The Future of Augmented Reality Is On Top of Your Nose

Can Muffin  see these characters?

No.  She just happened to look in that direction when the picture was taken. But, the person taking the picture saw them. And guess what…

The characters can look back.

There are two reasons why we decided to use augmented reality to show off our characters:

1. We want people to play with our characters. Augmented reality is hot right now (at least among techies and nerds). Why not take advantage of a trend? And who knows – maybe it’s not a trend.

2. Augmented reality is an ideal venue for autonomous characters with geolocation. (What does that mean? I can’t tell you. If I tell you I will have to kill myself).

It tires out your arms to hold a smartphone or tablet up in order to view digital content overlaid onto the camera’s view of reality. But I think this is a transitory form factor for augmented reality. Eventually, augmented reality will be overlaid onto glasses that we wear on our heads. Having these images overlaid on glasses would free up our hands.

The idea of SmartGlasses is not as creepy to me as it used to be.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been thinking about it a lot now, or maybe it’s because I’m getting used to the idea of Google Glass. But before I get into that, let me show you a video about a new augmented reality  glasses product from Epson:

Yes, Google and Epson are pushing the post-human agenda by encouraging us to put technology on our bodies. And yes, this is creepy. But as long as glasses are a device that can be easily taken on and off, I am less worried about augmented reality becoming a predator to normal reality.

For the same reason that I sometimes want to turn off my cell phone and put it in my pocket, I should be able to take off my smartglasses and stick them in my pocket.

But enough about the future of augmented reality. I am more excited about the future of self-animated characters! Here’s a video I recently made about how we will design a book where the characters interact with the reader (using augmented reality – that is…the old fashioned kind).

Using Real-World Gravity in Augmented Reality

Here in Wiglet Land, we are working on using the accelerometers in smartphones to determine the direction of gravity for our augmented reality apps.

I noticed a short video that appears to be detecting gravity in order to tell the creepy character to shift its balance.

This is just the beginning of what can be done when real-world directions (such as the direction of gravity) are used as input for animations.

But there’s more. Smartphones and tablets are becoming increasingly aware of their orientations in the real world, which includes detecting magnetic north – you know – in the neighborhood of Santa Claus.

For those of you who know the math, if you know two directions (such as the direction of gravity and the direction of magnetic north) you can apply what is known as a “cross product”, and do a few tweaks to the directions to come up with a pretty good approximation of a third (THE third orthogonal direction) which is either east or west.

This is cool, because it means you can tell the augmented reality system the orientation of your “virtual camera”.  The result of this is that you can situate your 3D content more realistically in a real-world setting.

Stay tuned for updates from Wiggle Planet on the use of real-world gravity in our apps. Meanwhile, here’s a video I made a few months ago that shows a test of the gravity vector, to be used for characters in games:

Have You Heard of the Wiglets?

by Jessica Medina

Have You Heard of the Wiglets? Well, if you haven’t yet, I am very glad you are reading this blog! The Wiglets are a cheeky bunch of animated, autonomous creatures from the head honchos at Wiggle Planet. Who the heck is Wiggle Planet? They are an innovative technological character animation company based in Petaluma, CA focused on implementing augmented reality technology into educational games for people of all ages.

The Wiglets are a curious species that evolved from a desire to create a kind of self-animated creature that can be used in mobile games, interactive books, and other media where surprise, novelty, and humor are welcome ingredients. The Wiglets are making their debut in a set of simple toy apps available in the Apple Store (download  Peck Peck’s Garden, Flip Flop Dance Jam, and Gene Pool here – they’re free! )

The folks at Wiggle Planet are creating a new type of gameplay that combines elements of augmented reality with independent, artificially intelligent creatures.

Is this sounding like techy doublespeak that doesn’t make sense? Yes, I know, please forgive me. Wiggle Planet is 100% nerd. I will try to break it down into less confusing terms.

The fact that the Wiglets are independent, artificially intelligent creatures simply means that they have minds of their own. Their creators are not controlling their actions. Sound scary? It’s not really, I promise. It just means Wiglets can be somewhat unpredictable. Therefore, they would be frustrating to work with for game-designers with control-issues :) You might think of Wiglets as a new kind of cartoon character that lives in the context of real time and space. A Wiglet is a Wiglet no matter where it lives. A Wiglet does what it wants – so go with the flow, and you may be surprised and delighted!

Self Animation

“Self-animation” is an idea that’s as old as Dr. Frankenstein. It’s not a new idea. But a new scientific discipline was born in the 80’s called artificial life, when biologists, computer scientists, philosophers, artists, and robot-makers began meeting together and exchanging ideas. Artificial life has been making its way into games ever sense, but Wiggle Planet is promising to take it farther.

Augmented Reality

And what is augmented reality? Augmented reality is a technology that enables us to project a computer generated image onto a real-world backdrop. An example would be holding your smartphone in front of a background like a dollar bill, then seeing a Wiglet walk around on the dollar bill through your smartphone screen. It’s pretty cool and futuristic. Check out the picture at left of a wiglet boppin’ around on a picture. This picture happens to be siting on the window of an airplane at 30,000 feet! Imagine the possibilities! Eat breakfast with a Wiglet sitting next to you, go to work with a Wiglet on your shoulder, snuggle with a Wiglet as you’re going to sleep – alright, that last one might be a little creepy.

Another fun fact about Wiglets: they are not created by artists or animators. The Wiglets come to be solely through virtual genetics and breeding, completely through software. This is what gives them their quirky appearance.

When all is said and done the best way to understand a Wiglet is to watch one in action. Please check out wiggleplanet.com and look at the videos, or better yet…download their fun (free) apps!

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