WIRED’s blog asks us to “forget Second Life” and turn the real world virtual. That’s just the idea!

They post this interesting goggle-based augmented reality device with 6 modes of psychedellic visual effects (made even more so by the sound effects in this video).

The artists are named as Alexei Shulgin and Arstarkh Chernyshev and the system is called “SUPER-I” which is called “A real virtuality system”. In the mode of earlier Virtual Reality systems it features a publicly viewable screen for the un-goggled. Very cool and if it can “turn the reality around us into ASCII” then it could convert other artists’ views or digital effects as well.

One can imagine cartridges that process different artist realities enhancing the product. As always, send me any more information / links you may have about it!

This unusual film depicts a hypothetical team of augmented traders which apparently are in charge of managing asset trading during world crises in real time.

They have really important jobs to do. When these high-performing traders are stressed, their headsets automatically prioritize the information they receive and minimize or maximize windows on their computer screens. We see the character “Claudia” stress out and the system helps her to focus in order to identify a suspect in the world unrest. Later, to calm her down the headset plays “a personal musical phrase” which “alerts her and supports the cognitive rebalancing process”. In other words, the headset knows when you are stressing out and provides you with direct-to-brain stimulation to keep your concentration stable.

The technology shown would likely require a user which had been trained (perhaps from a young age) to use and rely on such augmentation. There are a couple of clues in the film that make the predicted reality believable:
1.) the lives these characters lead are not that different from traders today and
2.) the idea that this device could make those decisions about personal sensory input accurately is outrageous - but outrageous new technology is accpeted rapidly, and can become mainstream within a couple of years. That is the speed at which augmentation is adopted.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

From http://www.augmentedcognition.org/video2.html

“This short film takes place in 2030 in a command center that is tasked with monitoring cyberspace activities for anomalies that could threaten the global economy. The economy, which functions largely in cyberspace, is the link between countries and is extremely susceptible to instability. As might be expected, given the ever-increasing amount of data to be analyzed even in today’s world, the workers in 2030 are inundated with information from all sources. They have so much information to contend with that they are literally unable to process it all unaided.”

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Filed under: Augmented, conferences, video

Industry Week online Computerworld and Business Standard online have some new articles about telepresence - remote real-time, life-size conferencing. Businesses offering such systems include Teliris and Codian, Polycom, and Cisco Systems.

Business Standard cites the average price of a telepresence system to be around USD$300,000. With a little math you can see that such a system would pay for itself in saved travel expenses within a very short period of time. Although the videophone has been available since the early 1960’s it never saw adoption specifically because the use of the voice telephone interface allowed freedom of movement, appearance, and multitasking that is simply not possible when looking at a small screen.

What’s different now? The wall sized screens and bandwidth allow for a completely new experience.

Notice how the participants in the video call it “unsettling” and “hard to get used to”. On the plus side - it makes everyone look like a news anchor! These systems are big, clunky and expensive now - how soon until telepresence is small, convenient, and cheap?

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Filed under: Augmented, telepresence

This is not only musically interesting it also looks great. Developed by the Music Technology Group at Universitat Pompeu Fabra located in Barcelona. The multiuser table is being used by Bjork on her 2007 tour. The analogue synth style sounds generated definitely recall the Kraftwerk era and the new possibilities that were - and are now - about to unfold. It also breaks new ground with objects as instruments much in the same way the Theremin did nearly 100 years ago.

Site: http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/

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Filed under: Augmented, art, music

Total Immersion started in France and is now active in the US, Japan, Korea, and Saudi Arabia. This demo is from early 2007. Revenues of $4M in 2006, forecasting $7M in 2007. They work with Alcatel and Lucent apparently. Hard to tell if the audience is wearing goggles or not. Explains that a core focus will be on games. See it for yourself, in the future, your avatar will dance all over print media!

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Filed under: Augmented, demos, gaming, t-immersion, video