“Kobito” and the magic elves – AR
Here’s some info on the “magic AR elves” I was talking about today in our session with Jay Bolter.
Following text excerpted from We-make-money-not-art” AR achrives
Kobito: “Magic” on Your Breakfast Table
You wake up in the morning and sit at your breakfast table. There comes a can of Earl Grey, magically sliding towards you. But, who’s suggesting to have a cup of tea? A group of students at Tokyo Institute of Technology created an installation called “Kobito: Virtual Brownies,” which allows us to see and feel who it is: kobitos (dwarves).
The system was developed using Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence and Haptic Feedback technologies. The dwarves appear in a movable display device called Kobito Window that blends video images and virtual 3D avatars of dwarves. Kobito Window is like a magic lens through which people can view the world differently from the way our naked eyes can see: the device recognizes its orientation using a rotary encoder and displays 3D avatars based on a current view angle. Moreover, you can feel the dwarves through haptic feedback. If you hold the tea can, you can feel the force of the dwarves. If you push the can against the dwarves, they will react to it.
This mpeg movie shows the overview of the system with English captions.
Kobito will also be showcased at SIGGRAPH 2005.