Filming finished

I have now done the filming for Vlads Augmented Reality project, its all in Hi-def… I managed to borrow a really good camera for the shooting. Now that the filming is done I will begin to start editing the footage, once thats done I’ll start layering on the Augmented Reality. I have looked at adding the google maps application onto the video this is to show the link between the position of the person in Plymouth and where they are on the map, reference to Grand Theft Auto/GPRS.

Screenshots will follow shortly…

Navigational Aids for iBionic

I’ve been thinking of the navigation part of the iBionic contact lense. When I was brainstorming previously I mentioned about submersive games etc. I have thought how I could use certain aspects of games and incorporate this into my idea. for example on Grand Theft Auto the navigation aid is looking right from above, this would be very handy as a form of Satallite Navigation, the icons could be possible destinations where you want to go i.e. the shops, bank, quickest route etc.

This view from above has a historical background first created by the Nazca culture between 200BCE and CE700. It is presumed that these people could never have seen their work in its entirety.

 

The pieces were made by removing the iron oxide coated pebbles which cover the surface of the Nazca desert.

In some cases these lines have been reported a being landing strips for aliens. This was a theory made by Erich von Daniken.
You must be thinking where is this heading… The Nazca Lines also feature at the end of the game Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360) where ‘eagle vision’ is used to reveal markings in blood, including the Nazca monkey, hummingbird and spider.

Now combine this with my news feed style then you have a fairly complex interface which will not detract from vision. I think my next step is to start get some filming ideas and then possible icons/alerts to have on the interface.

iBionic – The Bionic Contact Lense

Ok quick update on Vlads Augmented reality project… I have come up with the idea of iBionic. It will be a short advert explaining how the bionic contact lens can be linked to your mobile or give you directions etc I’ve went along with the same style as Apple. I have created a logo which can be incorporated into the advert, as well as a possible slogan. The slogan was taken from Apples’ earlier campaign iThink, therefore iMac. I’ve went with iSee, therefore iBionic. 

                                               

I’ve also started to do some research into how the display will look and decided the best way to give the user a type of news feed. For example when you are watching the news you usually have the time displayed, also some sort of moving text like an rss feed which moves from right to left across the bottom. Weather updates can also be used. This is an example from sky news posted on youtube:

Augmented Reality thoughts part 2

Ok so I was in work today and asked the guys around me “What would you do with a Bionic Eye?” the main response was to zoom into something. I then thought about military uses and how this could adapted to into combat. The first thing that comes to mind would be a sniper, the advantages that this would give them would be immense, the tracking could then be adjusted into the sight of the gun to give a more accurate aim. (previously Vlad mentioned about using the bionic eye as some sort of spying gadget) I then started to think of other roles in the military, for example when soldiers clear a room they could use the bionic eye to show up infra-red or nightvision. This again would give a huge advantage over less equiped enemies. And finally RAF Pilots. The possibilites for a pilot would be significant, the need for all of the displays would be removed, these could then be displayed at the viewers comfort.

Augmented Reality thoughts

Glasses wont be involved… but how about contact lenses. It seems that this is the only way I can get round having a chip implanted into the brain, Ghost in the Shell rules!!! but according to the lecturer this has been done before?!?!?!

Anywho, I have been doing some research into the possibilities of having a bionic contact lense, but first my research stems from this handy article…

          “The UW engineers used microscopic scale manufacturing techniques to create a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with imprinted electronic circuits and lights. If used by human beings, a pair of contact lenses with circuits and lights would be the perfect display for augmented reality systems.” – the full article is viewable at: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1409

I have scribbled down some possibilities for the Bionic contact lense:

Car - speedometer and other helpful information is viewable.
Mobile phone display – Caller ID appears, video chat.
Video chat on msn – like ghost in the shell.
Gaming capabilities – submersive world.
Photographic/surveillance – zooming, clarity.

My Wrist!!!

Well i’ve broken my 4th Metacarple and i’ll find out if i’ve broken my Scaphoid on Thursday morning. Playing football was the culprit, being stupid was my downfall…

It comes at the best possible time when I have to write a 2000 word essay by friday, and a killer app project for Vlad.

What is a Killer App?

Killer app; a term that migrated from software development to online. It is nothing more than tech-talk for the eternal search for next big idea.  – http://www.expedite-email-marketing.com/ 

Killer App; is a contraction of “killer application” which means the most prominent, or useful application.  It was widely decided that email was the original killer app of the 90’s. – http://www.affiliatewhitepages.com/marketingterms_k.htm

One of the first (if not the first) killer application in video games was without a doubt Star Raiders, released in 1979 on cartridge for the Atari 8-bit computer. Customers purchased Atari computers just so they could play that game. The same happened a year later when Atari released Space Invaders on the successful Atari 2600. The VCS became a sell-out over Christmas. The Game Boy saw Tetris, and following Game Boy iterations saw the highly successful Pokémon series. Nintendo 64 saw much success with the releases of Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Software developers of new platforms now tend to focus considerable effort and funds into discovering or creating the next “killer app” for a given technology. - www.techspec.com

The Organism Project…

Me and Big Aq worked on the final stages of the organism project last night. We were very happy with the work we achieved, even though we had great difficulty in trying to achieve the desired effect. The problems that we have had to overcome was mainly coding. However, I was reading over the brief and the main emphasis was on the organism itself and do feel we provided a pretty extensive explanation and created an organism that has the ability to grow by itself and the user doesn’t really have a control over it whilst they are browsing.

