Augmented Reality: The Coolest Thing You’ve Ever Seen

At least that was my reaction. I think it will be yours too:

I know what you’re thinking: that wasn’t real, was it? Take a look at this one and see if you believe it yet:

Desktop Fireworks from Saqoosha on Vimeo.

I’ve tried it, and it’s real. All you need is a printer and a web cam.

It’s called Augmented Reality, and if this doesn’t achieve World Domination, I don’t know what will. The commercial applications are endless, and I think we can safely predict that soon you’ll be seeing this everywhere. Any technology that can be used by both the military and the porn industry has a very bright future indeed.

Here’s that implementation by GE from the first video, promoting green energy:

http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

How about a 3-D interactive greeting card? Well, here’s a start:

FLARToolKit Demo from Ryan Stewart on Vimeo.

Wait until Hallmark gets their hands on this.

The technology is called FLARToolKit, and it appears to have been invented by someone named Saqoosha (that was him in the last video) at Spark Project. It’s apparently just a brilliant use of existing technologies to make something very impressive. Actually from a technical standpoint, it appears remarkably simple:

http://saqoosha.net/en/flartoolkit/start-up-guide/

The commercial license was released on Monday, and I for one hope Saqoosha makes a fortune.

I know you want to try this now, so go here:

http://www.strafwerk.nu/ar/

Oh, and you can even do this without a printer – just draw a square on a piece of paper and go here to prove it:

http://saqoosha.net/lab/FLARToolKit/2/

So, as Stephen Colbert might ask: cool, very cool, or coolest thing ever?