Eye for an iPhone

This article picks up from my last piece, “Terminator Vision.”

Eyeglasses, as we know them today, have been around for about 800 years, give or take. In-eye lenses, for just over a hundred and modern contact lens for about 50. In our time of exponential technological advancement I don’t expect to wait half a century for this technology to mature, but we’re going to see augmented reality optics in a form-factor similar to eyeglasses long before we’re placing them directly onto our cornea.

I do, however, believe that the “through the looking glass” trend of AR applications for mobile devices that are coming on the market today will be a short lived, stop-gap solution until the adoption of AR eyewear. If mobile AR indeed takes off (and I believe it will), people will quickly tire of holding their smartphones out in front of their faces. This will ultimately lead to interesting partnerships between fashion eyewear manufactures and consumer electronics companies, not unlike the partnership between Nike and Apple in the personal fitness electronics space. For now we have several electronic manufactures, many who are most use to dealing with military clients, doing their best to design consumer focussed video eyewear. With mixed results.

Vuzix, the only manufacturer already in the market with a consumer level AR offering, is due to launch two new stereoscopic pairs with AR functionality before the holidays (Wrap 920 and Wrap 310 shown on top row, above). The launch date was moved back once, the 920s were originally planned for a Spring debut. Vuzix technology is similar to that used in standard video eyewear, but an attachment will add cameras to “see” in front of the lens, and play the camera’s video feed with data overlaid— not dissimilar to the AR apps currently available on the Android and iPhone now.

This is also the method that had been employed most extensively for augmented reality in commercial and research environments. WorldViz sells a VideoVision attachment for the NVIS nVisor. While these are state of the art in the AR eyewear space, the attachment alone costs about $12,000.00, and this does not include the NVIS unit which itself cost between $20,000.00 to $30,000.00, depending on the model. And neither price includes the software to run this rig. That’ll cost you extra. Sensics also has a commercial-grade offer in this space. While I don’t know anything about their pricing, I can vouch that they are equally as fashionable:

Besides their, um… avant garde styling, what distinguishes the Sensics and WorldViz/NVIS units from consumer-grade offerings is that both of these models display in HD. The experience is immersive. If you’ve ever played with regular (non-AR) video eyewear (whether 3D stereoscopic or simply 2D video glasses), you’re likely aware of the disappointing resolution. In the sub-$750 market, 640x480 is still standard fair. If you’re willing to spring for $1000+, then 800x600 is the top end of the consumer market. Resolution for the Vuzix Wrap models has not yet been disclosed (nor has the price), but I speculate that they will likely be 800x600.

Recent advancements by OEMs like Kopin (supplier to Vuzix, MyVu and others) and eMagin have increased microdisplay resolutions up to 1280x1024 on screens smaller than 1 inch. Both are now offering paired assemblies for stereoscopic eyewear. Kopin is actively seeking partnerships to take their newest technology to market in consumer products, while eMagin maintains their own consumer devision (branded 3Dvisor), marketing HMDs for the gaming market.

While there are many industrial applications for this technology in the fields of architecture/engineering, aviation and other training environments (not to mention entertainment/gaming), most of this research has been funded by military contracts. Peter Wood, a CD I worked with in the past, once said, “How great it would be if we could gain all the technological advances of World War III without having to fight it.” At risk of opening a debate over military policy, the reality is that (as has always been the case) a great number of recent technological advancements spring from research initially financed by military contracts and military related research. Indeed, as with most of these companies, Kopin’s largest clients are US military contractors.

What I find most interesting in this space is that, much like the market in TV displays, there are currently many different technologies emerging that are going to compete with one another. This should be a boon for the consumer— resulting in faster innovation and lowering costs.

Lumus Optical has another approach. Lumus, the Israeli supplier of military video components, has engineered a solution that projects a partially translucent image onto the inside of a specially designed eyeglass lens. The model (shown at top with the two Vuzix models) is a functional concept pair. Lumus is attempting to partner with consumer retailer who could buy the lens assembly, and incorporate it into their own form-factor.

In 2008 Apple was awarded a patent for a translucent augmented reality eyewear design that cleverly employs prisms and mirrors to move a laser projection from between the lens, and cast it onto the lens facing the eye. Apple, true to its culture, has not said a word about the filing or any forthcoming products employing such technology.

