Layar, one of the first companies to start popularizing the concept of augmented reality browsing using modern day’s mobile phone cameras, is today announcing the addition of 3D capabilities to its AR browser platform for Android and will be demoing the experience starting tomorrow at the Picnic Conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
With 3D, third-party developers can now tag real-life objects with three-dimensional text, place 3D objects on top of real-world space and create multi-sensory experiences. The general idea behind the addition of 3D capabilities to Layar is to encourage developers to create more realistic and immersive augmented reality browsing experiences for mobile devices.
This in turn should further the overall adoption of the much-hyped technology.
The first demonstration of the Layar 3D experience will be at creativity festival Picnic in Amsterdam from September 23-25. The event’s attendees looking for “Picnic” in the Android Market can find and download an application to any Android-powered phone and view a virtual exhibition that delivers a multi-sensory experience of real life. They will experience a jumbo jet flying by, a rocket launch, and find themselves in the middle of an arcade game – all including sound. Conference buildings will be found tagged with 3D texts and on the lawn several 3D objects are placed, such as windmills and 3D “experience domes”.
You can view videos and images of the demo here, and we’ve embedded some below. Granted, the graphics are fairly clunky, but imagine the potential for the future.
So how does it work?
Layar 3D uses OpenGL, the accelerometer, the GPS and the compass of the Android phone. Developers can place 3D objects in their content layers based on coordinates, which can be optimized in size and orientation and enhances with actionable items such as ‘open link’ or ‘play music’ in order to create a realistic experience. The 3D capabilities support live downloading and rendering of 3D objects.
Together with selected partners, Layar will update their API to support 3D objects for new and existing layers. Layar will launch 3D to the public in November together with the launch of version 3.0 of the Layar Reality Browser for Android.
I asked Layar’s Raimo Van Der Klein about the adoption of the app by Android phone owners and the API by third-party developers. Van Der Klein informed me that the Android application has currently been downloaded over 100,000 times, and that out of 800 requested API keys, about 500 developers are actively making use of it today.
The John5. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today named 24 new MacArthur Fellows for 2009. I was informed I was selected number 25.
i like the idea, i will look into it more in November.
Much needed Application for iPhone 3GS
I love to see this in my iPhone.
http://www.bliin.com/#item=p.36249
The UK-born self serving commodities trader Andrew J Hall, who heads a “secretive unit” at Citigroup known as Phibro has made a personal $250m killing from oil futures as well as generating 10% of the bank’s total net income last year.
Still as an industry insider says, “Andrew Hall should not get 100 million bucks at the taxpayer’s expense. He just takes the easy way out. He makes very large long-term bets, and just sits at home and entertains himself with four movies each week, buffet meals, afternoon sleep. That is so LAZY. He does not have to take responsibility for anything. The genesis of his latest punt came in 2003 when he anticipated “an important shift in the way the world valued oil. Prices had ranged from $10 to $30 a barrel for more than a decade, with the trend so pronounced that contracts on future prices were some 20% cheaper than the “spot”, or current, price.
Hall was convinced that growth in demand, from China and India was starting to outstrip supply and that “long-term and short-term energy prices would soon abandon” this relationship. He “bet big”, buying up every long-term contract going and then just sat at home. He made 250 million bucks after the investment paid off without doing a lick of work. That was so EASY for him. It is because of greedy people like him that we are in recession and losing jobs while Hall luxuriates in his Connecticut mansion without paying any dues. I should also be a commodities trader if it is so damn EASY”.
Having bipolar disorder he maintains a wonderfully eccentric lifestyle. This has resulted in him being one of the world’s most obsessive art collectors which is what happens when you do not have to work for survival. With bipolar disorder Hall early in his life was given to delusions and hallucinations. He dreamt of making it big without going through the grind say sources. At the same he is depressive about his fame, is manic about being seretive and so there is no publicly available photo of him. It is also on account of his bipolar disorder that Hall, is considering a compromise to please pay czar Kenneth Feinberg. The discussions include converting a substantial chunk o Hall’s compensation for 2010 to equity from cash, these people said. A deal wouldn’t affect the head of Citigroup energy-trading unit Phibro LLC’s ability to collect as much as $100 million for this year, but it would expose him to the risk that his compensation suffers next year.
