SaskTel 25

In summer 2014 we made 2 interactive experiences to tour with a travelling presentation celebrating SaskTel's 25th anniversary of proving cellphone service.

This video is showcasing our AR model display running on an iPad.




SaskTel Blog

AR Whack-a-Mole

A direct link to the above video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q0AmgJ1PtU

Last entry we talked about the Live Interactions we created for Riderville, an amazing event you had to see to believe. The above video recaps those three interactions. As part of the festivities in the days leading up to Grey Cup 2013, tens of thousands of people converged on Evraz Place here in Regina, Saskatchewan, where football teams from across Canada hosted their own convention rooms for excited fans. It was the home team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who hosted "Riderville": the biggest and most in-demand room of all, filled to capacity every evening with long lineups waiting to get in.

Inside, there were rock bands playing on stage, marching bands playing on the dance floor, cheerleaders showing off their choreographed routines to pounding techno music, and party people shoulder to shoulder throughout this gigantic space. And Riderville Whack-a-Mole, an augmented reality game created by Talking Dog for the event was one of the popular activities.

Here's a movie we looked at last time that gives you an idea of how the game was played.
A direct link to the above video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9lcaPP2w0k

Right now we're hard at work on a set of Augmented Reality experiences that will be touring throughout Saskatchewan for the next six months, we'll give you a look at that in an upcoming entry. Meanwhile, let's stop and think about the simple idea of Riderville Whack-a-Mole and how it relates to the idea of Augmented Reality computer interface design.

Back in 2002, Spielberg's Minority Report gave what for many people was the first glimpse of the possibilities of an AR interface - you wave your hands in the air and the computer responds to your actions. It seemed so impossibly futuristic back then! More recently, we've seen Tony Stark using much the same kind of an interface in the Iron Man movies. Our game, simple as it is, shows the start of that same big idea, using nothing more than a $700 Mac Mini and a first generation Microsoft Kinect. No super-computers required! Did Tom Cruise's pre-cogs see that one coming? Hard to say.

Where do we go from here? Tell us what you need. "Wave your hands in the air and have something happen on the screen" is such an open-ended concept that the possibilities really are endless. And integrating multiple experiences like the ones shown in the video that started this entry is one of our goals. Think of this: already we have an interface that responds to your actions, no need to be holding a device in your hands. Voice interaction adds flexibility. And being able to collect input from devices anywhere in the world and show the results in real time adds yet another layer of possibility.

If you come to Talking Dog, we currently have well over a dozen different kinds of live interaction that we can show you, all running on inexpensive devices like the Mac Mini, a tablet, or a smart phone. We love figuring out solutions that use these kinds of live interactions, whether that be for education, entertainment or that wow factor that attracts a crowd. How can we help your company grow with these fantastic new tools? Give us a call and let's find out.

Yours augmentedly,
www.talkingdogstudios.com

Riderville Interactive Experience

Here at Talking Dog, we're excited about how the technologies we've been developing since 2009 are so useful for "live" experiences. A perfect example from not long ago is Riderville, the four-day party environment where as many as 6000 people at a time gathered to celebrate, as part of the lead-up to the Grey Cup football championship which was being played here in our home town of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

We developed three different Live Interactions which were featured nightly at Riderville. Let's take a look:

1. Live Polling
In years past, being able to individually poll an audience and see the results posted in real time was an expensive proposition, since it required a specially-designed hardware setup. Nowadays, with a large majority in possession of a smartphone, we figured out a much more cost-effective solution that runs in a web browser. Want to try it out? Go to talkingdog.tv with your smartphone to place your vote right now. If you have a second device nearby, use it to view the results at talkingdog.tv/1/viewer.php .

You'll notice there are two buttons near the bottom left on this viewer screen: if you click on Recent, the results will be temporarily cleared. This means that if you are with a group of friends, each with their own smartphone, tablet, or whatever, everybody in the room can vote and you can see just the results of your voting. You can then click on the Totals button and see how everyone else who has participated in the poll since it was launched stacks up.

