The new version of Augment for iOs as been validated today. This release include those modifications :

 Add the support for those 3d formats : stl, obj, blend, dae (Collada).

• Allow 3d models to be open from any source, emails, websites or any app running on your device.
• Fix a bug that made the object invisible when further than 2 meters.
• Fix bug when setting item as favorite.
• Fix bug when loading several objects at the same time.
• Add an help page
• Change the behavior of the Augment button, now it clean the scene before putting the new object.
• Change the behavior of the Add button, now it add the object and launch the augmented reality view.

The main enhancement is the support of any 3d model of the supported format that you can find on Internet. For instance you can go on Google 3d warehouse, select any model, and if there is a collada version available, click on it and press on “Open with Augment...”, it will pops up right away in the augmented reality view if you target the marker with the device. Those steps are exactly the same for any other website where you can get 3d models.

When you have visualized a 3d model, it's automatically copied in “My Models” section, so you can look at them again at any point, even offline. You can also load several models on the same marker by selecting one of them and tapping “Add” instead of “Augment”.

In you have a look at the menu in the Augmented Reality view, you'll see several new actions. Here is a short description for each of them :

• Exit : Go out of the Augmented Reality view.

• Take Photo : Take of picture of what you are seeing, with the 3d model.

• Reset Position : Put all the models next to each other, centered on the marker.

• Rotate Along X : Rotate the selected model of 90 degrees along the bigger size of the marker.

• Rotate Along Y : Rotate the selected model of 90 degrees along the smaller size of the marker.

• Fit to View : Set the biggest size of the object to be 20cm in the real life.

• Original Size : Set the scale at 1.0, if the units are correct, the model is now in real size.

• Change units : If you made the model using units different than the default (mm) you can set that here.

Known problems :

• Sometimes if you open a 3d model from Google 3d warehouse, you won't see anything and the scale of the model will be really messed up. I don't know yet what's going on with those models but they don't work.

• If you open a 3d model and you see nothing on the marker, try to move or to scale, you will maybe see your model black and transparent. It disappears again when you stop touching the screen. If you see that, just kill and restart Augment.

• Some stl files in binary format produce strange results, like if the triangles where not right. Try to convert the stl file in ascii format and it should fix the problem.

• In some Blender files, if there is different piece in the 3d model, they won't be at the place you expect them to be. In this case, open your model in blender, select all the part and do a join (ctrl-j). It will solve the problem.

• The animations based on skeleton don't work yet, your character will stay in the initial position and move randomly.

That's all, if you see a problem not in the list, don't hesitate to talk about it in the getsatisfation page, so we can fix it.

Have fun with Augment !

Today was the first day of the Laval Virtual show. It's the biggest French meeting for virtual and augmented reality companies. After a full day going from one stand to the other, here is what we can say about the current state of the AR.

1. Markerless augmented reality everywhere.

And when I say marker less, I really mean it. I'm not talking about the natural features tracking that still needs some sort of image or shape to give a reference point for the tracking algorithm (yes, Augment is one of those). The technologies I saw there are able to detect any known object and overlay precisely on top of it information or 3d models.  

2. 3D scanning

When you think about augmented reality, you think about 3D models. And at some point, those models need to be created. At Laval Virtual there were a lot of exciting 3d scanning companies. For instance, Digiteyezer announced and showcased their new face scanning tool that allows you to be inserted inside a game or as a virtual avatar in a chat app in one go. On the other hand, Bony3D and Solidexpress had a sub millimeter 3d scanner that lets you see the smallest detail, in 3D.

3. 3d printing

When you have your 3d model, you can display it, but what's even more interesting is that you can print it out again with a different size, material or slightly modified shape. 3d printers are getting cheaper year after year and at Laval some of them were actually affordable. I mean, like a cd recorder was 15 years ago. You can guess where it's going.

4. Kinect, thousands of them.

The Kinect is really the device any stand need to have. It's everywhere. Most of the time used for its orginal purpose, to detect body movements and control something. This something means a character, a robotic arm, a 3d object or a car. The non-standard usages were harder to guess, like this korean metal bump controlled by the movement of a candy wrap in yellow tape and used to turn around little cubes. (see the bonus section)

5.Mind controlled computers.

There was a guy showcasing a compact device that reads brainwaves and translates them into actions. In this case it was to move in a first person game. How is this related to augmented reality ? Simple, when you'll get those fancy ar glasses, you'll need a way to control how to use them. If you want to know what object you are looking at, you could simply look at it and think "define". The software would translate your thought into action an open the wikipedia page related to the object. To do that you need a compact device that can be mounted on a pair of glasses. It seems we are going in this direction. In no time we will be able to look at someone and think "friend", "follow" or "block".

