DARPA hopes the lenses will be able to superimpose data about targets and other points of interest over the soldier’s normal vision. As we mentioned before, the lenses have dual filters and are able to allow the eye to focus on things that are close and far away at the same time. The center filter directs light from the HUD to the center of the wearer’s pupil. At the same time, the outer filter directs light to the rim of the wearer’s pupil allowing both images to reach the eye at the same time, and the can focus on both.

The company developing the contact lenses says that they are also in testing at the FDA right now and are expected to be available for consumers by 2014. However, some eye care professionals are warning that depending on how fluid the images are, some people could get motion sickness while wearing them as they move around. The big thing will be augmented reality with these contacts. The company also thinks the contacts could useful for watching 3-D movies while wearing normal glasses by sending different images to each lens.

[via BBC]

Someone once said, “Where there’s a Will Powell, there’s a cheap version of the Project Glass headset,” and boy was Someone right. Programmer and IT director Will Powell claims to have built a rough copy of the augmented reality headset. Powell’s device uses a pair of Vuzix eyewear, which are basically wearable monitors, along with HD webcams, a headset, and a custom Adobe AIR program that he wrote. He used Nuance’s Dragon Naturally Speaking program for the voice recognition and Yahoo! weather services for the weather info.

A significant number of comments on the video are chastising Powell, using enlightening, well-constructed arguments like “fake fake fake” and “Why would you share with everyone a picture of a magazine?” While those are pretty convincing points, I think I’ll wait for Powell to back up his demo video with a more technical details. I’m sure he’ll do it, because he wants to win the approval of anonymous lay people.

[Will Powell via Make:]

Again, the picture above is just a mock-up of the headset, but if you’ve seen other augmented reality projects you can extrapolate what Google wants to do. The video below reveals the specifics – a heads-up display that overlays graphics over the user’s line of sight. It has location, communication, scheduling and note-taking apps, all of which are mostly activated via voice commands. It also has limited visual recognition, but mostly we’ll be talking to ourselves a whole lot.

Pretty neat, but again, it’s easy to see how weird or annoying it will be when this kind of technology goes mainstream. Voice control is nice, but imagine a world where everyone around you is using the same system and the same commands, mumbling to themselves, not to mention our eyes focused on something that’s not really there. I highly suggest we set up Project Mind Control first.

[Project Glass via Lifehacker]

But for this augmented reality game, I might change my mind – provided I’ve got my best friends who will take on any haunted houses with me, that is.

We’ve all been told that every place has it’s own story, and that’s precisely what Haunted Planet Studios  is aiming to do with their series of augmented reality ghost hunt games. The developer has come up with several applications that will let users capture the “paranormal activity” by running the game on their mobile phones.

As of now, two games have already been created: Falkland Ghost Hunt for Scotland (shown in the video above) and Viking Ghost Hunt for Dublin, Ireland. It’s interesting how they used AR together with fantastic audio effects and GPS technology to come up with an integrative game that will surely give anyone the heebie jeebies.

[via Pop Up City]

As you might have guessed, the blasters will need two things to work. Actually make that seven: six AA batteries and a free complementary app (shown below). According to Hasbro’s announcement, the Lazer Tag system will be able to detect shots fired from more than 700ft away. That range is reduced to 250ft in bright sunlight, although I’d say that’s still a generous distance to work with. The Lazer Tag system will also feature unlockable equipment and leaderboards.

The app will also have a single player mode where the user hunts and fires at virtual targets while still earning points and unlocking goodies, none of which will make up for how pathetic you’ll look when you’re playing the game on your own.

As I mentioned above, the Lazer Tag system will launch on August 1 and will be available for order from Hasbro’s online shop. The blasters will sell for $40 (USD) each, but you can also get a 2-pack for $70. Hopefully you won’t have to incur the costs of broken iPhones and friendships as well.

I have edited this post to reflect the correction and added information provided by Lazer Tag software engineer Brian “TagFerret” Farley. Brian works for Shoot the Moon, the company that holds the rights to the Lazer Tag brand name. He’s also the co-inventor of the popular Lazer Tag Ops line, so if you meet him in the battlefield I think it’s safe to say that you’re toast. Thanks Brian!

[via Engadget]

We’ve already seen what augmented reality mirrors can do to our faces, and while they can be used to correct or modify certain features, they can’t change our faces completely.

