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

Alice in AR land

Last time we looked at our new website mixing face tracking and augmented reality: expandAR.com. This time we'd like to talk more about a proof-of-concept experiment we've just posted at expandAR.com/w using the same technology: with this version, instead of the software messing with their own face, the user sees themselves transformed into four of the characters from Disney's new hit film, Alice in Wonderland. The images used to create this demo are, of course, © 2010 by Walt Disney Pictures.

Can you imagine watching a program or a commercial where you see yourself inserted into the action using the approach we're showing here, with your face changing to different characters, or being modified in interesting ways as different things happen to you? So can we!

We see this as a starting point for something that any film, television, or commercial producer could use to allow people to see themselves as part of the action, to become part of the show. It's important to remember as you look at these stills from the site that this is really full-motion video of the user being inserted into these faces, which makes the experience just that much more engaging. What about a website that shows clips from famous movies and lets people see themselves as an interesting/amusing part of the clip? Talk about your remix culture.

Also, there are other interactive story-telling options here: users could be presented with choices, and depending upon their response they would see themselves transformed in various ways. Likewise, this could make for an immersive and entertaining educational or gaming experience.

Several things are happening to make this magic happen. First of all, facial recognition software is locating the user's face, and continually adjusting for their position within the image and how near/far they are from their webcam. Then, real-time video is being grabbed of the person's face. The image of this face is adjusted in real time to match the color and brightness of Tim Burton's imaginative images. In some cases the face is also being warped or tilted to have it match the look of the film's characters even more.

The fact that all this is able to be done in flash, so it doesn't require the user to download any additional software makes this a great promotional tool. The fact that it is a form of augmented reality that doesn't require the user to print out a marker also ensures that more people will be likely to try the site out.

In case you missed it from last time, we're going to close here with our movie demonstrating the original version of expandAR. Thank you to the people who have sent us pictures of themselves having their reality expanded in various crazy ways by the expandAR website, please keep 'em coming!

And if you are a film or television producer looking for an innovative way to engage your audience, let us know, we'd love to discuss how Augmented Reality might be just the solution you've been looking for.


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

May all your days be augmented ones,

The Talking Dog AR team.

PS - Talking Dog president Rob Bryanton has also posted an entry about this over at his Imagining the Tenth Dimension blog, check it out.

Twitter Trends

Here at Talking Dog Studios we've been experimenting over the last little while with connecting to the twitter API in order to display trends and such in an Augmented Reality window. Here's a little something we came up that we're calling "Trend Face". This Flash app lets you see the world's trends attached to the side of your face, changing in real time as words rise and fall in popularity. There's a couple of other features - you can click on any trend word and immediately see its most recent tweets, and there's a search function that lets you see the most recent tweet referencing the search term you entered.

Please check it out at talkingdogstudios.com/ar/trendface and tell us what you think. It's a fun little project and who knows: you might even learn a thing or two about what matters to the twitterverse right this instant.

Speaking of that, you can take a picture of yourself and the current "moment in time" trends, for you to look back at for years to come: save it to your hard drive or share it with your Facebook friends. And for lots more tweets about Augmented Reality-related stuff we find interesting, be sure to follow us twitter @talkingdogar .

Cheers!

The Talking Dog AR team

Augmented Reality Season's Greetings

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


All the best of the holidays to you and yours! From here in Saskatchewan, Canada, the gang at Talking Dog Studios have created a unique Christmas present for you - an augmented reality page that lets you look into your webcam and see yourself as Santa Claus. There's lots of different Santa faces to choose from, and when you see one you like, just click on the "Take a Picture" icon to save a photo of you as Santa to your computer or to share with your friends on facebook. Check it out!

http://www.talkingdogstudios.com/ar/santa

This AR uses facial recognition, so no tags required. We hope you get lots of laughs from this free web page.

Best wishes,

Talking Dog AR

Crazy Wakeboarder

We had a great time at the Saskatchewan Communications Expo Tradeshow last week, introducing Augmented Reality to a number of curious onlookers and media professionals who had not come across this exciting tool before. People really got a kick out of our "Crazy Wakeboarder" which is a fun diversion, but it's also a fairly unique example of what you can do with a little creativity: unlike most AR projects, where the 3D images are generated "above" the marker, in this case everything is "behind" the marker, so it's like you're looking through a window into another world. If you twist the marker you can look up into the sky, or look down at the frothing water, or look left and right to see the skyline of Waskesiu Lake, which is one of the popular vacation sites located right here in our home province of Saskatchewan, Canada.

Here's a video demonstrating our 3D animated "Crazy Wakeboarder" doing his tricks out on the water.

A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4E7QW-mMzM

If you'd like to try it out yourself, here's the link:
http://www.talkingdogstudios.com/sasktourism/


By the way, there'll be audio geeks out there who recognize the Wilhelm Scream is the sound our wakeboarder makes when he wipes out. If you're not familiar with this "sound designer's inside joke" check out the wikipedia article on the subject here.

Best augmented wishes to you all,

Talking Dog Studios

Welcome to Talking Dog AR

Talking Dog Studios is based in the middle of Canada. Our team have been creating sound and music for television and film since 1989 at our current location in Regina, Saskatchewan, in a huge building that was originally constructed by General Motors to manufacture vehicles way back in 1927. Our most successful project so far has been the hit television series "Corner Gas". Other recent films we've worked on include "Hungry Hills", "Surveillance", and "The Englishman's Boy".

Talking Dog has been looking into "Augmented Reality" (AR) since the beginning of 2009. We are excited to be displaying some of the projects that we have been working on since then.

Our current project can be found at howbigisthebaby.com . This site is a fun way for kids or adults to hold up the augmented reality marker in front of their tummies and imagine there's a baby growing inside, and we know this will also be a useful tool for educators wanting to engage their students more as they see themselves holding a developing baby through its nine months of development.

Here are some of the other AR projects we've worked on so far:
Doritos contest
Tenth Dimension 3D Helix
Saskatchewan Tourism

We've also recently been mentioned in the Regina Leader-Post newspaper.

You can also start following us on Twitter.

Are you imagining that Augmented Reality could be a useful tool for promoting your company or project? Are you a web developer wanting to add an augmented reality window to one of your clients' sites? Please email us at ar@talkingdogstudios.com .

And have fun augmenting your reality!

Talking Dog Studios
www.talkingdogstudios.com
1212A Winnipeg St.
Regina, SK Canada
306 790 4008