22/5/09

Ar.Shopping 3d Catalogue & Impuzzable 3 dimensional tutorial project.

The Project I have made is an augmented reality system; it uses ARtag technology to create a real time 3d object by aiming a web camera at a black and white patterned tag. The idea was to create a situational based 3D system for a home use.  I looked into a situational based DIY system, but because of rendering issues with the 3d, complicated 3d models were not clear enough for such a purpose.  The final aim was to create a 3d catalogue, a more commercial example of the technology while also creating a small tutorial to two puzzle cubes.  One of the key areas of dissertation that formed the context of this project was how the perception of a technology was key to its acceptance. With a highly commercial and cosmetic application like the catalogue and a fun use in the puzzle game I feel I have created two platforms for AR use that is not only innovative but actually a great way of getting people interested in this technology compared to the many more geeky and complicated applications its being used for.  The idea was just to have a book with the AR tags inside, and a system to view it other than on a monitor.

This progressed to the use of a ring binder folder and projector to have a place where the book could be stored and the projected against. Shown below.

There were many Inspirations for this Project, most namely the Argos catalogue.  Even the Design of the Ar.Shopping was intended to show the connection to it, the idea that you could have your home copy of the Argos catalogue, but in 3D.  Like the aim of my project, the Argos catalogue aims at a different demographic to that of the kind of people subjected to and aware of AR technology in general. Other inspirations have come from The Diamond Age, the young girls primer by Neal Stephenson, the primer in the book being a technologically advanced book with AI that instructs and teaches its owner in specific tasks for the life they lead, or in the case of the book the life the proper owner should have read.  Other AR inspirations and examples I have looked at were matrix, Metal gear Solid, Ghost Recon, Second Life.  In relation to my dissertation I have chosen to take the majority of my inspiration from Popular culture, Science Fiction films, and computer games so I can emulate such technologies in a more realistic and acceptable fashion.

Key concerns for this project is the cost of the technology, although the webcam and the ARtag technology was easy to come across the project still needs a laptop at least, and for the system I have designed a projector is expected.  I chose the mini projector because it’s an emerging technology, the next generation of them are already coming out on phones, and the one I have is compatible with some mp3 players that have video function.  With these considerations it becomes apparent that in the future the projectors could eliminate the laptop all together from the system by having that functionality making it a projector and webcam system which would be small and work perfectly for the system I have built.

The ramifications of this project are many, the key one I have come across when demoing the system to friends and colleagues is that it inspires new ideas straight away, some of these have been to use a headset and camera duo instead of the projector for museums or exhibits of 3d works, others for inclusion into house hold items so that they have ARtag’s on them for hidden text or animated instructions on how to open them etc.

I have included a small demo of a wii remote based situation based piece which was part of a test I did to illustrate the future ramifications of such a system when the technology can be produced with better graphics and clearer resolutions for the projector (which is actually only 10% as powerful as a projector).

This technology at this simple level could be widely used, in education it would be perfect for any lesson to have AR based demonstrations, in marketing you could have flyers with the tags on them so you have 3d scenes and animations, in shops large 3d AR representations of the products on sale like my catalogue.  These areas although not ground breaking take AR away from the video gaming and science fiction crowds and start applying it to purposes that actually affect the main stream of our culture, and with this from my work in my dissertation, I feel is the key to such technology getting out there, not on TED or minority viewed “geeky” sites.

The catalogue has 7 products, one of which has two pages, while going through it you can spin the tags to get a 360 degree view of the product.  It was designed in the theme and inspired by the Argos catalogue, this is to illustrate the future potential for a brand like Argos to use such technology, and the commercial value and impact it’d have.

The Puzzle game, Impuzzable, is a bedlam cube, I have created a 7 step tutorial for the yellow cube and 6 for the orange cube, each page has a piece you need to put in and an ARtag to show a 3d image of where it goes. The piece your using is represented in a clearer brighter colour in the 3d where the other cubes are dull.

The Plug demo included allows the user to project instructions for opening up a plug and labels for the parts, its meant for using with a wii remote so that you can have it projected on a wall near you while you work, its a demo for the original concept of situation based DIY.

Heres the project dvd cover

The video went well, especially because turns out Babbage no longer has any cameras, i think i must’ve missed that bit. The feed back i got was brilliant, and it has the effect i had hoped, people were genuinely pleased n wanted to try it, however they were obviously looking to see the potential in their field, but it does show how people look to see how such technology could be use when presented with the two books ive created.  Only issue ive got to sort out before the presentation is the screen saver stopping theprojector, no biggy.

heres the pics

mine are yellow and orange thought, the blue is more difficult, and i dont want them to be too hard, they are just to prove a concet witht he AR technology…

Turns out its realtivley easy to change from the defualt images to one home made, altho the materials are a bit off…..

HERE it is