augmented-reality

Is that a QR code in your pocket, or do you just want to tell the world where you last had sex?

Turns out the answer could be "both."

The scannable codes have been popping up on (of all things) condom wrappers--to enable users to post the location of their sexual activity online.

No, it's not a check-in app for orgy-goers (VCs take note--that opportunity may still be available). It's part of an effort by the Seattle-area chapter of Planned Parenthood to hook up with members of the social-media generation.

Taking a cue from check-in sites like Foursquare, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest has been handing out the specially stickered rubbers to college students. The students are encouraged to scan the codes after sex to go to a Web site where they can anonymously post the approximate whereabouts of their recent safe-sex tryst to an online map.… Read more

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

If only I had a pair of plastic pink pumps for every time I've wondered what it would be like to sail through life as Barbie, she of the perpetually perfect skin and hair day and cute but crotch-challenged boyfriend.

Well, thanks to the "try almost anything out virtually" technology known as augmented reality, I can now step into Barbie's gold-beaded slip-ons.

The iconic and sometimes controversial doll/brand has employed Zugara's Webcam Social Shopper platform to let fans go inside Barbie's Dream Closet and see how they'd look in some of her most famous, mostly pink outfits. … Read more

Rather than fret about the rise of e-readers and tablets and the seemingly imminent demise of the book as we know it, book artist and poet Amaranth Borsuk decided to reimagine the digital-versus-paper struggle as a kind of dance, and make it the basis for an artist's book of her own.

Along with her husband, Web developer Brad Bouse, Borsuk created "Between Page and Screen." It's a digital pop-up book that contains nothing but elegantly rendered QR codes on its printed pages. Readers go to the book's Web site, hold a page in front of their Webcam, and watch onscreen as a poem pops out of the quick-response code (and moves along as the book is moved).… Read more

What do you do if you're an injured astronaut and your doctor absolutely refuses to make Mars calls?

Well, the European Space Agency is trying to address that question. The ESA is testing a wearable augmented-reality device that might one day enable astronauts who aren't doctors to perform surgery on ailing colleagues.

Astronauts haven't whipped out the scalpels just yet--the device is currently being tested as a tool for ultrasound examinations that let users look patients over and diagnose a medical condition. But the agency said in a recent post to its Web site that "in principle [it] could guide other procedures."

In a nutshell, the device--the Computer Assisted Medical Diagnosis and Surgery System, or Camdass--works as follows. While moving an ultrasound probe along the patient, the user wears a headset that displays a 3D image of healthy tissue along with the ultrasound images of the patient.

The device, according to the ESA, "precisely [combines] computer-generated graphics with the wearer's view." Hence, differences--and problems--can be spotted.… Read more

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."

Related SmartPlanet links:

Despite lots of pleading and begging, I never got a laser tag set when I was growing up (Mom didn't think it was very ladylike). But now, it looks like I'm finally going to get my chance.

The Xappr Gun is a new gaming accessory that connects to a smartphone and allows you to play various augmented-reality and shooter games. The gun-shaped peripheral works with iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices and features a mount in the viewfinder area where you can attach your smartphone, while an auxiliary cable connected to your handset's headphone jack registers your trigger pulls.

Though it's not due out until June, Xappr is already compatible with a number of existing games. These include AR Invaders, in which you help protect the planet by shooting down alien invaders, and Spray'Em, a mosquito-zapping game. … Read more

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

Augmented reality is far from mainstream--but a couple of exhibitors at CES are working hard to change that.

Aurasma, which is part of HP's Autonomy business, showed off its 3D augmented reality app. And today I caught up with a London-based startup called Blippar, which is set up at CES' Eureka Park.

Blippar, which last week raised an undisclosed amount from Qualcomm Ventures, has been in technical development for a year and just launched in August. It has about 30 partners in the U.K, and is working hard to sign up more and break into the U.S. … Read more