However, artist Karolina Sobecka wants to change that, and change it she has. Sobecka has come up with a new 3D visualization tool that replaces your face with a three dimensional image of an animal. What the mirror does is show a reflection of the person in front of it complete with real-time expressions and movements, albeit with an animal for a face.

She calls her project “All the Universe is Full of the Lives of Perfect Creatures,” which is pretty appropriate, if you think about it. Sobecka programmed her mirror by using FaceTracker, Unity3d, openFrameworks, Blender3d, and ofxFaceTracker.

[via Dvice]

The iOptik lenses work thanks to a set of special polarizing filters, which separate high intensity light from ambient light, and a secondary internal magnifying lens, which focuses the light into a single, narrow beam. The light rays are transferred independently to the retina, allowing users to focus on far away and close visuals, in full field of view. These contacts allow you to easily view images on a tiny close-up display (such as on a pair of sunglasses) while at the same time viewing your surroundings without any focus difficulties. The contacts do away with the need for the bulky optics usually found in today’s head-mounted displays, and when a compatible display is not present, the contacts would provide normal vision.

Innovega is working with DARPA to create prototypes of these types of lenses and beta test them for the military. A consumer model should also be available within the next couple of years, priced similarly to regular contact lenses.

While we’re still a long way off from displays built into contact lenses themselves, this is a major step forward in improving the usability of portable displays.

[via DVice]

In case you’re having trouble seeing it, the LED is right in the middle of his eye. So what compelled Krasnow to do such a thing? Not that a man needs a reason to stick electronics into his vital organs, but Krasnow was inspired by a very similar project. A group of researchers (isn’t it always a group of researchers? I have no doubt the news announcing the apocalypse and/or the singularity will start with “A group of researchers…”) were able to construct a wirelessly powered, single pixel display mounted on a contact lens and placed their device on a rabbit’s eye. But Krasnow is no puny researcher.

I can’t even put an ordinary contact lens on my eye, so I’ll just tape some Christmas lights on my glasses and use my imagination.

[via Hack a Day]

The researchers call their system the RePro3D. It has three major components: “[a] mechanically-controlled model environment, a tactile interface and a glasses-free 3D integral imaging display.” The RePro3D can project 3D images seemingly suspended in mid-air, waiting to be tickled and other things we shall not mention thanks to “retro-reflective projection technology”. This enables it to display images independent of the location of the light source. Meanwhile, an infrared camera detects the movement of real world objects – say, a human hand – and the system cues the 3D object to react to the “touch”.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

“There are many attractive characters in animations and games, but since those characters only exist within the screen, it feels a little lonely…” Riiight. The researchers are also looking at incorporating wearable tactile feedback devices for users to add sensation and make things less lonely.

[via Diginfo.TV]

If you’re like me, then maybe you’ll find this electric mirror interesting, too.

This augmented reality mirror lets you edit out any imperfections and perform a few tweaks here and there on your face and mirror the results in real time as you face the mirror. Cool, right?

Maybe it’s for all the people in the world who are exceptionally grumpy in the morning or for those who are extremely critical of their own looks. Or maybe it’s for people who want to know what they might look like if they go for plastic surgery. See the face-morphin’ action in the video below…

Vlado Kitanovski and Ebroul Izquierdo of the Multimedia and Vision research group at Queen Mary, University of London, came up with this software-based mirror that takes virtual augmentation to a new level by mapping out a 3D version of your face and developing a video version where the resulting enhancements may be made, digitally.

The AR mirror will be one of the works presented at the International Conference on Image Processing in Belgium next month.

[New Scientist via Dvice]

Unlike other glasses of this kind, the STAR 1200 has transparent heads-up displays so that you can view the “real world” as usual, but when something from augmented reality appears, it’s overlayed onto your vision.

The glasses themselves contain motion sensors to track head movements too. Vuzix previous AR glasses used cameras mounted on their lenses for their augmented reality glasses, but the see-through displays are likely to offer a major improvement in usability.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

From what I can see from the demo and the images, the idea is pretty awesome. Now, all that’s needed is for enough decent augmented reality content to be generated, and we can kind of have our own Matrix. Vuzix expects to launch the STAR 1200 glasses this August.

