Sorry!

We're back! Sorry for this long-time absence... Perhaps you're waiting just a "We were too busy" but, this time, we have to confess: there's no excuse. We've being a bit lazy.

In the last 3 weeks we have no progress with out project and there were no special news to post here. Maybe because we haven't search them, or just because they weren't.

We've got in touch with some companies to supply us a SCM, and also we're trying to get a mobile device to start working. We have an offer to work with Windows Mobile, but we're waiting answers from different OS companies.

This is a short entry to all those who continue visiting us although there were no activity in the last weeks. Thanks mates! and again sorry!

1 month: Thank you so much!

One month's gone... and to celebrate it... that incredible peak!


Wow!!! 294 visits from meneame in just one day.

Thanks for this. We're glad of being visited by so many people from this. We've received visits from several cities of Spain and also from so different countries all around the world: USA, Mexico, Argentina, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and so on... We hope you enjoy our blog and of course, you've learned a little.

We want to see all of you surfing our web and leaving comments to make this blog a good way to have fun, enjoy and share ideas all together, so we'll work hard for make it possible.

ARQuake project

Some days ago we talked about the difference between augmented and virtual reality showing images of a special shoot 'em up.

These images are from the ARQuake project, an AR project from the School of Computer and Information Science of the University of South Australia. It was the very first attempt to create a videogame for real world. Here are one of the videos they made and the links to the others.

More videos:
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=n781KHm230s
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=MDYv_uLmkE
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb5rACCUC1g

A good question would be... ¿Can I play? :)
mmmm, don't think so... because of its difficulty and cost. We need a head mounted display, a laptop, a head tracker, and, obviously, a GPS system to obtain our position. We can see in the first image that we're facing to a complex system. So, we've to continue waiting for news from them.

I wanna play ARQuake, and you?

Now Android is Open Source!

Making good on a promise it made at the very beginning, Google has announced today that the source code underpinning its Android platform for mobile devices is available for free to anyone who wants to play with it.

The code is being provided through the newly-announced Android Open Source Project. Theoretically, the move should position Android to benefit from a fairly democratic, and it'll also give anyone the chance to build a smartphone of their own without shelling out a dime in licensing fees.

We're really looking forward to seeing Android pop up on a whole bunch of devices for which it was never intended.

Download it nooooooooooooow.

Mobility Show 2008

We bring you a special event for those interested in new technologies, mobile phones, PDA's, Windows Mobile, HTC and things like that... The Mobility Show held in Valladolid (Spain), in Boecillo's technology park from 9.30 to 18.30.

There you could assist to several conferences of Microsoft, Telefónica y HTC. The theme of these mobility-oriented conferences will be Windows Mobile 6.0, Movilforum, Exchange 2007 or the new HTC Diamond...

More information, here:
http://www.micmovilidad.com/mobilityshow
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032390517&Culture=es-ES

We'll see you there!

Android Kill Switch Discovered

Do you remember when someone said that Apple had the right to basically disable applications when they felt that they were malicious or did not match up to a database of apps listed in a repository of those on a blacklist...

Well, so Google had the right too!!!!!

When it happened with Apple, it was discovered by a developer but Google has been more candid and they are not hiding it, like Apple did.

Is Google becoming evil after all? I don't think so... but they are making some questionable steps...

Handango touches Android

They are not new in the business, they know how to make money with mobile applications that’s why they have released the first "Un-Official Android market" to compete with the Google Android Market. Handando will allow developers to offer apps for free, a one-time purchase price, or a number of different subscription terms.

But why would we want to download application to our PC and then transfer to the mobile if we are going to have the Google Android Market in the directly in it...

A-B-C of Augmented Reality (II): vs. Virtual Reality

First of all, sorry. We were busy these days. We'd no time to update the blog.
We've to organize us in a better way. Now, let's continue talking about AR.

Some days ago we talked about the main idea that represents the augmented reality (AR) technology.

We all have heard about virtual reality and maybe some of you can't distinguish the difference between them. Well, here comes a simple explanation.

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology based in non-real images in a computer-generated environment. VR allows us to interact in a artificial world which replace the real world where we live. The keyword is replace. While AR adds new information to the real one, VR shows the user new information over the real one.

That VR could be generated through different devices such as googles, helmets, gloves or any type of special devices that captures the position and movement of the body, while it's moving in a virtual environment. We can see it in the next video.

Using googles and thanks to sensors, the character can move and interact in this kind of VR videogame. We see there's nothing from the real world visible in the environment.

Now, we can saw a similar videogame but using AR. In this image, we can see that gloves, helmets and others sensors are necessary to obtain the AR vision, but the result is different: the user can see the real world and interact with both the virtual and real images.