Finally, there are actually 11 questions in this poll, so for instance if you want to view the results of the second poll you have to change your viewer link to talkingdog.tv/2/viewer.php , and so on. Simple? You bet! But very flexible. Imagine a conference or a large meeting where the moderator is taking questions from the floor, a question is quickly typed in and everyone in the room can then use their smartphones to express their opinion. Or imagine a room where multiple screens are set up, each showing the results viewer for a different question, and visitors are able to stroll from screen to screen and use their smartphone to place their vote and see the results in real time.

For the Riderville experience, where most of the questions were trivia-related, we also posted the answers, which you were given a link to once you had answered all 11 questions. Inexpensive live polling is definitely something that could be used in a wide variety of settings, from just plain fun to very serious.

2. Real-time Animated Sound Meter
This is something you've seen a version of at sporting events for years - a cartoon depicting a sound meter is shown to the crowd, and fans are encouraged to cheer as loudly as possible. Wouldn't it be better, we thought, to create an animated display that actually responded to the sound of the crowd rather than just pretending to? That's what we built for Riderville. Here's a picture of our meters being used on the big screens at the event:

Those big screens were provided by our friends at IKS Media, who also created the opening animations for the sound meter, and our Whack-a-Mole game:

3. Riderville Whack-a-Mole
Using a kinect and a Mac Mini, we built this augmented reality whack-a-mole game, which was a popular attraction throughout the event. A player would simply stand out on the dance floor, wave their hands in the air, and see their on-screen "shadow" hitting moles as they popped up out of a football field. But they had to be careful - because occasionally team mascot Gainer the Gopher would pop his head out, and if you hit Gainer you'd lose points. We'll talk more about this game in our next entry, but in the meantime, stay augmented!

A direct link to the above video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9lcaPP2w0k

Godzilla AR

Godzilla opens this week, and we can't wait to see it! You'll recall that Talking Dog has a connection to this film taking us all the way back to the 2010 Comic-Con, where Legendary announced they were beginning pre-production on the film. For that event, the Talking Dog team were asked to create a unique experience: t-shirts that were given out at the Legendary booth had an artist's conception of what the new Godzilla was going to look like. When people wore that t-shirt to the Legendary Comic-Con booth, they were treated to the startling augmented reality vision of seeing Godzilla's "atomic breath" streaming from the mouth of the famous monster on their chest! Here's a demo movie of our programmer Rene testing it out:



If you've got a desktop computer running flash and a webcam you can go to this link to try it out yourself:
http://www.talkingdogstudios.com/ar/gojira/

Why is the link to "gojira" rather "godzilla"? Because back in 2010 we heard there was some consideration being given to calling the movie that. "Gojira" was the name given to this monster in the original 1954 Japanese release. What do you think? Our experience at the time was that there's still a large fan-base worldwide of Godzilla fanatics no matter which name they use, and based upon the previews we've seen so far, we don't think those fans are going to be disappointed.

Happy Hallowe'en!

A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeDNdBl6PV4

Here's a little augmented reality gag for your iPhone or Android phone from the fun-loving gang here at Talking Dog. Go to www.talkingdogstudios.com/ar/halloween and use your phone to scan the QR tag there to get started. Happy Hallowe'en!

Find the Love in ScavengAR Hunt

It's almost that time of year again where we show the people we love just how much they mean to us. Here comes Valentine's Day!! And it looks like little winged cupid has aimed an arrow straight at our developers' behinds because they are so overflowing with love and appreciation for our ScavengARs that they couldn't resist giving them the best gift of all....AR CHOCOLATE!!!

However, these just aren't any chocolates like the kind you buy last minute at the gas station on your way home because you forgot it was Valentine's Day. No, no, no, these are chocolates filled with love...and points! Up until midnight on Valentine's Day, you'll be able to find individual chocolates worth 5 points each. How's that for love?

What? You want more? Because we love you THAT MUCH, we're also including an elusive Box o' Chocolate worth MEGA points. Not only do you get mucho amor when you find this pretty box, but look inside and BOOM! More chocolate!! And you guessed it, more points.

