ars

A look at our gamified, augmented-reality future

Imagine a future where everything is a game, from cooking to dating, thanks to pervasive augmented-reality technology.

That's the premise behind this deliciously geeky, but ultimately disturbing Israeli short film titled "Sight." This seven-minute flick takes us along for a day in the life of an engineer at a dominant AR company, from breakfast to a date that goes off the rails and has to be "reprogrammed." The concept imagines the merging of big data, social media, gamification, and augmented reality into something that ultimately doesn't seem that far-fetched, or even that far down the road.… Read more

Spider-Man swings into two new apps

App developers know how to plan ahead. Just in time for "The Amazing Spider-Man," which swings into theaters July 3, Disney Publishing and Gameloft have released two very different, but equally great, movie tie-ins.

The Amazing Spider-Man (Android | iOS, $6.99) delivers an action-packed gaming experience, while the Spider-Man AR Book HD for iOS ($4.99) -- unappealing name notwithstanding -- gives kids an interactive storybook to read, hear, and play with.

Let's start with the game, which plays exactly like a Spider-Man adventure should, giving you an open city around which to crawl, swing, and battle.… Read more

The problem with augmented reality: Tablets and targets

Is augmented reality for real? At the annual Augmented Reality Event conference in Santa Clara, Calif., this week, marketers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and science-fiction authors (Daniel Suarez and Bruce Sterling) were all looking for ways to leverage a technology that could change the way we use computers and access data and media. Or not.

The challenge for many of the AR projects being shown and discussed at conferences like this is that to use them, you have to contort yourself around a tablet or smartphone, which becomes the window through which you see the augmented world. You might also have to … Read more

Is Microsoft working on gaming helmets and eyewear?

Is wearable technology going to be the next big thing?

For Microsoft, it may be the next step in gaming. Patent Bolt discovered a new Microsoft patent application detailing how a compact display system will work on goggles, helmets, and other eyewear.

According to the application, the company has been working on a gaming helmet accessory for its Xbox console, as well as a pair of glasses to be used with smartphones and other portable devices, since the third quarter of 2010. … Read more

Marvel augments your comics' reality

Marvel Comics unveiled a new way to read comic books today at South by Southwest Interactive that involves an augmented reality app and the physical comic itself.

The app, called Marvel AR, is half of the entertainment company's new push to further integrate digital and print comics, an effort it's calling Marvel ReEvolution. The other half is a digital-only line of comics called Marvel Infinite Comics, which will be available to readers from the standard Marvel Comics app for free when they buy the print comic with a digital coupon, when they buy the standard digital comic, or separately as a 99-cent digital download. The first Infinite Comics story will tie in to Avengers versus X-Men and be written by Mark Waid, with art by Stuart Immonen and colors by Marte Gracia. These are big names in the comics business, so Marvel's clearly not publishing throwaway stories, even if they are digital-only and feel more disposable. … Read more

Augmented reality could transform Web browsing (video)

What will Web browsing look like in the future? Augmented reality, or AR, could be the next big leap.

Think of it as a more interactive Internet experience, taking in our physical environment and adding a layer of digital information. Companies like Aurasma are using the concept to develop a new way to browse.

SmartPlanet's Sumi Das explains how augmented reality will help museum paintings turn into talking art teachers and ordinary billboards play movie trailers.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "The Future Of.... Browsing."

Facebook photos: Deleted today, still there tomorrow

A deleted Facebook photo may be forgotten. But that doesn't mean it's gone.

You can remove a photo from your Facebook page, but that photo might still exist on the company's servers--and could still be accessible via a direct link.

The folks at Ars Technica, who discovered this glitch back in 2009, recently found that it's still around despite efforts by Facebook to resolve it.

Responding to a query by Ars Technica, Facebook admitted last Friday that its older content storage systems "did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable … Read more

Graffiti speaks, as spray paint comes alive

A new music video for a U.K.-based hip-hop artist showcases a fun idea: talking (and moving) graffiti.

The video, by British design outfit Paintshop Studio, features, in the words of Paintshop's blog, "animated graffiti rappers, created entirely in spray paint and brought to life by painting and repainting key elements."

Now, whether the idea of talking (and moving) graffiti is fun or horrifying depends on your point of view. Imagine if every tag you walked past in the city shouted the name of the tagger at you. (Then again, someone like street artist Banksy could no doubt work amusing, and even profound, wonders with this--as could a group of experimental poets, composers, and urbanists.)

Of course, this particular graffiti mural is confined to a video. But it does make us think. What if you combined this idea with QR tags and augmented reality? We've seen similar things before. Artists have "hi-jacked" billboards using iPads and AR, and damaged murals have been "restored" using QR tags. It might be pretty sweet if you could hold your smartphone or tablet up to a piece of graffiti or a mural and watch it come alive.… Read more

Siri nibbles away at iPhone data plans

Siri may gobble up some of your iPhone 4S' data plan, but fortunately she's not an overeater--just a bit peckish.

Ars Technica conducted a pretty thorough investigation into just how big a dent Siri users can expect the digital dame to make in their monthly data usage. See, whenever you talk to Siri, an audio file of your command is sent to Apple's servers for processing and then the requested data and vocal response is sent back over the network to your phone, even if the question is something that should be able to be gleaned from your phone's local data.

The results are pretty clear--unless you're attempting to have an intimate relationship with Siri and you're on the emotionally needy side, she's not going to blow out your monthly bill. Ars found that each Siri query ate up about 63KB of data on average, although naturally that figure will vary for different users and uses. Here's what Ars found when it extrapolated that rough amount out under different monthly usage scenarios:… Read more

Your face is the battlefield with new AR tech

I've been waiting half my life for the phrase "in your face!" to finally die. Now that it seems to be fading, I may have to contend with the rise of "On your face," as in "I'm gonna kick your ass, on your face!"

It's all thanks to a new technology that allows game players to actually fight their digital battles on their own faces. The iOS game Skinvaders uses an augmented-reality (AR) platform to take advantage of the devices' front-facing cameras and transform players' faces into the game terrain on which alien invaders must be defeated to save the world, or your face, or whatever... … Read more