Bonus : The crazy Asian stuff.

Like in any other tech conference, you need some japanese and korean to show things that are still to far edged for us. This time my preference go to the MoleBot. But the "model and draw" display was quite awesome too. It's a surface that fell like sand, you can harden or soften it to create shapes. Then you select a color and draw something on the 3d surface you've just created. Another cool stuff was an haptic gantlet that let you feel the texture of virtual object. And with a little scanner they are even able to record a surface and assign it to a 3d virtual entity. Then when you touch it you get the feeling that it's the real surface. Awesome.

A quick message before I leave for SXSW, Augment has been approved yesterday by Apple and is now available for iPhone and iPad. I did rush a little bit the release to be in time for SXSW so I had to remove some functionnalities like the sharing of custom cubes, but don't worry they will be back in the next release. You can get the app there : 

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/augment/id506463171?l=en&ls=1&mt=8

And print the marker in the Markers tab : markers.augmentedev.com

The iOs version of Augment brings some new features, you can now see the Cubes in a gallery, you can favorite them and view them offline later, you can view multiple cubes at the same time (just touch "Augment" on different Cubes or "add" if you want to display several time the same Cube. Touch "Clean" to remove everything from the scene). The cubes can be moved, rotated (using the usual gestures) or even placed one over another. 

Regarding the markers, if you use a medium marker and a pocket marker at the same time and you display two objects in the scene, each object will be on its own marker. It doesn't work if you use two times the same marker. 

Give it a try, play with the application and discover the other features, I'll shortly make a video to demonstrate everything in a one minute tutorial.

Have fun !

Everything has started from an acknowledgment; if you want to know an object 's dimensions and preview it in your habitation, you have few options. The easiest is to get a rule and draw some lines where the object is going to be. It can give you an hint but usually you won't really be able to get a grasp of the occupied volume. Another option has appeared recently, you can use a 3d drawing tool like Google Sketchup, represent your room and the wanted product. Now you have a better idea.

But if you think through the problem, what you ultimately want is to see the real product directly where it belongs. This is now possible with augmented reality. You just need to print a marker (a simple sheet of paper printed in black and white). Then drop the marker where you want to see the object. By watching the marker through your smartphone or tablet you'll see the virtual object appearing on top of it. You can watch the numerous videos on this website to see the process in action.

So, how do we get a 3d model for any product? Creating such model can be quite demanding, it's an artistic work. Moreover the dimensions are never explicitly given by the manufacturer. We have just a couple of photos, the height, width and depth (not always in this order or with those names).

That's where we introduce the concept of a Cube. Well, strictly speaking our Cubes are more boxes than cubes since their three dimensions are not necessary equal. But we will stick to the word Cube to define them. So what are those Cubes? It's the simplest representation of the volume occupied by a product. But a simple plain cube wouldn't be really helpful to get a preview of an object since it's just an abstract geometry. To overcome this problem and give a photo-realistic look to our Cubes we use Textures. A maximum of six textures can be used for a model, one for each face of the Cube. If for instance, you create a Cube to represent a brand new fridge, you will use only one texture, the front face of the fridge. Something more complex like a smartphone will have four to six images. For such objects it's frequent that the manufacturer provides photos of the product under every angles possible and you can pick the right ones.

At this point you understood that a Cube is meant to give you a preview of a product directly on your desk using augmented reality. Since the 3d model you're creating is basically a Cube, the closer the product's shape is from a box, the better will be the illusion. But what if the product is not box-shaped at all? Why don't we provide more complex shapes? Augment is a quick prototyping tool using the dimensions provided in the specifications sheet. You wouldn't be able to create accurately something more complex on your mobile. At some point it will be possible to upload models made with Google Sketchup or another 3d modeling tool but the purpose of the application is to let you have quick preview which generally can is compatible with the Cube's postulate.

Now that you get the purpose of Augment and the Cube modeling you can try it, download Augment , make your own Cubes from objects around you, new products or anything you can think of. Then share them. They'll appear in the Cubes gallery an will be accessible to everyone. Have a look at the hundreds cubes already created by the community !

This is a post originaly written as a guest for Moodstocks' blog

What happens when you take on one side an augmented reality app, on the other an image recognition algorithm and mix them together?