See, we really really do love you! So much so, that we're trying to help you make it to the top of the Leader Board.

So get scavenging and find that sweet, sweet chocolate! If you're new to our game, go to scavengarhunt.com to learn how to start playing!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Talking Dog AR Team

Pirate Attack: Talking Dog takes ScavengAR Hunt to the next level

Avast ye land lubbers! There be rotten, no good pirates in these here waters! Arrrrrrr!

The scurvey scallywags here at Talking Dog Studios have stirred up trouble and this time we have engaged the wrath of the feisty pirates from ScavengAR Hunt!

Ok not really, but what we have done is develop a little interactive demo with Unity 3D (a game development environment) using a few pirate themed objects from our ScavengAR Hunt game. We have been curious about Unity for some time and thought now was a great time to get in and try something fun with it. Also, it seemed like a logical next step to take some of the things we made for ScavengAR and put it into more rounded out game scenario.

In our Pirates demo, you try to sink the pirate ship by pointing the cannon and firing at it. You have to hit that ship 10 times in order to sink it and we've provided a limited number of cannon balls to take it out. The demo is nice simple example of gaming 101 just to get our feet wet in this area a bit more. There is still some room for improvement, but if you think this type of game could work into one of your projects please contact us for a quote.

Be sure to check out the demo here - http://www.talkingdogstudios.com/unity/pirates

So put on your eye patch and grab a cup o' grog. It's time to send these bilge rats to Davy Jones' locker!

The Talking Dog ARrrrrrrrrr Team

Hey We Made the Top 10 AR Projects by the Music Industry!

Thank you! You shouldn't have, no really...ok, ok we accept! First of all, we'd like to thank our mothers without whom this wouldn't have been possible...

Ori Inbar at Games Alfresco put together a list of the top 10 Augmented Reality projects created by the music industry...and lo and behold, we made the list! He names the top projects that he feels best showcase the combination of Augmented Reality and the music industry. Collaborations with artists like John Mayer, Rhianna, and Eminem all made the list, so we're stoked to be amongst such superstars (both in the music industry and AR development)! The top spot on the list went to Black Eyed Peas 360, which is a truly awesome AR project and well-deserved leader of the pack.

Our project, 10th Dimension Music Video for Rob Bryanton's Imagining the Tenth Dimension project, landed us at #5 on Ori's list.

You can create your own AR interactive music video in real time using two of the songs from the 10th Dimension project. Go to www.talkingdogstudios.com/10thdim to check it out!

This was actually one of our first AR projects that we attempted to create back in early 2009. Glad to see that it still is generating some interest! We enjoyed exploring the combination of music, user-controlled animation, and particle effects and would love to delve deeper into this area in the future. So if you have any projects in mind please contact us at ar@talkingdogstudios.com and we'll see what cool AR stuff we can imagine for you.

So thanks to Ori for the recognition of our project! Here's hoping me make some other top 10 lists (maybe top 10 AR companies with attractive developers....we can wish right?)

The Talking Dog AR Team

Welcome 2011!

Well it's a new year here at Talking Dog Studios and it looks like our devious developers aren't slowing down. It's all guns blazing for 2011 and we're excited to create some really cool AR experiences, not to mention seeing what other wacky stuff developers are coming up with. 2011 is going to be a big year for AR folks...BIG YEAR!!

Speaking of cool AR experiences, we've just launched a project with the Telly Awards. In an awesome partnership with these cool cats, we created mytellyaward.com. Wanna know what it could feel like to win a Telly Award? Go check it out!

In the wonderful world of ScavengAR Hunt, we now have over 10,000 players! What? Pardon me, but did you say over 10,000? Yeah, you heard me. Over 10,000 players world wide baby! Are we excited? Uhhh, yeah we are! This is great news and we hope to keep the numbers growing with new objects to find and extra twists to the game.

