Hasta La Ideas

A group of students from the Royal College of Art have invented a virtual reality tool that allows designers to sketch in three dimensions (+ movie).

Gravity consists of a stylus and a tablet, familiar tools used for digital drawing, that have been adapted specifically for sketching in 3D. The tools can link to almost any augmented reality headset and the team have also connected it to an Oculcus Rift virtual reality device using a Unity 3D engine.

Developed by RCA students Guillaume Couche, Daniela Paredes Fuentes, Pierre Paslier and Oluwaseyi Sosanya, the product allows any user to draw in 3D without a screen or computer.

“Gravity was developed specifically for creatives,” the designers told Dezeen. “We designed it to be simple enough so it could be used by everybody without prior explanation. It makes creating shapes as easy as doodling on a piece of paper.”

As the user draws above the clear acrylic sketchpad, radio signals are used to track the movements of the stylus from coordinates on the pad. These are sent to an Arduino board – an open source prototyping device containing a micro controller – which is contained in a black panel that forms one edge of the pad.

This communicates with virtual reality or augmented reality devices to generate a 3D drawing. Controls on the pad can change the planes on which pen is sketching, meaning the drawing can be given volume.

The drawings can be rotated and approached from any angle and other people can view the drawing using their own headset, and even add to it.

“The project started with a strong belief; the tools that are commonly used for drawing, designing and making things in 3D limit people’s ability to bring their ideas to reality,” said the team.

The designers believe the technology could be applied to a multitude of fields, from animation to medical science. “Gravity was designed to be a tool for creation and collaboration.”

“We think that new technologies, and in this case, augmented reality, should be used only when it makes sense for the user,” they continued. “Designers are always looking for the best tools to effectively bring their ideas to life. We believe this new way of creation will revolutionise the way we, as designers, create.”

The post Gravity tablet makes 3D drawing “as easy
as doodling on a piece of paper” appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Watch Store: we’re excited to announce that we’ll be taking our augmented reality watch store to Texas as part of Hackney House Austin, during the SXSW festival from 7 to 10 March. Read the full story on the Dezeen Watch Store blog »

The post Dezeen Watch Store brings augmented reality
pop-up shop to Hackney House Austin 2014 appeared first on Dezeen.

News: architects have been surprisingly slow to adopt augmented reality as a design tool, according to co-founder of visualisation studio Inition Andy Millns.

“At the moment there are very few architects using augmented reality day-in, day-out as part of their design process,” he told Dezeen in an interview for our MINI Frontiers project.

Augmented reality is a means of layering extra information that can change in real time over a view of the real world, often using a tablet device such as an iPad.

Although hyperrealistic computer-generated renders are now well-established tools in the architectural design process, the use of augmented reality is yet to catch on, said Millns.

“This is really because the [augmented reality] tools haven’t been tightly integrated into their design tools yet,” said Millns.

He attributes the slow uptake of augmented reality within architecture studios to a disjunct between the modelling software used in their normal workflow and that required to produce augmented-reality models.

One exception to the trend is Zaha Hadid Architects, for whom Inition produced an iPad app that used augmented reality to model wind-flow and services diagrams.

Most augmented reality activity is currently used for marketing and presentation purposes, said Millns.

“We’ve worked with many property developers on the marketing side to bring their properties to life using augmented reality,” he explained. “You can look at a model and select what type of apartments you are interested in, and it will show you live data of which ones are still on the market.”

Inition’s augmented-reality models were recently used at the Dezeen Watch Store pop-up at The Imagine Shop at Selfridges, where visitors could point an iPad’s camera toward a printed marker that interacted with software on the iPad to render a model on the screen.

The post Architects slow to embrace augmented reality,
says visualisation expert Andy Millns appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: augmented reality technology will revolutionise the way we navigate cities, says Andy Millns of 3D production company Inition in the second part of our interview.

Augmented reality devices that are tiny enough to “sit in your eye” will soon add layers of digital information over the real world, says Millns.

Users will be able to see whole cities with information layered on top of them via tiny devices placed in the eye, completely changing their urban experience, he claims.

“When we can track natural features in the city we can [then] bring in all sorts of information layered on to the urban view.” This could include information related to travel, shopping, the proximity of friends and so on.

The adoption of this technology will be helped by the second major development Millns predicts.

“Most augmented reality so far [works] using a two-dimensional flat marker,” says Millns, referring to 2D-printed marker patterns that interface with digital models on devices like iPads to render augmented reality views.

This tracking method limits augmented reality to fairly rudimentary usages – but not for long.

“In the future we won’t need [to use] two-dimensional specific markers, the augmented reality app will just track the natural environment”, he says.

Couple this with more sophisticated viewing technologies, and the use of augmented reality will soar, Millns claims: “When we have devices that just sit in your eye and it’s not obvious you are wearing them – that’s when augmented reality will really take off.”

Today’s augmented reality relies on an intermediary device such as a smartphone or tablet, on which the user sees an “augmented” version of the world.

“One example of using augmented reality that people might be familiar with is using a tablet,” says Millns. “We use a live image via the camera and we layer on objects to make them appear as if they are really there.”

This technology is used at Dezeen’s Imagine Shop at Selfridges that features two installations developed by Inition, an augmented-reality watch store and a walkaround digital model of Zaha Hadid’s £300 million superyacht.

The augmented reality Dezeen Watch Store pop-up allows customers to virtually try on a range of watches. By wrapping a paper “marker” around their wrist and looking at a screen, customers can see the watches modelled on their wrists in real time.

Customers can also explore an augmented reality scale model of Zaha Hadid Architects’ 90-metre Jazz superyacht using a tablet computer.

By pointing an iPad at a printed marker resting on a platform, they can view and walk round the yacht as if it was really there.

Based in Shoreditch, east London, Inition specialises in using new technologies such as virtual and augmented reality to create a range of experiences and installations.

Inition has built augmented reality models for several developers to help promote their buildings as well as architects, including Zaha Hadid for whom they developed a model which explored the effects of different airflows and lighting on the building.

We interviewed Andy Millns in Inition’s Shoreditch studio. The music featured in the movie is a track by Floyd Lavine. You can listen to Lavine’s music on Dezeen Music Project.

The post Augmented reality devices “in your eye”
will change how we see the world appeared first on Dezeen.

Introducing… the future! The Eidos concept consists of two experimental products that let you fine-tune your sight and hearing to experience visuals and sound like never before. Essentially, the devices enhance what our bodies already do and the applications are endless – athletes can use it to hone in on their physical technique, musicians can perfect their sound, or spectators can view live performances like ballet with previously invisible/inaudible details. Incroyable!

Eidos Audio lets us hear speech more selectively. It neutralizes distracting background noise and then amplifies the speech you choose. Unlike conventional headphones that have two channels, Eidos Audio has three: left, right, and a central mouth piece that uses the principle of bone conduction. This creates the unique experience of hearing someone speak right inside your head.

Eidos Vision enhances the way we see motion, achieving a similar effect to long exposure photography for live experience. By detecting and overlaying movement, it allows us to see traces and patterns hidden to the naked eye.

Designers: Tim Bouckley, Millie Clive-Smith, Mi Eun Kim, & Yuta Sugawara

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(Superfy Your Senses was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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