Metaverse One

Last month I got the opportunity to meet up with augmented reality veteran Blair MacIntyre . Blair directs the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech, and his research focuses on educational, entertainment and gaming applications of augmented and mixed reality environments, especially those that use personal displays (ie. ranging from see-through head-worn displays to video-mixed handheld displays) to directly augment a user's perception of their environment. Hear my audio interview with him in the video below. Blair's group at Georgia Tech has released some really great AR applications and games including ARhrrr- an augmented reality zombie shooter built in collaboration with Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Blair has recently released the Argon augmented reality browser . Argon is the first open platform for delivering mobile AR that supports web and GIS standards. It uses a framework called KHARMA (KML/HTML Augmented Reality Mobile Architecture). The framework ...

Autodesk recently released Showcase , a real-time 3D presentation and rendering software for the AEC (Architecture, Engineering & Construction) Industry. Showcase allows architects, designers, engineers, and managers the ability to import 3D CAD data (mainly Autodesk formats) into an virtual environment for creating 2D image renderings, movies, and real-time navigation of the 3D model. Showcase has been in the Autodesk Labs for some time now (previously called Project Newport). I remember seeing this video from 2009 where they used a much cooler interface to show it off. Although I feel that Autodesk is a tad late to the real-time 3D party, Showcase will help those in the AEC Industry become more familiar with real-time 3D for architectural visualization. I would still recommend other tools and technologies to those that want interactive 3D environments, but this is a step in the right direction for Autodesk . I am sure my friend Jon Brouchoud at ARCH Virtual is happy to see...