Thanks for playing y'all and keep up the Scavenging! Oh, by the way, did you notice what is happening on the leader board! It's a battle for World Domination!! Muahahahahahaha

Haven't checked out our game yet? What are you waiting for? We're currently being featured on the Layar downloads page, click here to check us out for iPhone or here if you only have love for Android! And while you're there, check our some of the other great apps that are available on Layar. There is some cool stuff out there people, so have a look around!

As always, we'd like to thank all the people playing our game and we look forward to bringing you lots of more cool AR stuff in 2011!

The Talking Dog AR Team

ScavengAR Christmas

The holidays are all about giving and here at Talking Dog we couldn't agree more. So we're giving our little ScavengARs a Christmas present. For a limited time, until the end of 2010 to be specific, there will be Shiny Ballz waiting to be collected for mucho points in ScavengAR Hunt!

Shiny Ballz sound familiar? Well it should, since it was the super awesome AR decorating project we developed to have a little holiday fun. We were so inspired by our magical Shiny Ballz that we decided to let you search for them in ScavengAR Hunt. Tis the season of sharing and we are more than happy to share our Shiny Ballz with you!

And it seems that you are enjoying playing our little game. We are pleased to see that our numbers are continuing to increase. The last few weeks have shown a burst of gaming in the US, UK, Australia, and France, which has got us tickled pink! So we'd like to take a moment and thank all the ScavengARs out there. Whether you are just trying it out or you've been playing since the start, we appreciate you checking out our game and we are striving to bring you new objects and tricky twists to make the hunt more fun.

On that note, thanks for the love ScavengARs and we hope you enjoy hunting for our Shiny Ballz this Christmas!

It seems like this year has brought some really awesome AR projects and apps. We'd like to give a shout out to all AR developers out there who continue to raise the bar and delve deep into the endless possibilities of AR. Some of our favourites from the year are: Star Wars Tie-Fighters, AR.Drone and most definitely Word Lens! Truly awesome and really showing the world what AR can do!

What else happened this year?

• We had the pleasure of meeting Robert Rice at the 2010 Saskatchewan Interactive Summit.
• Microsoft Kinect came out and the hacker community went to strange new lands of augmented hackery.
• Our Godzilla AR t-shirt created some blogger buzz at comic-con.
• Apple introduced more access to the iPhone camera for exciting new possibilities of augmentation.
• Google introduced us to Google Goggles and whole new way to search the web
• We got into mobile AR with Layar and our ScavengAR Hunt game

We have also frequently tweeted our many numerous other findings over on our Twitter.

As always we are excited to see where this technology goes.

The gang here at Talking Dog wishes you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy Holiday Scavenging!

The Talking Dog AR Team

Go Orna-Mental for the Holidays!

With the holiday season right around the corner, we thought we'd give everyone an early present... Shiny Ballz!!!! I know, best present ever!!! And we didn't even see your Wishlist.

Back in the depths of our workshop, the little elves at Talking Dog have developed Shiny Ballz, a fun way for you to decorate AR Christmas ornaments and share pictures of them with your friends on Facebook. Not only can you color these shiny ornaments of awesomeness any way you like, but you can add a special holiday message for your friends and family. Think of it as a cool, new way to thank Nana for those knitted socks she keeps sending every year.

So how does it work? First, make sure your webcam is hooked up, then go to the website. Print off the black & white marker and fold it according to the instructions. Next, click "allow" to activate your webcam and faster than you can say "Pass the Nog" you are ready to start creating some personalized shiny ballz.

Here's a little video to show you how it's done. Notice what's unusual about this: you can create your designs by drawing in the square underneath the various tool buttons. Or you can paint directly onto your Augmented Reality ornament, just like in your old arts and crafts class!

Don't forget to try it out at www.talkingdogstudios.com/ar/shinyballz

Don't the Holidays just make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Happy DecembAR!

The Talking Dog AR Team

ScavengAR Hunt Halloween!

Zombies are everywhere! Run for your lives! RUN!!!! Or better yet, get them before they get you!

OK, well maybe they aren't everywhere, but they certainly are in Augmented Reality! As an added treat to trick out your Halloween, our Franken-developers have created a Zombie Head for you ScavengARs to collect for MEGA points when you play our fun mobile game.