Microvision, manufacturer of laser pico-projector components, has also been awarded video vision patents, theirs for retinal laser scanner technology, over a decade ago now. With an existing clientele primarily in military suppliers, their pico-projectors have begun making inroads into consumer mobile devices. Perhaps encouraged by this consumer market success, they are aggressively seeking partners to take their eyewear technology into the consumer space.

Another technology with tremendous promise is transparent (and flexible) OLED. Everyone from Samsung to GE to Kadak to Philips and others have been experimenting with lightweight, flexible and transparent OLEDs. The potential here is obvious, as it is not difficult to imagine simply building a transparent curved OLED into the lens of a pair of glasses, obviating the need for much of the engineering gymnastics required to get the other display types in front of the eye without creating unnecessary bulk and obstruction. Thus far I’ve not seen a single prototype employing this technique, though the Samsung representative touting the technology in the video (below) made at the 2009 CES does mention it as a possible application. The second video is a demonstration by Sony of the malleability of their flexible OLED.

Unlike some other overhyped memes of the moment, these are proven technologies, some of which are already on the market, others that we can expect to see on the market in the next 12 to 24 months.

To read about the evolution of Virtual Reality eyewear, with an overview of virtual world marketing techniques, read the GigantiCo article, “Virtual Reality: Part 1”.

Terminator Vision

I’ve just witnessed one of the fastest meme-burns I’ve ever seen.

I learned about these video contact lenses from a New York Times article posted to Kurzweil AI back in April (And Washington University’s original press release dropped on January 17th.). I confess, I even tweeted this story myself back in June (while attending CAT, in response to a comment made by Mike Geiger). But the story laid dormant for most of the last six or seven months. Until a few weeks ago when IEEE Sprectrum did an in depth, four page story on the technology that was picked up by Dana Oshiro at ReadWriteWeb. With RWW’s large readership, the story took-off on Twitter. By Thursday WIRED Gadget Lab jumped on the bandwagon and set Twitter and the tech/media blogshpere ablaze. Robert Rice, Chairman of the AR Consortium, threw some cold water on the euphoria, in an attempt to reel people back in to reality… to little effect. I don’t wish to in anyway downplay the research being done by Babak Parviz and his team. Incrementally this will improve, and when it does I’ll be first in line. But that is at least a decade if not more away.

I write this as a sort of prologue to my next story, one I’ve been researching for a while, regarding Augmented Reality eyewear, I invite you to follow on to the next article, “Eye for an iPhone”.

H+ Magazine, Issue 4

I interviewed artist Sophie Kahn for the Fall 2009 issue of H+ Magazine. The new issue is now available to download. This is also the first issue with national print distribution. You should be able to pick it up soon at magazine shops and booksellers nationwide.

Congratulations to Ken Goffman (aka. R.U. Sirius) for the success of this venture. It is the right magazine at the right time and is really taking off.

You can also read additional articles at the online edition, and join the
H+ Community, the H+ Magazine Facebook group, and follow H+ on Twitter.

Monitoring Real Estate

The productivity gains from investing in large monitor(s) easily outweighs their cost, especially as the price of desktop real estate continues to fall. Though most of the advertising industry has caught on, it occasionally astounds me to learn that there are companies (and even a few agencies) that have not received this wisdom.

The photo above is the desk of my home office (I provide this schematic to clients when I work offsite, if they inquire about my home-studio accommodations).

If you’re one of those unfortunate to have management that views screen size/resolution as some sort of luxury or worse, status symbol (like say, a chair that is comfortable and ergonomic), then below are some links you can use to bolster your case— Multiple studies on the productivity gains of using multiple and/or oversized monitors.

All of the research in the links below was done about two or three years ago, so price-per-inch for large monitors has fallen even more since this work was done.

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PDF - University of Utah (sponsored by NEC):
Productivity and Multi-Screen Displays

PDF - NEC Overview:
Monitor Size and Aspect Ratio Productivity Research

PDF - Georgia Tech (sponsored by Microsoft):
Display Space Usage and Window Management Operation

PDF - Pfeiffer Consulting (sponsored by Apple):
Measuring the impact of screen size on real-world productivity

The coming OS Wars

When, in the late 80s, Apple saw a need for a suite of business software for their new Macintosh platform, they decided to subcontract the development to a software company named Microsoft. The RFP was for three applications: a word processor, a spreadsheet and a slideshow for business presentations. Much like their IBM deal for DOS, Microsoft proposed to develop the apps but retain ownership for a good deal less money than selling it to Apple outright. In 1989 Microsoft released Office for the Macintosh, containing Word, Excel and PowerPoint. A year later, they introduced the same package for their own OS, Windows. While Apple made a premium product with a proprietary OS, Microsoft developed their Windows OS with similar Mac like graphical interface features, built to run on the same x86 (PC compatible) architecture that had made their MS DOS the default industry standard… and now running the same suite of business software available on the Mac. This story will, of course, be common knowledge to most readers as it is among the most famous business parables in modern corporate history.

