AT&T SHAPE, here we come with ARKit, HoloLens, Computer Vision & more
We are happy and excited to be part of this year’s edition of SHAPE, a Tech and Entertainment Expo sponsored by AT&T, exploring the convergence of technology and entertainment (Los Angeles, July 14-15).
The public face of INDE usually shows our Augmented Reality installations for big screens, powered by our BroadcastAR system and we have been lucky enough to travel the world sharing these experiences with hundreds of thousands of people. This travel has helped us gain a deeper understanding on how and why Augmented and Mixed Reality will disrupt the way people interact with digital content.
That quest for understanding has been shaping the efforts we make in our multidisciplinary R&D department, and we wanted to take the opportunity and bring to SHAPE a variety of early stage products and prototypes, that explore deeper what is coming on in terms of new technologies, with real life examples of their applications.
MobileAR + ARkit
INDE specialises in AR development on iOS and Android under its MobileAR banner. MobileAR is a creative and highly effective education and entertainment tool that adds an extra layer of information - content such as 3D characters, image, video, text, sound and more - to everyday objects and environments.
Beyond using the leading AR frameworks, MobileAR also utilises ARKit, Apple’s newly released AR framework that allows creating unparalleled AR experiences. By analysing the environment and detecting flat surfaces ARKit enables even deeper blending of digital objects and information with environment.
In the above video, using live connection we’re streaming real-time motion capture data (with one of our colleagues wearing a mo-cap suit) to the iPad, and taking advantage of the exceptional environment mapping capabilities of ARKit that allow us to place any 3D character right in front of us, in any real-world space, in real time. Fascinating, isn't it? SEAN on MobileAR using ARKit will be debuting at AT&T, along with some amazing 3D dinosaurs we've created.
Vyu
VYU is an standalone computer vision device that measures human engagement in any space. This new INDE product was born from the need of measuring the engagement of the audience at our installations.
After many iterations we arrived to an integrated hardware/software solution that provides near real-time analytics on the number of people in a designated area, the duration of engagement, and qualitative metrics regarding age, gender and emotional response.
We aim for an affordable and simple solution to help retail, entertainment and educational institutions understand how people react to their offers.
Wearable AR Developments - Object Recognition and 3D content
We got really excited last year when we started working on the HoloLens platform, and so far this excitement has just kept growing. Beyond the challenges Mixed Reality devices are facing, and even though we are still some years away of mass adoption of this technology, it has been exciting to explore new ways of storytelling, interaction and user experience.
At SHAPE we will be presenting two developments:
Real-time Mapping and inclusion of Live 3D Content
An evolution of our work in the Edutainment field, getting you up-close and personal with our dinosaurs. With this development we are demonstrating the importance of spatial mapping and the sense of scale with 3D content. It also helped us to define our Unified Content Framework (UCF), providing us the ability to integrate 3D content in different platforms following 3 principles: Interaction, Immersion and Personalisation.
Live Environment Mapping and Object Recognition
In this demo we utilise the HoloLens device to recognise and localise objects in real-time using deep learning (convolutional neural nets).
On a very simplistic explanation, what we are doing is training the device to “see” and recognise objects and spaces. Combining these capabilities with already existing, built-in features of spatial mapping, the potential applications of this development are huge.
At SHAPE we will be doing a walk-through on the above, as well as some of the products and campaigns that we have created since 2012 – make sure you stop by. In the meantime, check out the first episode of our newly launched AR podcast: our CTO, CPO and R&D Director sharing some really exciting background info and views on ARKit, HoloLens and Computer Vision... Enjoy!