Pixelsumo is a blog about interaction, with an emphasis on play, installation, video game culture, playgrounds and toys. Written by Chris O'Shea.
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Posted May 18th 2010 under Augmented Reality, Installations, Urban Space
I have been asked a few times about doing interactive periscopes or telescopes with augmented graphics, and my response is “well, they’ve sort of been done many many times before”. So for research I decided to post up for everyone those that I am aware of.
If you know of any more, please post in the comments.
Parascopes, Unsworn Industries
Three ‘Parascopes‘ created by Unsworn Industries were a way of giving the citizens of Malmö a look into various town plans for reducing car traffic. Rather than viewing plans in the city hall, panoramic images controlled through the periscope enabled users to see the designs in situ, creating a more tangible concept of the future. Other plans included letting people draw their own ideas through the website and vote on them, trying them out on the periscopes. Read full press release.
Jurascopes, ART+COM
ART+COM created Jurascopes for the Natural History museum Berlin.
“When visitors look through a Jurascope, at first they will see the skeletons in the hall. By then turning the Jurascope, they can choose a dinosaur and start the animation: One after the other inner organs, muscles, and skin will appear. The animal is brought to its natural habitat and starts moving, feeding and hunting there. Sounds from the environment and the animal itself contribute to the experience.
The sequence lasts around 30 seconds, then the dinosaur moves back to its former position, freezes and is once more a skeleton in the hall.”
Timescope, ART+COM
Another by Art+Com is Timescope, using the same hardware as Jurascope, but this time outside, allowing visitors to Berlin to take a trip back in time with historical photos.
Argui
Argui, created by Valérie-Françoise Vogt with Jonas Braune, Maik Lochmann, Uli Henrik Streckenbach & Franz Wagner, for the annual exhibit at Burg Giebichenstein.
“Placed in front of the biggest of the University’s buildings, Argui lets you see not only its facade but what’s going on inside. Cameras that are placed inside each of its rooms give you an insight into the projects exhibited there and make it easier to choose where to go next.”
Flypad, Blast Theory
Not technically a telescope, but definitely worth showing is Flypad by Blast Theory, created for The Public…
“The work has 11 terminals arranged around the central atrium of the gallery. Each is equipped with a monitor, a motorised pan-tilt camera and a footpad interface in the floor.
Visitors create avatars which they’re able to fly around the atrium using the the footpad. The camera tracks their position as they fly; crashing into other avatars, learning new moves and collaborating together to attain perfect grace.
By holding on to other avatars, visitors can stay in the air for longer, mutating with the avatars they hold on to. As the game progresses, visitors become hybridised: from a group of individual and separate bodies emerges a social body in which everyone’s form and identity is partly moulded by those around them.”
Rear Window, Jon Friis & Michael Lawrie
Rear Window, by Mike Lawrie and Jon Friis, is a “contemporary re-imagining of the 1954 Hitchcock film of the same name, which centres on the symbolic relationship of audience and screen that the protagonist has with the neighbouring apartment block.
The installation takes the form of a telescope, placed in a location with a suitable view. To the user it appears to be an ordinary telescope. However, the image seen through the eyepiece does not wholly coincide with what is seen by the naked eye. Utilizing augmented reality techniques, portions of the image are replaced. The windows of neighbouring buildings become silver screens presenting clips of classic Hollywood footage which utilize the Rear Window cliché.”
xc-01
Rather than a single installation, the xc-01 has been created by Didier Stricker at the Augmented Vision department of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence to sell as a product for these situations.
“To create applications for the xc-01 we developed a visual drag’n drop editor. With this tool one can join different media to an Augmented Reality application. Different objects and functionalities of a palette are just dropped on the scene and positioned.”
“The vandalism-proof case of the xc-01 contains a high-resolution camera, a high-contrast lcd-display, a precise hardware tracking system, an air condition for outdoor use and a coin detector.”
watch video / via gizmag
Other mentions
OBSERVATORIO, 2008 - Clara Boj y Diego Díaz
Drift, Alex Davies & Daniel Heckenberg.
UPDATE
Recommendations…
Subversive Sightseeing, Tim Simpson
(via @pixelfrenzy on twitter)
Subversive Sightseeing by Tim Simpson is a “coin-operated, tourist telescope but through it you see a film of an unravelling sequence of epic catastrophes. In the distance a crane collapses, a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon, and a capsule on the London Eye dangles precariously over the Thames”.
BMW Focus on Joy, MESO
(via Christoph in the comments)
Created by MESO for BMW…
“Originally developed for the BMW show in Hall 11 at the IAA in Frankfurt, MESO developed software and graphics for 10 electronic telescopes. At one of the ten rotating telescopes, positioned around the BMW show, the visitor can see the real image of the automobiles around him and an additional virtual layer giving further information about the specifics of the car.”
Virtual Sightseeing, YDreams
“Journey beyond what your eyes can see with Virtual Sightseeing® - YDreams new scenic viewer for parks, monuments and heritage sites”.
(via @PauloMoreira on twitter)
Comments
(May 18th 2010)
Thanks, for this nice collection. There is another one by MESO for BMW http://www.meso.net/BMW-Perspectives%20of%20Joy
(May 21st 2010)
Here is one using Viewmasters:
http://www.urbanreviewing.com/