It was the subject of the hack I did at Hack le Camping in Paris. I’m the developer of Augment, an Android application that lets you create, share and visualize 3d models in an augmented reality fashion. If you want to test a famous painting in your living room, print the marker, put it on your wall and look at La Joconde or Guernica. It works also with any object like a television, a smartphone, a tablet or a fridge.

We have an app that displays objects. How do you decide which one to show? It’s where Moodstocksenters the play. By using image recognition I simplified the process of getting the right model. When you browse Wikipedia or if you receive a catalog of products, you want to be able to visualize an object in the minimum number of steps. The workflow is simple, get your phone, launch the application and snap a picture of the product. You’re done. In a second the 3d model will be on your desk or on your wall.

The integration was a piece of cake thanks to Moodstocks’ SDK. Under the hood, when you photography the page, the image is sent to Moodstocks’ servers where it’s compared to the previously registered pictures. When it’s recognized, the server send back an id to Augment. I use this id to load the associated 3d model in augmented reality. That’s all.

At the end, getting Moodstocks to work in synergy with Augment was a matter of two lines of code to start the scanning and five lines to process the result. 3 hours of Hackaton were enough to create a compelling and impressive experience that was rewarded by the second place of the contest. Thanks Moodstock !

You can even test it, install Augment on your Android device and print the marker. Then launch the application, do a long press on the Qr Code button and there you are, in the secret Moodstocks scanner. Scan La Joconde, the Rubik’s Cube, the cover of this book, the picture of this Nas, this phone or one of the two tablets at the top of this page.

Isn’t it cool?

In the latest version of Augment you certainly noticed the new Qr Code icon. It extends the capabilities of Augment to a new level. If you go in the models gallery and long click on a model you will get a contextual menu. There you can share a model, get a link or a Qr Code.

If you have a website, a blog or if you just want to share an augmented reality model by email, it's now straightforward. Create a Cube with the “Custom Cube” module and share it. In the sharing option you can put a link to your website or to a page related to the model. When the model appears in the gallery long click it and get the QR code. Embed it anywhere on your page and bring your users at one scan of the augmented model ! If the object you want to show is already in the gallery jump directly at the contextual menu step.

In addition of the QR Code, insert the direct link so your readers browsing from their smartphones can directly access the model. If they have Augment installed on their mobiles it will be launched as soon as they click on the link. if they don't, they will be prompted to install it from the market.

Here are some use cases. You are writing a blog post about a new device announced in some months? Create a Cube from the photos and the dimensions and share it. You paint or photography and want your customers to test your artworks at home? Use a picture and create a Cube, share it and put the QR Code on your website. You write a review of the latest tablet? Make a Cube, share it and show to your readers how big it really is. Are you trying to sell something? Create a Cube and add it to your announce, it will bring you attention. Try it and find new usages, the possibilities are endless.

Scan the QR Code at the top of the article to see the feature in action ! (or click on this link if you are on your mobile : http://augmentedev.com/models/?97 )

There is a feature in Augment, not related to augmented reality, but that may become useful if you want to personalize your device. When you browse the posters available in the module AllPosters, if you find an item that you like particularly, you can use it as your wallpaper.

Go to a gallery, click on an item and then open the menu. That's where the option “Set as Wallpaper” is. There is one million images in this database, you'll find one that fits you !  

  If you want to test Augment without printing, you can ! Open the medium size marker in a pdf reader. Then resize it until you can overlay a cd/dvd on the template in the middle of the marker. When it fits perfectly you know that the marker has the same size than if it was printed. It's not as practical and efficiant as a printed marker but it can help if you don't have a printer around.  

A little video to demonstrate what you can do with Augment, it's shorter than the previous ones and gets directly to the point, the Augmented Reality. 

After less than 20 days of existence Augment Cube is about to die. The functionalities it brings are highly appreciated by the users and I don’t see the point anymore to have two different applications. From today on you can create Cubes and explore the user generated content from Augment. The goal is to position a unique application as an augmented reality toolbox. It lets you quickly create virtual objects and visualize them wherever you want.

You have the tools, now you can help creating the content. Use Augment to visualize new smartphones, tablets, fridges, monitors, computers, paintings and objects of any sort. Then share them with everyone. You just need to pick up images and pictures of those products to create Cubes. Most of the time it will give you a pretty accurate idea of what they look like in reality. Watch the Augment Cube video to see some examples of objects you can create. If you feel the need for a tutorial explaining how to generate a cube, ask it in the comments section. And for any other question, bugs or praise use getSatisfaction !  

Install the application and try it yourself, it's free. You just need to print the marker and you're good to go. If you like it, don't forget to rate it on the Android Market, it helps a lot.