Details of Hall’s early career are sketchy. An Oxford chemistry graduate, he started at BP before joining Phibro, then owned by Salomon Brothers, in 1982. It went well. By 1991, he boasted a $23m pay packet and a seat on the board and had made Phibro much more than just a trading outfit: it also had sizeable physical assets, including four oil refineries, and Hall harboured ambitions to build it into an “oil well to petrol pump” operation to rival the leading majors. Those plans were scuppered when he was wrong-footed as a result of having a bipolar disorder during the first Gulf War, losing some $100m when the oil price plunged. In addition to being bipolar he also got hypersomnia which a doctor spoken to says is characterised by recurring episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness or prolonged night time sleep. Hall sources say was compelled to nap repeatedly during the day, often at inappropriate times such as during a meal. Being a commodities trader though this condition did not come in the way of him paying the bills since he had enough saved up to avoid earning a livelihood. Therefore he did not have to hold down a day job which wopuld required him to stay awake in the afternoon. After five years though Hall consulted doctors and was put on psychiatric drugs like clonidine, levodopa and bromocriptine.
Protip: trolling usually works better when it’s shorter.
Layar Enhances Augmented Reality Browser Platform With 3D Capabilities
7 Comments
by Robin Wauters on September 22, 2009
Layar, one of the first companies to start popularizing the concept of augmented reality browsing using modern day’s mobile phone cameras, is today announcing the addition of 3D capabilities to its AR browser platform for Android and will be demoing the experience starting tomorrow at the Picnic Conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
With 3D, third-party developers can now tag real-life objects with three-dimensional text, place 3D objects on top of real-world space and create multi-sensory experiences. The general idea behind the addition of 3D capabilities to Layar is to encourage developers to create more realistic and immersive augmented reality browsing experiences for mobile devices.
This in turn should further the overall adoption of the much-hyped technology.
The first demonstration of the Layar 3D experience will be at creativity festival Picnic in Amsterdam from September 23-25. The event’s attendees looking for “Picnic” in the Android Market can find and download an application to any Android-powered phone and view a virtual exhibition that delivers a multi-sensory experience of real life. They will experience a jumbo jet flying by, a rocket launch, and find themselves in the middle of an arcade game – all including sound. Conference buildings will be found tagged with 3D texts and on the lawn several 3D objects are placed, such as windmills and 3D “experience domes”.
You can view videos and images of the demo here, and we’ve embedded some below. Granted, the graphics are fairly clunky, but imagine the potential for the future.
So how does it work?
Layar 3D uses OpenGL, the accelerometer, the GPS and the compass of the Android phone. Developers can place 3D objects in their content layers based on coordinates, which can be optimized in size and orientation and enhances with actionable items such as ‘open link’ or ‘play music’ in order to create a realistic experience. The 3D capabilities support live downloading and rendering of 3D objects.
Together with selected partners, Layar will update their API to support 3D objects for new and existing layers. Layar will launch 3D to the public in November together with the launch of version 3.0 of the Layar Reality Browser for Android.
I asked Layar’s Raimo Van Der Klein about the adoption of the app by Android phone owners and the API by third-party developers. Van Der Klein informed me that the Android application has currently been downloaded over 100,000 times, and that out of 800 requested API keys, about 500 developers are actively making use of it today.
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Dr Rand Pink – September 22nd, 2009 at 7:18 am CDT
The John5. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today named 24 new MacArthur Fellows for 2009. I was informed I was selected number 25.
reply
Teachbug.com – September 22nd, 2009 at 7:20 am CDT
i like the idea, i will look into it more in November.
reply
Mark – September 22nd, 2009 at 7:20 am CDT
Much needed Application for iPhone 3GS
reply
Edy – September 22nd, 2009 at 7:22 am CDT
I love to see this in my iPhone.
reply
notPICNIC – September 22nd, 2009 at 7:31 am CDT
http://www.bliin.com/#item=p.36249
reply
Alan – September 22nd, 2009 at 7:36 am CDT
The UK-born self serving commodities trader Andrew J Hall, who heads a “secretive unit” at Citigroup known as Phibro has made a personal $250m killing from oil futures as well as generating 10% of the bank’s total net income last year.
