Metaverse One

Last year I got the opportunity to meet the team working on an online experience called theBlu . According to  Wemo Media , the Venice Beach based makers of theBlu, "Inspired by the Oceans, theBlu is a socially-connected, global interactive screen saver. Each time you participate, your interactions and connections impact the flow of life in theBlu and every one's experience of it." Take a quick dive in the digital ocean with the video below. Now theBlu is in public beta and 'WOW', what a cool experience.  It  is fun to explore, educational (clicking on a fish pulls up information about the species), and the graphics are beautiful. More fish and scenes can be unlocked using credits that can be purchased like any other type of virtual good. Bonus that every time a user makes a purchase of an item, they support oceanic conservation. The content of theBlu is created by its Makers. With theBlu's Maker Program, digital artists can showcase their work to ...

So one of the organizations close to my heart is Architecture For Humanity  (AFH), a non-profit that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings professional design services to communities in need. While I am not an architect or designer, I do volunteer my time to the COLLAB (AFH office) and  local SF Chapter projects to help where I can. With that being said, I am excited to announce an augmented reality mural that I am working on with the local SF Chapter. The SOMA Mural Project looks to be an interactive piece that combines the beauty of city art with San Francisco's tech nature. Viewers of the mural will be able to use an augmented reality app to access additional storytelling information. I haven't selected the initial augmented reality platform yet, and in efforts to help my friends in the industry, the mural will be the marker for a variety of AR browser platforms that will share the chapter's message over time. Will this be the...

Today Google went public with its plans to offer augmented-reality glasses, which it’s calling Project Glass. In the concept video they released, the glasses interacts with what you're seeing and saying, provides many features of a smartphone including a planner, navigation system, camera and more. They made a previous announcement that these glasses would be available by the end of the year, but now say that these will not ship in 2012. I am very skeptical about the first release of these glasses living up to the concept video. Even though the Google[x] team states, "We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input. So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do", I know that if it doesn't do exactly what they showed, there will be some upset people in the blogosphere. I hope that Google delivers or I feel that th...

Assassin's Creed has to be one of the better game series I have played in a while. On March 31 was the official announcement for the first Assassin's Creed game with full motion control! I am happy to see this as I feel that most games don't take full advantage of the Kinect's capabilities for interactive gameplay. Welcome to April! :)