Thanks to the major points you get when you find this rotting braincase, you'll be able to mount your attack of the leader board and potentially RULE THE WORLD! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...ahem...well you'll be the top scorer anyway.

This undead cranium will only be floating around until midnight on Halloween. After that, it's dead and gone...for real this time. So get out there and hunt some Zombies!

Happy Halloween!!

The Talking Dog AR Team

New Objects in ScavengAR Hunt!

In order to keep things interesting for our ScavengARs out there, the brainiacs at Talking Dog have developed some new objects to find. We wouldn't want you guys to get bored now, would we?

To keep track of all those random pickles floating around your neighbourhood, we've created the Pickle Jar! Genuis, I know! However remember ScavengARs, not all pickles are created equal. Have you heard of the expression, "one bad egg rots the whole barrel"? Swap out the egg for a pickle and I think you know where we're going with this.

Also to satisfy the alien head that seems to be hanging around the produce section at the grocery store, we've made a Moon! Oooooh ahhhhhh! ET go home! Now maybe it'll stop trying to invade our planet...or at the very least stop reading our thoughts (adjusts tinfoil helmet)!

We hope you enjoy these objects and stay tuned for more coming soon...like a Cannon! Those pirates don't stand a chance!

Happy Scavenging!

The Talking Dog AR Team

ScavengAR Hunt Insights

Hey there ScavengARs!

Let's talk a bit about game mechanics. As you probably already know, whenever you open up the ScavengAR Hunt application on your IPhone or Android phone 3D objects are randomly scattered around you. For the most part, it's as simple as collecting objects to gain points. However, things aren't as simple as they may seem, friends. There are some hidden twists and turns in our game, built especially to keep you on your toes. Some objects will only be able to be collected if you have other objects. And in some cases, if you haven't collected objects in the right order, you could lose other objects in your collection and their associated points! Tricky, huh? And the cheeky rascals that we are here at Talking Dog, we're not going to tell you what those objects are and what you need to collect them either. Where would the fun be in that?

As a bonus for our loyal Regina scavengARs, we have included some fantastic coupons from K Family Kitchen and The Copper Kettle. Not only do you get points for collecting these items, but you can actually redeem them at the businesses for great deals on food. Now doesn't that make up for not telling you about those objects? No? Oh, well...ummm awkward...maybe you'll feel better after you eat some pizza.

Anyway, we're working hard to keep the game interesting and will be developing new objects and more tricks to keep things fun and exciting. So keep checking in with our blog, twitter, or follow us on Facebook! And thanks so much to the people giving us feedback about our AR mobile game, keep those cards and letters coming.

Keep it augmented!

The Talking Dog AR Team

Check Out ScavengAR Hunt's Website

Thanks to the popularity of our Augmented Reality mobile game, ScavengAR Hunt, being played all over the world in places like Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States (to name a few), we've been receiving lots of feedback and comments about how fun it is. However, something has been missing...a website!! So the technology geniuses at Talking Dog Studios "got off their duffs" and created one. To check it out, go to www.scavengarhunt.com and see what it's all about!

The website gives instructions on how to start playing, how to check your stats to see how you compare to players all over the globe, and how to contact us should you want to tell us how awesome you are (or if you have any questions or comments)!

But wait, there's more! We've also created a ScavengAR Hunt Facebook Fan site! We'll be frequently posting updates and videos, so that our fans will know what's new, what's changed, or just what's really cool!

And speaking of cool (nice segue!), check out the video below to see a glimpse of what ScavengAR Hunt is all about.

So what are you waiting for? Get off your duff and collect some stuff!!

The Talking Dog AR Team

ScavengAR Hunt

Here at Talking Dog Studios over the past little while we've been exploring the "Layar Reality Browser" app for iPhone and Android phones. We put up a layer for the service a month ago called "Where the Buffalo Roam" which lets you visualize the huge herds of buffalo that used to be found in North America. To further our curiosity about this amazing new world of possibilities we have now released a game called "ScavengAR Hunt" (search for it in Layar).

