Metaverse One

So I just got back State-side from a seven week tour through western Europe that included a series of events and video interviews with leading players in augmented and virtual reality technologies. One of my destinations was Amsterdam, Nederlands and besides enjoying the madness of the World Cup finals, I had the opportunity to stop by mobile augmented reality company Layar's office for a chat. Now this was super exciting for me as although familiar with Layar as a mobile AR platform, I had not had a chance to really grok with the guys, despite being at several events together, to discover what exciting things were going on with this company that is just over one year old and seeing explosive growth. Now anyone familiar with mobile augmented reality or the AR industry has heard of Layar, but for those that have not, see the video below. After a short walk on a very warm day from the city's centrum to their office, I met with co-founder Maarten Lens-FitzGerald for a great conver...

During the week of the ARE2010 , I was given a copy of Retinex, an augmented reality comic book from the folks at SpiralConcepts . I loved comic books when I was younger so this was a real treat. Presented by 3satva (tres satva), Retinex is the first augmented reality focused comic book I have seen so far. Yes there are comics that use augmented reality like these Star Wars comics below (AR app by Total Immersion), but Retinex is the first I have seen that includes AR as part of the storyline in addition to having an AR application. The story is an engaging one set in the future with a dual sword wielding protagonist (not Hiro), AR, robots, nanomachines, sinister corporations, with other techno sci-fi type elements included. The web-based augmented reality application, developed for 3satva by SpiralConcepts, gave me as the reader a way of interacting with the story that took being a comic reader to a new level. It doesn't take long for one to see the ongoing value this could add t...