To me, most augmented reality applications are mostly useless.  The term “augmented reality” makes me feel like I’m going to see something incredible, and then you realize all you can do is turn some thing on a screen.  Pretty lackluster.  This all changed for me today when I saw this video from Lego.  They make turning some thing on a screen totally useful and impressive.  Check out the video after the jump.  I think this in-store augmented reality could really be the future of retail for “inside-the-box” products.

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The Kartel has an interesting article on the upcoming “augmented reality” shoe from Adidas.  As ridiculous as that sounds, it really is true.  Later this year, Adidas will release a line of shoes with some sort of barcode built into the shoe.  When scanned by your webcam at the Adidas website, you will then be able to “jump into a virtual version of the Adidas Originals Neighborhood, and interact with stuff.”  Here’s the crazy part: you will continue to hold your shoe up in front of the webcam and use it as the controller to… well, I’m not exactly sure, to be honest.  Kudos to Adidas for branching out and trying something different, but I don’t really fancy holding my shoe out in front of my face and dangling it around just so I can explore a virtual neighborhood.  Hopefully it will wind up actually being somewhat interesting and Adidas won’t lose all the geek-cred they gathered up last week when they introduced their other new line of shoes.

I was rather psyched about getting to see some augmented reality and glasses-portable display tech here at CES. Apparently, my eyes must not be capable of decoding all that high-tech viewage. Vuzix’s Wrap line and soon to come augmented reality glasses are probably going to be really good, but unfortunately the booth was nowhere near complete. The one pair of glasses I did manage to demo was running a 3D video, but I was seeing a triple image in my view.

Yea, so … unless there was some random technical glitch, I apparently am not able to see a single merged image, I see three!  That aside, their other offering was a 3D scanning technology that allows you to live scan an object, WITH textures into your system. Video clip after the break…

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More and more, big companies are starting to understand the value in augmented reality.  Making things or people, like Robert Downy Jr., jump out at you from a special printed graphic or icon.  Esquire has upped the bar in this new technology by having 2 different interactions from one printed graphic. Check out the video above to see what I mean. For more augmented reality videos, check out an older post with 5 other ways companies are using it.

With the release of faster, more powerful and feature equipped phones we’ve been able to do more and more with the one device in our pockets. The iPhone propelled the smartphone to new heights and smack bang into the public conciousness, but it’s with Android that the biggest innovation might come. A couple of reviewers looking over the new Samsung i7500 aka the Galaxy, took the phone for a little jaunt armed with an augmented reality app. The purpose of this app? To track people including celebrities.

Although I would have though that this kind of app wouldn’t be particularly useful, the reviewer was able to track positions of various people inside an apartment block with just his phone pointed at the building. The whole escapade culminates in the reviewers locating and somewhat harassing Brad Pitt (assumed). The video is in Dutch, but skip to 2:30 odd for the action. The look on Mr. Pitt’s face is unmistakable. I feel sorry for him and others like him. Armed with this kind of app, the celebrity culture that we live in now will hound them till they just can’t escape. Don’t get me wrong, this kind of person locating augmented reality app is such a great idea, but you should have some control over it. Something like Google Latitude, which enables you to authorise and share your location with only certain people is undoubtedly the way forward. Whether developers will build in that kind of stringent privacy protection is however debatable. It’s certainly a powerful demonstration of what is possible with the i7500 however.

[Via Engadget]

In the future, you can view multiple photos in one photo frame. Just you wait.

If you ever needed an example of what the future will be like, just look around you.  You’re living in it.  The TV can be watched live on the internet, you can talk to a loved one face to face while not being in the same continent, and you can call anyone, anywhere in the world, at anytime. (Unless you have AT&T).

Ever since I was kid, I’ve been amazed at what technology and science brings us.  I loved watching Starship Troopers: Rico’s Roughnecks, Beast Wars, and even VR Troopers because each show used advanced computer graphics for their time.  Everyday, I look through news sites and blogs to find the newest in video games and gadgetry. And now, while I was searching the intertubes, I find this video:

Using Flash Papervision and Actionscript 3 for the web, we can now do what is called “Augmented Reality”

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