And history is known to repeat itself.

With the iPhone, Apple today reigns supreme. Just as the introduction of the Macintosh did to the personal computer market in 1984, the iPhone has single handedly reshaped the mobile phone market since its introduction. But things are about to get ugly.

In January 2007 Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. Within months, before the iPhone was even available for purchase, rumors had already begun to swirl that Google was in overdrive to develop a touchscreen mobile OS, but built on an open standard that could run on many different handsets. In spite of official denials, by fall photos of prototypes were beginning to leak. Initially slow to get traction, over the next several months multiple vendors will be introducing new models, and Google Android clones are about to flood the market.

Motorola, once a dominant force in mobile phones, has lost so much market share it may abandon the mobile market all together. It is betting the farm on Android. Or as Tal Liani put it, “Motorola has one bullet left in its gun.” Just a few years ago the Motorola razor was the top selling phone on the planet, and pwned its competitors in design awards as well. How quickly the mighty can fall.

The future is unwritten, and betting against Apple doesn’t look like a winner’s strategy. But then neither does betting against Google. One thing is for certain. The writing is on the wall, and Apple and Google are on a collision course in the mobile market that is about to look very familiar.

iStrategy

The name “iPhone” is a misnomer. It is not a phone. It is pocket sized computer that, among other features, also happens to include a phone. The Apple iPod-Touch is sometimes portrayed as a crippled cousin of the iPhone— an iPhone somehow lacking its primary function. A more accurate analogy would be that the iPod-Touch is a portable pocket computer, and the iPhone is a premium version of the iPod-Touch that happens to have one extra feature. This is not entirely semantic. The iPod-Touch can do everything the iPhone can do, including connected functions like browsing the web via a wifi connection. Even for iPhone users, a wifi connection is preferred for internet activity beyond a basic search. Most people that have an iPod-Touch have a home wifi, and wifi at the office is now pretty well standard. It is standard campus-wide at every university. In every internet cafe. Every coffee shop. Many parks. Shopping malls… Wifi connectivity is on it’s way to becoming ubiquitous throughout many urban areas.

But the iPod Touch doesn’t have a microphone… yet. At least not for, oh, another month or so. Leaks abound that, like the iPhone 3Gs, the new iPod-Touch will feature video, including both a camera and microphone. The first iPod-Touch with a microphone. Forget video, this opens the door to Skype style IP telephony— internet calls over wifi.

A reasonable long-term strategy for Apple would be the elimination of the “phone” all together. It is conceivable that the iPhone was merely the stop-gap all along. Use the carriers to gain market share, have two models— one with a phone, one without. Then when the phone version reaches critical mass, and wifi penetration meets critical mass, who needs the carrier anymore? At least in urban areas (where Apple sells the majority of their phones anyway). Need it for the wide spaces in between or simply en route? There’s a solution for that. Thank you AT&T for subsidizing the cost until economies of scale could bring the price down to earth (don’t complain, you made a good run of it).

Some may scoff at the idea that Apple would drop the phone version entirely. True, probably not anytime soon. But don’t be surprised if an iPod Touch with a microphone quickly begins to cannibalize iPhone sales. Recall that it wasn’t long ago that most scoffed at the idea of completely ditching landlines for mobile.

Augmented Reality Overview

Many of the links in this article are for video demos. Rather than having a string of 30+ videos cluttering and breaking up the article, I’ve chosen to set up a separate video page. When you click a video link, it will open a second window. You can view the related video as well as navigate all of the other videos from this window. If your monitor is large enough to permit, I would even suggest leaving the second window open for the videos to cue each video when needed, as you read through the article. To differentiate the video links from other links, links to videos are each followed by a “¤”. To open the window now, click here ¤.

While social media in general, and Facebook and Twitter specifically, have been monopolizing mainstream media’s coverage of online trends, augmented reality is getting a lot of inside-the-industry exposure, mostly for its undeniable wow factor. But that wow factor is a double edged sword, and advertising has a way of turning trends into fads, just before they move on to the next brand new thing. So for this article I wish to focus on practical applications and augmented reality with clear end user benefits. I’ve deliberately chosen not to address entertainment and gaming related executions as it is beyond the scope of this article and frankly merits dedicated attention all its own. And perhaps I’ll do just that in a future article.

