If you live in New York City, you might have seen big ads for the History Channel’s “Vikings” program on bus shelters and phone kiosks; if you’ve noticed fans waving their cellphones in front of them, it means you’ve also spotted …
Continue Reading…
In an expansion of Art.com’s online service, Photos to Art, the eminent supplier of household decor is bringing personalized prints to social media. Photos to Art is now available as an iOS app capable of pulling images from phones as well as from Facebook and Instagram accounts, letting users…
Continue Reading…
Bridging futurist design, letterpress technique and augmented reality, “The Airship” is a new graphic novel from Todd Thyberg. The writer, illustrator and publisher is also the founder of Angel Bomb Design + Letterpress, and has put his array of talents to the test in this work. Twenty-two photopolymer plates…
Continue Reading…
The augmented reality makeover of an Academy Award-winning short
From the outset, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” was imagined as a children’s book. The story is essentially about a man’s magical life among books, and it makes perfect sense as a picture book. Moonbot Studios—founded in part by “Morris Lessmore” author William Joyce—decided to go a different route by producing the story as an animated short. The short ended up winning an Academy award, and Moonbot went on to create an interactive iPad app, which was so wildly successful that it had librarians everywhere fretting about the end of the book as we know it. Now Moonbot and William Joyce have made a physical picture book with an augmented reality app that finally completes the picture for “Morris Lessmore.”
On its own, the book is brilliant. Joe Bluhm provides new illustrations that surely place the book among the top releases of 2012. Imag-N-O-Tron, the downloadable app that brings the book to life, cues voiceover and animated graphics for each spread. “We got a peek at this new technology called augmented reality—which I guess isn’t new now—but it’s new in the way that you are able to target images,” says Moonbot’s Brandon Oldenburg. “That’s where the magic happens. Augmented reality, up until now, always had to target a QR code. Now we’re able to target an illustration.”
Oldenburg points out that those uneasy about the story-telling power of the iPad app were delighted by the harmony of augmented reality. “The app isn’t replacing the book; it’s showing you a way to bridge the gap between the old and the new,” explains Oldenburg. Without overcomplicating the experience, Imag-N-O-Tron keeps the timeless integrity of the printed book while bringing in animated and interactive elements. Moreover, the framework of Imag-N-O-Tron can be used to enable future publications from Moonbot as well.
Oldenburg is right: this certainly isn’t the first time AR has been applied to a book, but it might be the most seamless integration to date. As the capabilities of the technology continue to expand, AR promises a niche future for the printed storybook—a way to bridge the analog-digital divide.
“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” available from Moonbot and on Amazon, and you can find Imag-N-O-Tron in the iTunes App Store.
Mercedes’ augmented-reality design concept goes gestural
While augmented reality interfaces have had their moment on smartphones, the automobile windshield is a potentially more useful place to overlay contextual information. Mercedes’ Dynamic and Intuitive Control Experience (DICE) offers a look at how the manufacturer envisions getting everything from traffic data to information about passing landmarks. The concept ditches buttons and touch screens in favor of gesture-based controls that communicate information while driving. At CES, convention-goers were able to get a feel for the system in a virtual reality cube set up by Mercedes. While the concept might seem far off, in another hall at CES display manufacturers were showing their first prototypes of clear glass screens capable of full LED display—the missing link to making a concept like this real.
In an apparent nod to science fiction, pointing to a passing building brings up a short description along with the option to save the location to your favorite places. Mercedes is quick to push the social media angle, demonstrating how friend updates can be displayed for quick reference while driving. This being an in-car system, media playback takes a large part with browsing and song selection enabled.
While making a system like this real clearly requires balancing the need to avoid driver distraction, DICE shows the awesome potential of augmented reality in the years to come. Check out the newly released video to see DICE in action.
Pioneers in fashion photography, it’s difficult to imagine that Brooklyn-based team Reed & Rader started shooting digital photographs just one year ago. The trailblazers “highly believe that technology and the augmented world is the future”—a concept they implement no matter the medium. Currently part of the group exhibition “Shoot The Messenger” at NYC’s APF Lab, they shot their creepy animated “notvideo” on a common point-and-shoot digital camera.
Pamela Reed and Matthew Rader met while in college and have spent the six years since then as the dynamic Reed & Rader team, now known for their cutting-edge convictions and discerning use of technology. Beginning with their augmented reality project “AR_YULIA,” (pictured below) they continuously create works that challenge current methods for both capturing and viewing reality. The pair look forward to the day when people aren’t restricted by fabrics, but rather, through the assistance of augmented reality it would seem like “you’re wearing amazing clothes, or even tentacles.”
With the future of print productions in constant question, Reed & Rader undoubtedly support online existence. Reed explains to CH that “As the medium of photography changes and images no longer need to be placed on paper—why is the medium still images—why can’t they move now? That is what excites us for the future.”
“Notvideo” is on view through 17 April 2010 at APF Lab.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