[via CrunchGear]

The tattoo was created by Colby at Blue Flame Tattoo in Raleigh, NC and it doesn’t always work in bright light, but it works fine most of the time. The cool thing about the tattoo is that it actually makes sense, even when it’s viewed without the 3DS.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The tattoo is of one of the AR cards that the 3DS can recognize. It promptly renders CBZ’s Mii on his arm. While I can see a future for this type of tattooing, what will happen when the next generation of consoles comes out? A tattoo is forever, but the 3DS won’t last that long. A barcode or a QR code would be a lot cooler in my opinion, especially if there was a way to use those as AR markers.

[via I Heart Chaos]

You can pre-order the Augment Reality t-shirt from Level Up Studios; the men’s shirt costs $18 (USD) while the women’s shirt costs $20. I expect to see the AR card graphic to appear on more items – keychains, gadget cases, stickers, tattoos…

[via Gamefreaks]

Watch the hilarity unfold (WARNING: there’s no nudity, but the captions are definitely not for kids):

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Not exactly Nintendo’s idea of social gaming, but it is quite a convincing promotion for the 3DS’ capabilities.

[via Reddit]

The App Gun from AppToyz is a gun-shaped receptacle for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s a mechanical device, so it doesn’t use any batteries. When you pull the gun’s trigger it moves two rubber feet that tap on the touchscreen of the iPhone or iPod Touch.

The accessory comes with an augmented reality game, which lets you fire away at digital enemies with the real world as your battlefield. Here’s a video of the App Gun in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The App Gun will be available this summer, and will likely sell for $30 (USD) or less. A gun accessory for the iPhone. Who would’ve thought? AppToyz folks, if you’re reading this, I have two suggestions: 1. Make a bazooka accessory for the iPad. 2. Make a laser tag app. You already have the gun, the iOS devices have cameras. Just provide a marker or target that players can put on. YOU WILL MAKE BILLIONS.

[via Nerd Approved & Pocket-lint]

YouTube user hogehoge335 made a custom code that lets him digitally transform into classic Japanese tokusatsu (live action) superhero Ultra Seven. Watch him pull off his moves:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The flight at the end was a neat touch. This hack only works on a Windows PC,  and hogehoge335 also said that your computer must be pretty powerful to run it – he didn’t mention specific requirements, but he did say that his own PC was a Windows XP Pro with Core i7 CPU and GeForce GTX 285 GPU.

You can download the Ultra Seven code from Google Code if you want to try it out. Keep in mind that this was made by just one guy, probably in his spare time. Imagine what professional developers can do. If only they were as imaginative.

[via Reddit]

Tobias Blum and Nassir Navab at the Computer Aided Medical Procedures and Augmented Reality Program at the Technical University of Munich created their Magic Mirror program which allows you do stand in front of the Kinect, and see a skeleton inside your body.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Using OpenNI and PrimeSense NITE, they’re able to superimpose high resolution CT images of a person’s insides onto the body of the person standing in front of the Kinect. As the subject moves around, the screen shows a virtual window into their guts. For their prototype, the CT scan came from a different person, so it’s not really accurate. Still, it looks pretty cool to me.

Blum and Navab say that the technology could someday be used as a tool for teaching anatomy. Personally, I’d like to see it used for a video game version of Operation where you have to perform surgery on yourself. That, I’d pay money for.

[via Wired via Make:]

Yankeyan used the OpenKinect drivers, along with image processing, tracking and rendering by OpenCV to create this great real-time lightsaber effect on his PC. All he has to do is pick up a wooden stick, and the Kinect tracks its position and the image processing software adds the lightsaber effect.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Hopefully, LucasArts will oblige us with the same when their Star Wars Kinect game comes out next year. For now, Yankeyan’s hack will have to tide us over.

Here’s the game in action, played against an appropriate background:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It would have been more awesome if the game had more interactivity, like if you could “destroy” parts of the footage. Still, you can use your imagination and pretend that your sister’s face is the Death Star.

[via Slide To Play]

The app uses a webcam, which presumably means it is aimed at notebook users rather than those with smartphones. The webcam overlays the person trying on the swimsuits behind the picture of the suit on the screen. The user can then walk back and forth until the swimsuit is in the correct place to see what it would look like. Sorta.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

For now, the app is only for swimsuits, but this could be the perfect way for people to see what clothes look like on them when shopping online. I can only hope at some point in the not too distant future it can mean no more need for the guy chair in stores too, but I’m not holding my breath.