Can it Save the Car?
The automotive industry was an early adopter. Due to the manufacturing process, the CAD models already exist and the technology is very well adaptive to showing off an automobile from a god’s eye view. Mini ¤ may have been first off the pole position, with Toyota ¤, Nissan ¤ and BMW ¤ tailgating close behind. Some implementation of AR will soon replace (or augment) the “car customizer” feature that is in some form standard on all automobile websites.

The kind of augmentation that is so applicable to automotive is also readily adaptable to many other forms of retail. Lego ¤ is experimenting with in store kiosks that feature the assembled kit when the respective box is held before the camera. Because legos are a “kit” the technology is very applicable in-store, however I find the eCommerce opportunities much more compelling. Ray-Ban ¤ has developed a “virtual mirror” that lets you try on virtual sunglasses from their website. Holition ¤ is marketing a similar implementation for jewelry and watches. HairArt is a virtual hairstyle simulator developed for FHI Heat ¤, maker of hair-care products and hairstyling tools. While demonstrating potential, some attempts are less successful ¤ than others (edit: I just learned of a better execution of an AR Dressing Room by Fraunhofer Institut). One of the most practical, useful implementations I’ve seen is for the US Post Office ¤— A flat rate shipping box simulator (best seen). These kind of demonstration and customization applications will soon be pervasive in the eCommerce space and in retail environments. TOK&STOK ¤, a major Brazilian furniture retailer, is using in-store kiosks to view furniture arrangements, though I personally find theirs to be a poor implementation. A better method would be to use the same symbol tags to place the AR objects right into your home, from the camera connected to your PC. And that’s just what one student creative team has proposed as an IKEA ¤ entry for their Future Lions submission at this years Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. A quite sophisticated version of this same concept has also been developed by Seac02 ¤ of Italy.

To Tag, or not to Tag?
A couple of years ago I wrote here about QR codes. A couple of weeks ago, while attending the Creativity and Technology Expo, I was given a private demo of Nokia’s Point & Find ¤. This is basically the same technology as QR codes, but uses a more advanced image recognition that doesn’t require the code. Candidly I wasn’t terribly impressed. The interface is poor and the implementation is so focused on selling to advertisers that they seemed oblivious to how people will actually want to use it, straightjacketing what could be a cool technology. Hopefully future versions will improve. Most implementations of augmented reality rely on one of two techniques— either a high degree of place-awareness, or some form of object recognition. Symbols similar to QR codes are most often used when the device is not place-aware, though some like Nokia’s Point & Find don’t require a symbol tag. Personally, even if the technology no longer requires it, I feel the symbol or tag-code is a better implementation when used for marketing. We are still far from a point where everything is tagged, so people won’t know to inspect if a tag-code is not present. Furthermore, the codes place around on posters and printed material help build awareness for the technology itself. Everything covered here thus far has been recognition based augmented reality.

Through the Looking Glass
Location-aware augmented reality usually refers to some form of navigational tool. This is particularly noteworthy with new applications coming to market for smartphones. As BlackBerry hits back at the iPhone, Android’s list of licensees grows and the Palm brings a genuine contender back to the table with the new Palm Pre, there is huge momentum in the smartphone market that not even the recession can slow down. I personally think the name “smartphone” is misleading as these devices are far beyond being a mere ‘phone’. Even a very smart one. They are full-on computers that, among many other features, happen to include a phone. In my prior article on augmented reality I focused on the iPhone’s addition of a magnetometer (digital compass). This gave the iPhone the final piece of spacial self-awareness needed to develop AR applications like those coming fast and furious to the Android platform. Think of it like this— The GPS makes the phone aware of its own longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates on the earth, the compass tells it which direction it is facing, and the accelerometer (digital level-meter) determines the phone’s degree from perpendicular to the ground (this is what lets the phone’s browser know whether to be in portrait or landscape mode). Through this combination of measures the device can determine precisely where in the world it is looking. There is already a fierce race to market in this highly competitive space. Applications like Mobilizy’s Wikitude ¤ (Android), Layar ¤ (Android) and other proof of concepts seeking funding like Enkin ¤ (Android) and SekaiCamera ¤ (iPhone) are jockeying for the mindshare of early adopters. Others have developed proprietary AR navigational apps such as IBM’s Seer ¤ (Android) for the 2009 Wimbledon games. Two months ago when Nine Inch Nails released their NIN Access ¤ iPhone app, there was no iPhone on the market with a built-in compass, so the capability for this level of augmentation was not yet available, but a look at the application’s “nearby” feature gives a hint at the kind of utility and community that could be built around a band or a brand using this kind of AR. View a demo of Loopt ¤, and only a little imagination is needed to see how social networking can be enhanced by place awareness, now add person-specific augmentation tied to a profile and the creepy stalker potential is brought to full fruition, depending on your perspective. And there are other well established players in the automotive navigation space that have a high potential for crossover. The addition of a compass to the iPhone paved the way for an app version of TomTom ¤. Not to be outdone, a Navigon ¤ press release has announced that they too have an iPhone app in development. How long before location-aware automotive navigation developers choose to enter the pedestrian navigation space?

