Comments on: Augmented Reality Comes to iPhone

Augmented Reality Comes to iPhone

spitefulcrow — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:55:57 -0800

Subways were the first application. Using the iPhone 3GS' camera, GPS, and compass, several new apps overlay information on a live view of the world around you. This week, Yelp joins them. William Gibson, eat your heart out. (A brief introduction to augmented reality for those who need one.)

By: drjimmy11

drjimmy11 — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:02:00 -0800

Cool it's a latter-day CueCat! This sounds monumentally difficult to use and pointless compared to just seeing the info overlaid on a map, or typing in the name of the place.

By: KirkJobSluder

KirkJobSluder — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:03:39 -0800

First application for the iPhone perhaps. It's old news for military applications.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:06:58 -0800

I'm hoping for something closer to Ghostwire. Or maybe some sort of digital tagging app that will let you 'paint' crude messages in the air at locations that others can then see via the app.

By: dubold

dubold — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:08:08 -0800

*obligatory Virtual Light reference*

By: heeeraldo

heeeraldo — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:17:45 -0800

This cyberspace, it everts?

By: Hicksu

Hicksu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:18:41 -0800

But will it let me see my audience in their underwear. To.. um... help with my public speaking issues?

By: swift

swift — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:34:29 -0800

I got your augmented reality right here, amirite?

By: ChurchHatesTucker

ChurchHatesTucker — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:38:04 -0800

When the idea was introduced, it was all about airplane maintenance and such. Now we're using it to catch the bus. I don't think Gibson has call to eat his heart out. "The Street finds its own uses for things."

By: gurple

gurple — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:38:08 -0800

Android has Layar. It's a whole lot of fun for about 20 seconds, but I haven't yet come across a type of information that's well-suited to this kind of presentation.

By: kscottz

kscottz — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:43:05 -0800

Both of these applications are in their near infancy. It appears that both of them use a system of GPS plus magnetometer to determine the camera's position and heading. The pitch and roll of the camera are probably determined determined using image features. I have seen much more compelling demos from Occipital and Layar. I know Occipital has had trouble getting their apps into the apps store. I wouldn't be surprised if Yelp snuck this past apple. The state of the art in AR is moving rapidly this year's ISMAR conference should have a lot of swell demonstrations. I am looking forward to see what the Active Vision Group at Oxford has to show off. In the mean time everyone seems to be using AR tool kit plus to create a new form of game or something cool on the iPhone

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:51:58 -0800

It sort-of-kind-of-works-but-not-really. Kind of cool though.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:20:43 -0800

That London bus app Youtube video is perhaps the worst product demo I've ever seen. Not only do I not want the app, I'm not even sure what it does. My take-away was that the iPhone sure is shiny.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:26:33 -0800

Back when I was at the Media Lab we used to talk about doing augmented reality all the time. It was just too hard, too hardware and software intensive to be usable in a casual way. It's neat to see that it's now possible to do it on a cell phone, thanks to cameras and GPS and compasses and databases. I think it's interesting Apple hasn't approved any of these apps yet. Yelp only got it in there because they hid it; no doubt someone's gonna be in trouble about it.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:41:44 -0800

All the consumer electronics that use super-fancy accelerometers and tilt sensors are driving down the costs too. If Nintendo can put one in the $20 Wii MotionPlus, that makes it easier for Apple to include one in their $600 phone.

By: R. Mutt

R. Mutt — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:00:32 -0800

I just tried the Yelp - Monocle thing. Needs a bit more work.

By: brevator

brevator — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:06:42 -0800

Yeah, until this can be overlayed on your retina it strikes me a pretty useless.

By: Mr. Bad Example

Mr. Bad Example — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:19:15 -0800

I tried Layar on my G1 for a half-hour or so. It was slow and clunky, the interface was hard to read, and it didn't really find what I might look for in unfamiliar surroundings (it found the horrible pub near me, but failed to overlay the Starbucks fifty feet away). If they can speed up the response time and unclutter the interface, though, I'll definitely give it another go, if only so I can walk around with my phone to my face while making little vrr vrr pretend cyborg leg noises to myself.