Our desire to create our own project i.e. coding for an application that could do everything dominated our processing approach and has proven to be a challenge bigtime. For further explanation about our thoughts with regards to the organism, check out the site mentioned above!!

Here’s the youtube entry if you can’t wait!!!

We done our presentation today, it fell kind of flat with the different styles colliding with each other giving a mixed messages to the listeners. The comments from Chris were harsh but definitly taken on board.

Organism Project on YouTube…

Another glorious meeting with Mr Speed

Yesterday was an exciting day, we have finally got some visuals for the organism project, and we have made it so good that its and organism in itself so in effect we have 2 organisms, kind of living off each other. I first suggests symbiosis when we were first bouncing ideas around, and lo and behold we end up with 2 stunning pieces of work, after the meeting with Mr Speed we were directed into the path of another Chris, but this one was a lil’ code monkey, he helped us bring our ideas to realisation, and literally within a few hours of speaking to him we had a working example which we could then take forward and tweek.

Also we look sure to be presenting our work on the big screen, no not the cinema on the big 5m by 8m screen on the front of Portland sq, the presentation will be next wednesday in Ride or Cuba, also might I add no-one else is presenting hehe

THAT Meeting

Well this morning we had a meeting with Chris, that went exceptionally well. Aqeel was our voice box, Chris loved our sample that we showed him and before he had the chance to say anything we told him where we were taking it, I then suggested about the new screen that has been set-up in Portland square, which hasnt been launched yet due to faults, he seemed very keen on us putting our work on there at the launch, Chris suggested that we use ride as the venue for it. We have devised a plan between me K and Aq, we know hat we have to do.

So far the group dynamic is fucking incredible we are bouncing off each others ideas, absorbing them then splattering them back with awesome results. Aqeel had an epiphany this morning (he has them all the time, he is just a walking idea machine) which helped us tremendously in the meeting with Chris.

Java today was quite hard… not the content I was just fucking starving, I was doing so much work I actually forgot to feed myself, 15:20 I realised that!!

We be brainstorming

Just got back from a meeting with Mr Barrs and Big Aq, we know what we need to do but just a lil’ stumped on how to do it, we all know that the code is out of our depth for now and it’s getting the better of us. We have worked out roughly how to extract the info but using the info and converting it into something visual is proving to be difficult. I have looked at examples of previous years work using the Arch-os system but the visual output was very poor.

We also had a chat about the company that we have to create, thinking of an original and appropriate name also proved difficult, we started with the slogan Imitations of imitators but thats too long, then we went onto Klass (this the the first letter of all of our names… Kenny, Luke, Aqeel, Suzie and of course me… Simon), now we have got to the word Crisp, to conjure up thoughts of precision and accuracy which are imperative when looking for a design company. Now we are currently bouncing around more ideas for names.

Its now Identity!!!

The world turns slowly then bites you in the ass when it wants something…

Now that all of the modules have now had the chance to explain themselves we have been able to start getting our ideas together, which is very very promising so far.

The Java module is going very well, Hugos module is a breeze our group are more than capable than the tripe that were so called “examples” and as for Joasias’ well we had an ex-student in today called Duncan Shingleton, Please follow THIS link to his work. He was telling us about the right ways to go about doing the course, my personal opinion is that it differs between people his methods of absorbing information seemed to be different to mine, he gave us a few really good tips about the essay basically start early as possible. The 3D lecture was a weird one were had a lecture on Art movements…

We had a meeting with Chris today which enabled Me, Kenny and Aqeel to run by some ideas about the organism project, he didnt advise differently like expected, instead he pointed us in a direction in which we were already heading. In Brief, we are trying to extract information from a medium and produce this data in sort sort of abstract format. One idea was to have the screen blur over, it would get more blurry if the user had lots of information on their screen. We have decided to contact Mike Philips who we know runs the Archos system in the University.

In other news… work was rubbish, Guy has convinced me to play Battlefield 2 this gives me a break from World of Warcraft. Jo starts college tomorrow, she isn’t taking it very well and is worried about meeting new people. She’ll be fine.

Well…

IT has been 6 months since I posted anything… in my first day back at university, something clicked, I somehow realised that keeping my thoughts on some sort of medium could prove to be useful… it took me 5 days do write that. What is going on? Motivation is high but doing is low, I have the 3D stuff sorted just need to get some sort of object to animate, the organism project seems to be sorted just need to work out if it’s do-able.

Java turned out to be much much better than expected, Martins notes are really well written and in depth, the essay for joasia is my biggest worry at the moment, I managed to get hold of last years results for her module lets just say the marks were not high or pretty, and judging from last year my writing skills are pants.

By the end of today I should have all the software I need to complete the 3D project, i’ll get the project done by mid-week.