Ünnecessary Ümlaut

A ton of vids and articles exploring the possibilities of Augmented Reality are popping up. Here’s a grip of ’em:

iPHONE: Augmented Reality iPhone Demo via Touch Arcade.
Game researcher and director of Georgia Tech’s Augmented Environment Lab (yes, there is one) Blair MacIntyre shows a virtual reality pet crossed with the iPhone’s realtime-video feed. It’s a demo now, but only a matter of time before I use it to create a virtual French Bulldog.

See more …

TEGRA: Augmented Reality Zombie Game under dev for the Tegra.
Blood splatters onscreen. And if you hover too long the  Zombies chuck limbs at you. Cool.

DESKTOP: Papervision x Augmented Reality.
Try it yourself at the Boffswana site. (via Ratcliff)

XBOX HACK: AR Driving Demo (Flash + FLARtoolkit + xbox controller).
from Squidder figured out how to drive a mini-car on your desktop using an xbox controller, see how.

BRAND/AUTOS: AR for the Toyota iQ (via Tenth Dimension).
Watch for the 1:00 mark.

BRAND/AUTOS: Before Toyota got in the AR game, Mini Germany did this.

BOOK: Aliens & UFOs by ArsEdition (via Tenth Dimension).
Supposedly “the world’s first consumer-print product with augmented reality features”. One could argue all books have AR features. Read more here.

BRAND/PACKAGING: Doritos Queso Diablo AR Bag
Because who doesn’t want to find a cooked mouse in their bag of chips? Try it yourself here. (via DigitalBuzz)

PRODUCT MODELING: Cool demo showing the possibilities of AR and touch interaction.

PLAY: Augmented Reality Drum Kit (demo #1) from Squidder.
Another exploration combining touch technology. (Thanks, Ty)

BASEBALL CARDS: Topps’ WTF (via ArsTechnica)
In trying to breathe life back into collecting, Topps is taking the reality out of Augmented Reality. The super-polygon 3d look is just too artificial. But I do like the idea of playing simple little games with these guys if you’ve got a couple of ’em together. Article here.

BUSINESS CARD: Check out other stuff from this Japanese design studio BOW(?)

BRAND: GE’s SmartGrid Technology
Maybe it’s ‘cuz this was the first AR I saw and tried, but I think it’s still the most inspiring ones out there. I love it when the graphics aren’t attached to the paper. Like the glowing Sun hovering above. Nice.