Today a new AR business card demo came online, this one from Jonas Jäger, a Communication Design student in Germany. Jonas’s version features a lot more interactivity; you can see his latest tweets, flip through some photos from his portfolio, and even call him directly via Ribbit. Check out more details on how its all done at his blog.

I think we are very close to a company attempting to create a standard around this, as well as an application that will allow the average businessperson to create and display a cool augmentation for their own cards. I know I would want one!

[James Alliban's -- AR Business Card]
[Toxin Labs -- Augmented Business Card], via [Games Alfresco]

As Tech Crunch notes ” Without a decent amount of usable layers, none of these AR browsers are going to see mainstream adoption any time soon, and Layar is the first to attempt luring third-party developers into creating layers on top of their system by means of an extensive API.”

This is a great step for AR — as the race to develop the best platform with maximum content while also supporting an array of devices. We are going to see some create stuff come out of this API opening.

The first interesting one was a collaborative polling company called urtak, which offers different categories of user generated polling topics. From their website: “The goal of the Urtak project is to find an answer to the question “What do men and women live by?” Since no single person has the knowledge to answer this question, we propose that we must work together, pooling our knowledge and insight to learn what we all care about, what unites us, and what makes us different from each other.” It seems like an interesting company, however, what compels those people to answer the polls. This is a good idea that is lacking a sticky component.

Vocab Sushi was another interesting concept. The free service offers “bite size” vocabulary words and sources them from thousands of news and media outlets daily. The vocab words are offered in contextual examples and one can play “never ending” games with those words. The company was founded by Jeff Novich and the website notes: “VocabSushi provides thousands of sentences that demonstrate any vocab word’s contemporary usage in news articles. Compared to the brute force method of flashcard definitions, a deeper understanding of the word can be attained simply by reading several interesting sentences that contain that word.” It is an interesting replacement for flashcards, and I believe this will catch on. I would have loved to use this years ago when I was studying for the SATs. Although I subscribe to Anu Garg’s Word.A.Day, I can nonetheless see myself using this service once in a while.

Sponge Cell presented a new form of flash based interactive banner advertising. The company is using social networking tools built into ad banners to help push content directly from banners as opposed to relying on clicking through the banner and arriving at a new website. The company writes: “The best advertising gives its audience information that they want to hold onto and share. Sponge Cell lets people do just that, by pushing advertising onto calendars, social profiles, mobile devices, home pages and other permanent places, without disrupting their browsing experience.” The company is attempting to mitigate a persons aversion to clicking a banner and being steered away from their chosen website. Sponge Cell’s banner’s allow for brand interaction directly on the banner. Another interesting idea, but once again, what compels me to interact with a banner which has an added social media component? Sponge Cell did discuss their advertising algorithm (patent pending) which bases the ad not on the search key word but on the aggregated data that the search terms yields. I thought this was already built into Google’s algorithm, but go figure.

The most interesting application was Zagat’s Augmented Reality Application called NRU.

The application allows you to find restaurants, nightspots, and shops “near you.” As you rotate your mobile device (360 degrees), the location of the restaurants appear relative to you. It also syncs with Zagat’s detailed reports on the restaurants. Although Zagat reviews are not user generated and have a top-down approach, the service is still fairly compelling as a closed source offering of reviews opposed to Urban Spoon. Check out a video demo of the product here:

The product is only offered on the Android as of now, but with the release of the magnetometer on the iPhone — we should see this application at the app store shortly (as long as Apple opens up the channels for AR production on the iPhone). This is a cool app and just the beginning of compelling AR apps to reach the market.

NYTM also invited two guest speakers: Iranian technologist, Ali Amami, who discussed the recent Iranian election, consequential revolt and the role of social media. This was the 10th election in Iran after the Islamic revolution and is the first election since then to see the levels of protest. Ali Amami stated that this was a new school revolution as a result of social media. He said that cell phones were used as capturing devices, where citizens became independent news outlets. Facebook was used as a community organization tool and YouTube was a video distribution channel that major media outlets, like CNN, turned towards. The question, however, was what went wrong? Well, first off, Nokia sold wiretapping equipment to Iran’s Telecom giant (source: Wall Street Journal). Also, Iran’s internet is state owned and they intercepted and filtered content with the ultimate suspension of internet service across the country.

Amami’s message to NYTM was that as technologists, we need to think about ways to work towards solving the issues of wiretapping/filtration, interception and suspension of the world wide web. He urged companies like Google and Yahoo to not bow to fascist government requests.

And the evening ended with Douglas Rushkoff discussing his new book, Life inc., about an open source economy.