This is a scavenger hunt, but in Augmented Reality! Once you're logged in to the app, you'll find a random collection of unusual and humorous objects that have been scattered around you. Some are near enough to collect right away, for others you will have to walk closer to be able to grab them. Should we be advertising this as "the Augmented Reality game that promotes physical fitness"? Get off your duff and collect some stuff!

Remember: you don't have to be right on top of the object to collect it, so if there's one out in the middle of the street or on private property you should still be able to collect it, as long as you're within 30 meters (100 feet) or so. Stay safe, stay legal, and have fun.

There are a number of objects that we have created for you to find all over the world, and we'll be adding more and more items in the months to come. Each item you find has a specific number of points associated with it, and occasionally you'll come across rarities worth BIG POINTS!

Go Riders!
In support of our local football team we have also placed a gigantic floating picture frame in our downtown to showcase two of the greats from our "Saskatchewan Roughriders": Ron Lancaster and George Reed (everyone will have to visit here if they want to collect this one). As part of this year's 100th anniversary celebrations for the team, we have also placed this frame over top of our football stadium.


But Wait, There's More...
This game can be played anywhere in the world. Right now, people here in the Regina area will also find coupons they can take in to local businesses. This is a new (and paperless!) way to attract customers: coupons can be placed anywhere in the world, within a radius as large or narrow as you choose: if your business would like to participate in this exciting new promotional opportunity, contact us (ar [at] talkingdogstudios [dot] com) to learn more.

Now Get Scavenging!
We hope you all enjoy this game. Will you be the first person to find the golden egg? Will you become the number one ScavengAR Hunt collector in the world? Follow us on twitter for updates about this and other interesting AR things we find.

The Talking Dog AR Team

Talking Dog makes Hollywood Connection

(Edit - Talking Dog President Rob Bryanton has posted some responses to questions about this project over at his Imagining the Tenth Dimension blog at this link: "Gojira".)

When Warner Brothers affiliate Legendary Pictures – responsible for such critically acclaimed films as Inception, Where the Wild Things Are, The Dark Knight, 300, and Watchmen – wanted to use Augmented Reality to announce their latest film, they turned to Saskatchewan’s Talking Dog Studios to provide them with the technology to do so.

This week, Legendary Pictures is at San Diego’s Comic-Con International, the world’s biggest comics and pop culture convention, celebrating the beginning of production on their next film: “Godzilla”. Persons attending the conference will receive a t-shirt with an image of the new Godzilla, and when they look at themselves in a webcam at the Legendary Pictures tradeshow booth, they’ll see a superimposed animation of Godzilla’s “atomic breath” shooting out into the air in front of them from Godzilla’s mouth, complete with black smoke rising from the flames and the ground-shaking bellow of Godzilla’s instantly recognizable roar.

This immersive experience was designed by Talking Dog Studios, of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and was supervised by Larry Monte of California’s Corporate Images. Talking Dog have been developing various AR applications for the past year, but owner Rob Bryanton sees this as a major step forward: “Augmented Reality is very open-ended, which is great because the possibilities are so wide, but it’s something that is best experienced rather than described,” says Bryanton. “With the Godzilla installation, we were able to quickly create something that our clients were immediately happy with, so we see this as a great recognition of the skillset that we’ve now developed”.



Another Augmented Reality project just launched by Talking Dog this week works with Android phones and the iPhone – it’s called “Where the Buffalo Roam”. Talking Dog comes from a city formerly known as “Pile of Bones”, which resulted from the huge herds of bison which used to roam the prairies. This free app allows users to look through their phone’s camera and be transported back in time, as they look at a huge herd of 3D buffalo being generated around them. If you have Layar installed you can go directly to our project here http://m.layar.com/open/buffaloroam

For more information about Talking Dog’s AR work, go to “www.talkingdogstudios.com/ar”.

Where the Buffalo Roam

If you saw our blog post about using historical re-creations you may be wanting to try our "Where the Buffalo Roam" layer we've created for the mobile phone augmented reality browser Layar. Today we published our project for everyone to enjoy.

