Tag: augmented reality

Blippar demos ar game on Google’s wearable tech.

The augmented reality company has dedicated itself to finding a way to combine the digital world with the physical world and recently took another step forward toward its goal by running one of its AR games on Google Glass for the first time.

A simple game using Glass demonstrates the first steps of gesture interaction.

According to The Next Web (TNW), Blippar used Kung Food for the test. A pretty basic game that is not unlike the popular mobile game, Fruit Ninja, Kung Food revealed what playing a game on Glass could be like one day. To play, all that is required is the Blippar Glass app and a poster that is used for the game. Players use the “mouse” button on the side of Google Glass as the blasters controller. The object of the game is for players to slash at food that flies at them in 3D space to stop it from “splattering” their face.

Since the game is played with Glass, both of the player’s hands are free, which is a key point for playing the game and illustrates the start of gesturing interaction using this head mounted wearable device. Blippar CEO Ambarish Mitra said that the augmented reality gaming technology is still in its beginning stages. In the company’s short demo, the Glass device overheated within a matter of minutes of continuous use.

Although earlier this year, in February, Blippar demonstrated its AR app using Glass at Mobile World Congress, this is the first time that is has been demoed as a gaming platform.

Blippar is not limiting its augmented reality technology to gaming.

“Our ambition is to build a browser where you just look at things and you get spontaneous information, whether that’s some [sort of] utility or something entertaining… When we think of mobile we don’t define mobility and restrict it to your mobile device itself. Mobility is a lifestyle choice,” Mitra said.

The company’s vision extends beyond augmented reality mobile entertainment. It wants users of mobile devices to have an optional layer of information available to them whenever they need or want it, whether it is looking at products to obtain additional information or to play a game when they are looking to amuse themselves for a few minutes.

TruLife Optics from London, claims to have perfected a new technology for wearable HUDs.

The efforts of a London, England based company called TruLife Optics could bring a massive revolution to head mounted wearable technology that uses augmented reality in order to provide its display.

This is because the company has designed and created what it calls the ideal optical component for HUDs.

In TruLife’s opinion, the technology that it has developed provides a new and improved form of optical component for wearable tech that uses augmented reality and other types of heads up displays. The creation is both lightweight and small in size. Its use is relatively easy and it can display graphics in full color high resolution before the eyes of the wearer, without causing distortion or obstruction to his or her natural vision. It is also capable of creating three dimensional images.

The key to this technology’s improvement of augmented reality is in the use of holograms.

This particular optic employs two different holographic elements, instead of relying on a transparent screen or a jewel lens. It is also capable of bending light by 90 degrees in order to be able to transfer the image onto a main element that is completely transparent and that has been called a “waveguide”.

Therefore, when nothing is being displayed, the complete piece is entirely transparent. It remains that way even when images are being displayed, except in the areas in which the images, themselves, are visible.

There is one holographic display for each eye, which makes it possible for the images to be displayed three dimensionally. They are each about the size of a postage stamp. The full element is nearly 4 inches long, just over an inch wide, and only 0.03 inches in depth.

The technology was developed by TruLife through a partnership that it has maintained with the National Physical Laboratory located in Teddington. This technology is now available for purchase, at a price of £300 per optic. What this means is that companies that are designing their own HUD and augmented reality wearable technology will be able to integrate these optics into their own devices.