It is always a pleasure to hear Rushkoff speak — he is intelligent, charismatic and extremely articulate. Speaking to the NYTM crowd, Rushkoff offered the analogy that our economic system is like a closed source operating system, though we behave as if our role in the economy was somehow organic. He argues that although there are natural elements and emergent properties of our system, our currency and economic affairs hold a bias to corporations (which are anti-competitive) and a centralized currency (which seeks to create value from top down) — the opposite of an open source economy, which was most closely realized in the late Middle Ages. During the late Middle Ages, there was tremendous spending and abundance, where with local currency people invested and reinvested from the bottom-up — wealth was distributed to people who created value. Those who did not create value, did not make money. The aristocracy, seeing the uprising of the middle class and that wealth was no longer controlled by the centralized authority — made local currency illegal. This type of approach extends to today’s times. Rushkoff offers the solution (to the NYTM crowd) of an open source economy which is being facilitated by the internet and low start-up capital. As our economy is at a downfall, he is urging us to take advantage of the situation and create value through the net.

It was an interesting evening at NYTM, and I look forward to the next meet up! NYTM also showcased the 3 finalists of their t-shirts competition (you can vote here.)

As TurtleThink has written about countless times now, augmented reality is the future, and we all want that future to be a little more tangible. Help us Apple! With the release of the compass on the iPhone 3G[S], we are at the brink of some incredible consumer AR applications (as seen in the videos below). So, let’s spread the word. I am reposting the letter and some neat AR videos from Games Alfresco below.

A letter sent to Apple Developer Relations.

Dear Apple,

Signed:
Michael Gervautz – Managing Director Imagination GesmbH
Robert Rice – CEO Neogence
Georg Klein – PhD PTAM creator from Oxford University
Stephane Cocquereaumont – President & Lead Developer Int13 (Kweekies)
Maarten Lens-FitzGerald – Founder & Partner SPRXmobile, developer of Layar
Ori Inbar – Author of GamesAlfresco.com and CEO and founder Pookatak Games
Philippe Breuss – Lead developer, Mobilizy
Philip R. Lamb – CTO, Artoolworks
Noora Guldemond – Metaio
Takahito Iguchi – CEO, Tonchidot
Blair MacIntyre – Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
Bruno Uzzan – CEO, Total Immersion
Michael Zoellner – Fraunhofer IGD
Andrea Carignano – CEO, Seac02

[via Games Alfresco]

Their most recent game is called Mightier and according to the website “is an independent puzzle action game developed by Lucas Pope and Keiko Ishizaka. Play as the Engineer and the Actionaut to solve puzzles and collect items in each sector.”

The puzzle is fully interactive, where you first physically solve the puzzle by drawing out 2D components on a piece of paper. Once you’ve solved that portion, your webcam scans that piece of paper and your drawing is converted into a 3D puzzle. You then draw your own characters, scan those and play on your 2d converted to 3d turf. It is quite innovative.

Check out how it works below:

[via Interface Design and Usability Blog]

The Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech is taking a novel approach to measuring presence by analyzing user’s physiological responses to a rational fear of heights. Subjects were required to perform certain tasks around a created deep virtual pit, which, as one can see, appears to be quite realistic. Meanwhile, the subjects’ heart rate, galvanic skin response and skin temperature were measured. The results of the study aren’t in yet, but I would bet they were positive; our brains, upon perceiving visible danger, wouldn’t take any chances and unwittingly kick-start our sympathetic system right away! Also, the subjects seem pretty convinced and apprehensive in the video – check it out.

It’s also interesting to note that this exact simulation can easily be ported to help treat patients with acrophobia (fear of heights) via exposure therapy. In fact this has been tried multiple times in the last decade, but the technological advancements developed by the lab, which lead to a greater sense of presence, will surely prove more fruitful than previous attempts using older VR technology or simply using virtual worlds.

[Georgia Tech Augmented Environments Lab], via [Games Alfresco]

And of course I will leave you with a favorite quote from Arthur C. Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

[Via Augmented Reality Blog]

Amazing 3D immersion technology from IDEO Labs on Vimeo.

Great write-up at [IDEO], via [Offworld]

They definitely have a very elegant exhibition and execution of AR technology, but what would be even cooler, and also make more of an impact, would be if this technology were implemented on actual ancient sites and ruins — ones where affixing physical signage is simply not an option. For example, my most recent interaction with Roman ruins was in Northern Israel; unlike most places, the archeological site was very hand-on, and you walk, climb, and go inside the buildings freely. One strategically-positioned setup similar to the one at the Allard Pierson Museum would be able to transmit a lot of information without ruining the aesthetic caused by countless ugly signs.

Check out the video below:

[via Sentient Developments]

This standard could offer a significant shift in the 3D web by breaking down the end user barriers of entry. With the increase in web applications, people are reluctant to download bulky plug ins or software, but if the 3D environment is native to one’s browser, the potential is incredible. This team of developers and thinkers are industry leaders — allowing them to trail head this initiative will undoubtedly yield industry shifting results. I look forward to the release.