labs, Seattle, LEGO got together with OASIS to see how the play experience could be augmented with (ta-da!) augmented reality.

While it isn't clear how likely it is that we'll all have AR tables installed at home in the near future, I like the idea that environment can be used to respond to play in a way that fuels the imagination. Sure, the mind can make a house burst into flames all on its own. But it's so much funner to be able to see it.

Rules of the Game, and Our Inconstant Frontiers

This is an article I did for a session at MIPTV this year. I've been thinking a lot about this conversation lately in the context of how data visualisation can change the way we see, and how game mechanics are (finally!) being exploited by marketers.

"Maps are very simple," began Orange labs researcher Christophe Aguiton. "They are practical things. But at the same time a map is a dream engine ... people dream on maps."

Once upon a time, ordinary maps were given depth with topographical tricks. Today you can layer maps with data - examples of which we see in plenty, like how criminal acts, bars or schools can be mapped for the BBC's The Truth About Crime project.

And as an example, Aguiton showed us a map of France, seen from above, layered with the frequency of real-time SMSes in a given area on new years. SMS concentrations were illustrated to look like flames, burning calmly over the country and culminating in a gleaming ball of fire in Paris. When midnight hit, the lights suddenly exploded upward and outward, indicating the immediate rise in text messages - a fireworks show composed by data.

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The SixthSense Demo

...augment your reality for less than the cost of an iPad. =P

Things that Scare Me but Are Inevitable

• Recognizr:
  
  

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Will Augmented Reality Rejuvenate the Glossy?

It's my belief that there'll always be room in the market for a high-quality, well-designed print publication. Some reasons why:

• Reading habits are different online vs. offline. Online we skim and multi-task; offline we absorb longer paragraphs and deeper reporting (think investigative news stories). This could change with the technological progression of tablets, but there's still a long way to go in that arena.
• Online isn't the best place to appreciate an aesthetically-pleasing high-res graphic spread. Our experience of ads and art changes from medium to medium; pick up a copy of Monocle or Vogue, then ask yourself whether the images pop the same over the 'net. (Maybe this will change when everybody has a monitor at home that's the size of a plasma-screen TV. But that's not happening tomorrow either.)

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