By: june made him a gemini

june made him a gemini — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:40:33 -0800

The idea is neat.. but it took me quite a few initial "shake three times" to get it to recognize what I was trying to do. After that, no matter how much I calibrated the compass, the darn thing is a whole 180 degrees off from where the actual locales are -- no matter where I am (re: potential magnets, etc.). Another thing I like about it -- but that ends up getting in the way -- is how the size of the box encompassing the business information is smaller if it is further away. While it is cute in theory, it needs some work.. because inevitably there's a box in front of it that you end up clicking on instead. When I tried it today, the camera itself froze on a shot of my feet, but the AR kept working. And by working I mean still not actually working.

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:44:08 -0800

This would be great if it could track cops in real time.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:49:30 -0800

Maybe if the iPhone/G1/whatever weren't crippled with anemic processors this might be cool. Right now it's obvious that it's taxing the poor lil' bastards for all they're worth. The best (as in, most practical) app I've seen is the SkyMap app for the G1, but even it still stutters.

By: empath

empath — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:24:03 -0800

After that, no matter how much I calibrated the compass, the darn thing is a whole 180 degrees off from where the actual locales are It's possible that the GPS reading was off, not the compass reading.

By: nosila

nosila — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:30:34 -0800

I love the blasé attitude around here, as if the first augmented reality apps available to the public aren't cool because of how glitchy/slow/poorly-designed they are, or because, come on, the military has had these for years. Gawd. I think this is badass. Next step: retina.

By: flippant

flippant — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:02:53 -0800

Well shit. Now I want the 3GS. I just paid off my 3G. Damn you Apple! A small aside: Google Maps is useless in Beijing. Not only is the map overlay off by about 700 metres (at least!) but looking the address lookups are shit.

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:35:06 -0800

Sorry, it isn't going to be AR until there is a technology that allows it to overlay my everyday world, all the time if I desire it. And, yeah, it will probably be dataglasses. (I still dream of programmable glasses that will allow me to enter my existing prescription and have them autotune the digital image to allow clear sight. I also wish they would have a high light filter, and macro/micro settings would be so damn shiny!)

By: mistersquid

mistersquid — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:41:54 -0800

I don't understand what everyone is complaining about. I enabled and when I was walking around downtown it helped me find an ever-so-excellent thrift store and a great place (underrated on Yelp if you ask me) for joe, so I could contemplated my next ~~reality-augmented~~ really augmented venture. Crossing the street, a kid ollie'd up onto the sidewalk, and I followed him using Monocle to a kill skate shop. I left with an awesome deck and it was the I realized I'd left shishi, my albino pomeranian, tied to the MUNI. No worries, Monocle helped me find my lost dog. +++ would augment again.

By: R. Mutt

R. Mutt — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:56:56 -0800

After that, no matter how much I calibrated the compass, the darn thing is a whole 180 degrees off from where the actual locales are Exactly my experience ... almost perfect in its wrongness.

By: sneebler

sneebler — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:25:21 -0800

Unbeknownst to you lot, billions of years of evolution have given me a brain that allows me to effectively find my way around places I've never even been before. I laugh at your feeble attempts to use technology to find Starbucks! Method 1: Amble around aimlessly until you find a Starbucks. It's not like there's just the one.

By: Severian

Severian — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:13:37 -0800

I would like to plug Omni for having a good application of "Augmented Reality" for the iPhone. My wife recently related a situation to me where she was meeting with her grad school advisor (who also has an iPhone) and her Omni app on her iPhone realized she was meeting with him and alerted her to a list of topics she needed to cover with him. So, this augmented reality thing is already out there, you just have to know where to look.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:00:03 -0800

the first augmented reality apps available to the public aren't cool I think that people who have been following this go "oh wow augmented reality" but the general public just wants a useful app, and just adding poorly done AR doesn't magically make that happen. An app can be let down by its data source as much as by its concept.

By: Greg_Ace

Greg_Ace — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:25:10 -0800

R. Mutt: ... almost perfect in its wrongness. Almost - but not quite - entirely unlike Reality.

By: archae

archae — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:39:54 -0800

*Yawn*, I'll be impressed when I can wear contact lenses that render cyberspace over real life and become a true Gargoyle in Snow Crash cypherpunk fashion.