To check out our new augmented reality buffalo herd make sure you have Layar installed on your iPhone / Android phone. Go to the "search" tab and look for "buffalo roam". When our layer appears click on the blue arrow button to launch, and be whisked away to a field of AR buffalo. You will also have the option to listen to some buffalo roaming which can be selected or ignored.

Currently our herd of buffalo should surround you wherever you are. We will be publishing more place specific layers in the future. Stay tuned.

On a distantly related note, did you know this is a grammatically correct sentence in the English language?

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Click here to read about this very curious looking sentence.

And enjoy the buffalo!

The Talking Dog AR team.

Augmented Reality Ventriloquism

Here we are with some more Faceball experiments! If you've been following along with our AR demos so far, then you've seen that Talking Dog Studios has been working on a series of web pages that use both marker-tracking and face-tracking technologies to grab the real-time image of your face and map it in various creative ways.

Starting with expandar.com (pictured at left) and Alice in AR Land (at right), we showed you some of the startling effects that can be achieved with just face-tracking. Then, with Faceball 1, we added in the marker, which let you map your own face to a sphere. And with Faceball 2, we showed you how this could allow you to hold your head in your hands.

If you were wondering where we would take this next, take a look at Faceball demo 3:


This one shows you how it's possible to become other characters, like in our Alice in Wonderland page, except that the character is more convincingly part of the real world.

Where, you might be wondering, will we go after this? No need to wonder any longer, because we've gone ahead and created a finished application from these demos. The culmination of all our hard work and experimentation has come down to this one point:

AR ventriloquism.

That's right, you can create dialogues between yourself and your virtual self in much the same way that real ventriloquists do. Check out our coder Rene Dufour-Contreras, who wrote and performed this strangely existential piece about a guy realizing he's just a virtual head:


Notice that Rene's mouth is covered with a still image of his mouth when the dummy is talking and the dummy's mouth does not move when Rene is speaking. You can try this, and all the other faceball demos out at www.talkingdogstudios.com/ar/faceball

This is just one application for this technology. By mapping a person's face in real time to a character in a game they are playing, or in a movie they are watching, you are creating a much more personal and engaging experience for them. Could your next project use this new innovation? Give it some thought and give us a call!

Augmentedly,

The Talking Dog AR team

AR and Historical Re-creations

The above picture comes from the wikipedia article on Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The picture is entitled "young man poses with huge pile of buffalo bones ready to be shipped".

Here at Talking Dog Studios in our on-going exploration of augmented reality, we've started investigating the world of mobile AR. The Layar app for iPhone and Google Android phones seemed to be the most obvious place to start. We have been thinking about AR, tourism and places of historical interest ever since we made our AR project for Saskatchewan Tourism so it seemed logical to take that a little further.

We started out by trying to put simple "Points of Interest" (POI) in our parking lot here at Talking Dog. We thought it would also be interesting to explore Saskatchewan's history of buffalo herds: the original name for the city we live in was "Pile of Bones", and it got its name from the huge piles of bones that were left behind by the buffalo hunters in the area.

So, through a little tinkering we built ourselves a herd of buffalo taking up all of our parking spots. This picture is of 100 virtual buffalo as seen from google maps (currently this is not publicly visible).

(Incidentally, bison is the more correct term for these animals, but buffalo still tends to be what people around here say in conversation).

At Talking Dog we understand the importance of sound to create a believable experience. To add to the realism we also allowed for the sound of a herd to be triggered when you get within a certain distance.

Next, we placed our herd of 3d buffalo models we had created in a field adjacent to Regina's Royal Saskatchewan Museum.


We're very excited by the possibilities of historical re-creations using mobile devices, and this seems like a good start. At present our herd of buffalo can only be seen if you come to the open space south east of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum here in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

This project should be published relatively soon, and we'll be sure to spread the word when we have it up. As always, follow us on twitter for more up to the minute updates on what's going on in AR.

Here's to our augmented future!

The Talking Dog AR team.