Some Assembly Required
It seems everyone wants some AR business from IKEA. Another spec project by a student at the University of Singapore proposes an assembly instruction manual for IKEA ¤ furniture. In a more sophisticated application on the same line of thought, BMW ¤ is experimenting with augmented reality automotive maintenance and repair technology. Note in that video that he is not doing this in front of his laptop camera, nor is he holding his smartphone in front of his face. He’s wearing special AR eyewear. The potential for hands-free instruction and tutorial is as obvious as it is unlimited. Consider any product you purchase that comes with instructions (You do read the instructions, right?). A municipal construction crew repairing a broken water pipe could effectively have X-Ray vision, seeing where all the pipes are under the road, based on schematics supplied to their eyewear from city records.

Seeing is Believing
When it comes to Virtual Reality, I’ve had a mantra that none of this will really take off until we’re in there versus looking at there. I believe augmented reality will be the catalyst that pushes digital eyewear into the marketplace. Virtual World applications are, by their nature, not location dependent. In many ways that’s the point— you can be anywhere. And sitting at your computer or game console and looking at a screen is a well established all-purpose interface. Place-aware augmented reality, on the other hand, is location dependent— Walking down the street holding your smartphone in front of your face is not a long-term solution. In only a short couple of years, a bluetooth earpiece ¤ has gone from being the goofy guy walking down the street who looks like he’s talking to himself, to a common everyday accessory, even fashionable. What works for your ears is now coming to your eyes— a hands-free visual interface in the form of eyewear. Some variation of this concept has been around for a long time ¤. Slow to improve, even most contemporary models are less fashionable than a Geordi LaForge’s visor, but slowly they are improving.

The Vuzix Wrap 920AV (at left), prototype premiered at the 2009 CES in Las Vegas, are the newest consumer class digital eyewear marketed for augmented reality applications. WIRED Magazine’s Gadget Lab feels their most significant feature, “comes from the fact that the company finally hired a designer aware of current aesthetic tastes.” Significant to the 920AV’s is that: A. They boast ‘see-thru’ video lens that readily lend themselves to augmented reality applications, and B. They are stereoscopic (meaning they have a separate video channel for each eye, required for 3D). They are meant to hit the market in the Fall, and are being pushed as an iPhone compatible device. If they are smart, they will do a bundled play with a “killer app” such as SekaiCamera or similar product. They have the potential to be the ‘must have’ gift for the 2009 holiday season. Not to oversell them, I have not personally demoed them yet so I don’t know if they will deliver on the hype, but they look as though they will be first to market, and their product will be the leading contender in the immediate future. Here is a demonstration of a prior Vuzix model ¤ (behold the fashion statement). Using symbol-tag based augmented reality, this man places a yacht in his living room.

If the quality of the user experience fails to live up to expectations, Vuzix has many pretenders to the crown. Fast followers like Lumus (at left) and others are trying to get products to market as well. Then there are MyVu, Carl Zeiss, i-O Display Systems and others who have video eyewear products and are likely candidates to come forward with AR offerings. Add to that a technical patent awarded to Apple last year for an AR eyewear solution of their own and it is clear this could quickly become a crowded and competitive product category. This video titled Future of Education ¤, while speculative, is a splendidly produced and rather accurate projection of where the technology is going.

