Let's get digital, digital

This technology has been around for a little while. (If you haven't seen it then it's obviously pretty new and exciting to you too.) Before, this type of interaction has to be run through a PC-based program, but this new version runs through Flash which opens up a lot of possibilities.

Essentially, Papervision uses your webcam to read a symbol on a sheet of paper and generates the images on-screen. Code can also be written so that two symbols interact with each other when placed in close proximity.

Very cool stuff. Still in its infancy though.

Papervision - Augmented Reality (extended) from dpinteractive on Vimeo.

If you want to try it out for yourself, click over to Digital Pictures Interactive, print the symbol and then allow Flash to read your webcam in the second player down the page.

Thanks to Ken Slater, digital person extraordinaire, for the tip.

Speaking of melding the digital and physical, there's a pretty good article in last month's Wired about how our technology now is actually a pay-off on the promise of virtual reality that was all the rage in mid-80's teen comedies all the way up to the late-90s. Check it out here.

Remember Virtual Boy from Nintendo? That red-interfaced contraption your pressed your face into and played tennis?


Virtual Boy promo

I remember being 11 and calling BS on that. I also I remember going to a car show with my dad about a year early. Besides the cars they had several virtual reality game consoles the size of a Yugo set up. For $5 and a 45-minute wait, you could strap yourself in an be immersed in a totally virtual world for about 90 seconds. I remember feeling rather underwhelmed at the experience but having to feign excitement because my dad has just dropped a pretty hefty note for a stupid video game on it.

The amazing thing about technology is that we've developed it to the point within the last 15 years that we're able to do some amazing things on-screen. The new frontier is how this on-screen technology integrates into our physical lives: augmented reality, semacodes, OLEDs, e-paper, NFC, NTT and more.

Lastly, check out this new "spatial operating environment" from Oblong Industries called g-speak. It's based on the famous Minority Report sequences. Awesome stuff. I just wish they hadn't put the clip to such ominous music. It makes me a little less excited and a little more scared. Couldn't have sprung for the new Beyoncé track or something?


g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Soon, we'll be be to collect on all those promises sci-fi movies made to us.