These images are from the ARQuake project, an AR project from the School of Computer and Information Science of the University of South Australia.

We'll talk about this special project in a few days. Since that, have fun and learn, learn!

Send this entry to Meneame, Digg.

Survey results for "Which platform do you prefer?"

Time's gone!!!

There has been a technical tie between Apple and his iPhone SDK and Google with Android!! 5 Points for each one!

The last classified is Microsoft with only 1 point... no one likes Microsoft Mobile Technology?

There is also one person who likes none of the 3 main competitors.


Well, see you in the next survey!!! And thanks for taking part!!!

Do you want to play with the G1?

For those who want to play with it, T-mobile has launched a new site where we can see the phone in a 360 degree view. The page also includes guides and info about the gadget, but the greatest thing of all is the emulator, similar than the one you can get installing the Android SDK, even more complete.

The emulator runs on our browser (with Flash support) and allows you to navigate trough the operating system, but there are areas that are not implemented, and logically the tactile interface will be replaced by clicks of the mouse.

Have a lot of fun with it!

G1 Emulator

Manufacturers like Android

After some days of relax, we bring you a small entry.

We talked a few days ago about the interest shown by Motorola in Android. We've also heard a week ago that Sony Ericsson was studying the possibility of adding it to their mobile phones.

Now, LG and Samsung have confirmed they're preparing a new one with Android about the middle of 2009.

Maybe we miss Nokia, but, probably in a near future, the finnish company will also work with Android. It's just a matter of time that the Google operating system could make their way in the market.

The main problem that must faced Android is the escepticism shown by some sectors of the manufacturers because of the publicity that Google usually introduce in all his applications. Obviously, nobody wants to give Google the opportunity to show rather than themselves.

A-B-C of Augmented Reality (I)

Hi everyone!. We're back with a new entry. Today we're gonna talk about Augmented Reality, one of the main concepts of this project.

Basically, augmented reality is a real time union of the real images we can see at every moment, with other computer-generated. That's just a concept, but it gives us some hints about what we're talking about.

This technology adds information to the real world allowing the users a new type of interaction, in which the focus is not in one specific point, it's everywhere around the user. I mean, a 3D information.

To simplify it, think in someone with a sheet with an square drawn on it. Just like this from Tum' web (Thanks!):

Well, it's just a sheet, nothing special happens.

Ok, now, take a look to the next image with augmented reality.

Maybe you're thinking that it's just a drawing onto the first image. Well, look at this Quicktime video.

Not enough? Here we have a Youtube video showing us a similar test, but, this time with some advertising.

We hope you've learned something new about this interesting technology. We'll continue talking about it in the very next days.

See you!

Motorola wants to dress Android

If Google comes with a free Mobile operating system and it seems to be better than the competence why don’t use it? That is what Motorola would think... So Motorola will devote over 350 people to build an Android team.

The same source of the news says that Nokia and Verizon are also interested because has also seen people from Nokia and Verizon at a recent Android developer conference. The conference was put on by Google last week for developers who had not yet seen the G1 to help prepare them for its launch.

Read more

First step

Well, now we have to choose our platform to develop the project. We have several options.

The first one is Apple and the iPhone, Apple has recently published the last version of the SDK. The iPhone is a great device (maybe the best) but the SDK provided is a little bit limited (we can’t code in PC e.g.), and we are not convinced by the policy of accepting applications to the iTunes Store.


The second one is Android. Google has announced some days ago the G1 with the support of T-Mobile. We think that the SDK is open and powerful, on the other hand we could use the services of Google natively. The applications are made in Java, an easy language and flexible at the same time.


The last one is Windows Mobile that is on the market longer than Apple and Google, but we believe that the power of movement of Apple and Google is higher than Microsoft, maybe because the applications of windows mobile is more focus on companies and businesses and the others is for everyone.

We are considering that the best option is Android, what do you think?

Welcome to The ARLIM project!!!

Hi!

Welcome to The ARLIM project blog, where you can find information about the world of augmented reality and live information through mobile devices. That's our idea for this site but, also, it's a way to show all the people our progress with our university project.

To resume it, we'll develop an application that allows everyone, who has a mobile device with camera, to obtain live information and access to specified Internet WebPages while viewing the real world through their cameras. That information will be shown thanks to the augmented reality technology, which consists in combine virtual images and the real ones.

We'll upload this blog with more information about the world of augmented reality, mobile devices and other stuff related to our project. Sometimes in an expert way for programmers; other times easier as a gesture for those who are not familiar with code, IT and so on.

We know it's gonna be tough due to the complexity of the overall idea, but we'll try to give the best of ourselves to reach this aim.

We hope you can learn and have fun with us.

So, as I said before, welcome!