Still as an industry insider says, “Andrew Hall should not get 100 million bucks at the taxpayer’s expense. He just takes the easy way out. He makes very large long-term bets, and just sits at home and entertains himself with four movies each week, buffet meals, afternoon sleep. That is so LAZY. He does not have to take responsibility for anything. The genesis of his latest punt came in 2003 when he anticipated “an important shift in the way the world valued oil. Prices had ranged from $10 to $30 a barrel for more than a decade, with the trend so pronounced that contracts on future prices were some 20% cheaper than the “spot”, or current, price.
Hall was convinced that growth in demand, from China and India was starting to outstrip supply and that “long-term and short-term energy prices would soon abandon” this relationship. He “bet big”, buying up every long-term contract going and then just sat at home. He made 250 million bucks after the investment paid off without doing a lick of work. That was so EASY for him. It is because of greedy people like him that we are in recession and losing jobs while Hall luxuriates in his Connecticut mansion without paying any dues. I should also be a commodities trader if it is so damn EASY”.
Having bipolar disorder he maintains a wonderfully eccentric lifestyle. This has resulted in him being one of the world’s most obsessive art collectors which is what happens when you do not have to work for survival. With bipolar disorder Hall early in his life was given to delusions and hallucinations. He dreamt of making it big without going through the grind say sources. At the same he is depressive about his fame, is manic about being seretive and so there is no publicly available photo of him. It is also on account of his bipolar disorder that Hall, is considering a compromise to please pay czar Kenneth Feinberg. The discussions include converting a substantial chunk o Hall’s compensation for 2010 to equity from cash, these people said. A deal wouldn’t affect the head of Citigroup energy-trading unit Phibro LLC’s ability to collect as much as $100 million for this year, but it would expose him to the risk that his compensation suffers next year.
Details of Hall’s early career are sketchy. An Oxford chemistry graduate, he started at BP before joining Phibro, then owned by Salomon Brothers, in 1982. It went well. By 1991, he boasted a $23m pay packet and a seat on the board and had made Phibro much more than just a trading outfit: it also had sizeable physical assets, including four oil refineries, and Hall harboured ambitions to build it into an “oil well to petrol pump” operation to rival the leading majors. Those plans were scuppered when he was wrong-footed as a result of having a bipolar disorder during the first Gulf War, losing some $100m when the oil price plunged. In addition to being bipolar he also got hypersomnia which a doctor spoken to says is characterised by recurring episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness or prolonged night time sleep. Hall sources say was compelled to nap repeatedly during the day, often at inappropriate times such as during a meal. Being a commodities trader though this condition did not come in the way of him paying the bills since he had enough saved up to avoid earning a livelihood. Therefore he did not have to hold down a day job which wopuld required him to stay awake in the afternoon. After five years though Hall consulted doctors and was put on psychiatric drugs like clonidine, levodopa and bromocriptine.
reply
Benjamin – September 22nd, 2009 at 8:14 am CDT
Protip: trolling usually works better when it’s shorter.
reply
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These last comments gave me an headache. But deu to my compulsiveness to read I head to finish each line to the end. :(
Layers is certainly a promising application now if someone could invent lcd glasses with build in camera would be awesome information and datamanipulation at hand.
That’a a great desigh, but the brandwidth must be fast.
Augmented Reality has serious potential, looking forward to this launching on the iPhone!
At first I was going to post a “that’s neat but what’s the real world application?” message but then I thought of one:
What if you used it to virtual reenact historic events? Like you could hold a phone up to various scenes in Dealy (sp?) Plaza in Dallas… hit play and watch the Kennedy assassination played out by animated characters. Move the phone back and forth between the depository window and the motorcade to see the action. Narrate it with audio too.
You could also use it to recreate missing buildings and landmarks. Hold it up in downtown Manhattan to see where the towers used to be..things like that.
eh?
@Jasper Exactly! There are already some Layar developers who started working on such ‘time-machine’ like experiences… The possibilities are endless – unleash your creativity :-)
Cool! Hopefully what they cook up won’t be as morbid as my examples. :)
Me again. I’m wondering if it could be used for object recognition.
Imagine if IKEA offered vr instructions for assembling some of their more complicated products. If you had piece X and you weren’t totally sure how it plugged into piece Y…you could scan it with the camera and animated 3D wire frames would pop-up showing how the two go together.
To get the right instructions you could use something like Scanlife or snaptell to read the barcode from the box.
And we got home too late for me to exercise, which I had planned on. ,