Where to From Here?
We’re moving in this direction at exponential speed, the pace of progress is only going to keep moving faster. As we see the convergence of augmented reality with mobile and mobile with ear and eyewear, there are another set of convergences just over the horizon. We’re on the threshold of realtime language translation ¤. This is an ingredient technology and, like a spell-checker, will soon be baked in to all communications devices, first of which will be our phones. The Nintendo Wii brought motion capture into our homes, and technologies like Microsoft’s Project Natal ¤ are converging motion capture with three dimensional optical recognition, so no device is needed. And everything, both real and virtual, will soon be integrated into the semantic web. Intelligent agents will assist us with many tasks. While most of this intelligence will occur behind the curtain, as humans we like to personify our technology. It won’t be long before our personal digital assistant could be given the human touch. How human?

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NOTE: In the references below, I’ve included a list of firms that have created some of the pieces shown here or the technologies used.

Augmented Reality

Apple iPhone Apps reports on new iPhone features, attributing credit to an anonymous leak from inside Apple. I would like to focus on one specific feature. They report, with skepticism:

-Revolutionary combination of the camera, GPS, compass, orientation sensor, and Google maps

The camera will work with the GPS, compass, orientation sensor and Google maps to identify what building or location you have taken a picture of. We at first had difficulties believing this ability. However, such a “feature” is technically possible. If the next generation iPhone was to contain a compass then all of the components necessary to determine the actually plane in space for an image taken. The GPS would be used to determine the physical location of the device. The compass would be used to determine the direction the camera was facing. And the orientation sensor would be used to determine the orientation of the camera relative to the gravity. Additionally the focal length and focus of the camera could even assist is determining the distance of any focused objects in the picture. In other words, not only would the device know where you are, but it could determine how you are tilting it and hence it would know EXACTLY where in space your picture was composed. According to our source, Apple will use this information to introduce several groundbreaking features. For example, if you were to take a picture of the Staples Center in Los Angeles, you will be provided with a prompt directing you to information about the building, address, and/or area. This information will include sources such as wikipedia. This seems like quite an amazing service; and a little hard to believe, however while the complexity of such a service may be unrealistic, such is actually feasible with the sensors onboard the next generation iPhone.

And why “unrealistic”? Every piece of this technology already exists in the wild. This is not a great technological leap. This is merely smart convergence.

There are already two applications on the Google Android platform that have these features. One is a proof-of-concept called Enkin, developed by Max Braun and Rafael Spring (students of Computational Visualistics from Coblenz Germany, currently doing robotics research at Osaka University in Japan). The second, Wikitude by Mobilizy, is already in full-blown commercial release (an Austrian company, founded by Philip Breuss-Schneeweis and Martin Lechner).

WIKITUDE DEMONSTRATION:

ENKIN, PROOF-OF-CONCEPT:

It is only one short step further to let users geo-tag their photos. Many social photo/map applications available for the iPhone already incorporate such a feature. Building this into the realtime viewfinder would not be a great challenge. By example, the proof-of-concept for this already exists in the form of Microsoft’s Photosynth (silverlight browser plugin required).

Social Media apps could tap into this utility to network members in real space. At the most basic level, Facebook and/or LinkedIn apps could overlay member’s with their name and profile information.

The next logical extension of this will be to place the information directly into your field of vision.

The OOH marketing opportunities are immense. Recent campaigns for General Electric in the US, and the Mini Cooper in Germany show where this is going. Suddenly the work done by Wayne Piekarski at the University of South Australia’s Wearable Computer Lab is no longer so SciFi (now being commercialized as WorldViz). At January’s CES, Vuzix debuted their new 920AV Model of eyewear, which includes an optional stereoscopic camera attachment to combine virtual objects with your real environment. Originally scheduled for a Spring release, their ship-date has now been pushed back to Fall (their main competitor, MyVu, does not yet have an augmented reality model). If the trend finally takes, expect to see more partnerships with eyewear manufactures.

Initially through the viewfinder of your smartphone, and eventually through the lens of your eyewear, augmentation will be the point of convergence for mobile-web, local-search, social media, and geo-targeted marketing. Whether Apple makes the full leap in one gesture with the release of their Next-Gen iPhone, or gets there in smaller steps depends upon both the authenticity/acuracy of this leak, and the further initiative of third-party software and hardware developers to take advantage of it. Innovation and convergence will be the economic drivers that reboot our economy.

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EDIT: The only capability Apple actually needs to add to the iPhone in order for this proposed augmented reality to be implemented is a magnetometer (digital compass). Google Android models already have this component. Charlie Sorrel of WIRED Magazine’s Gadget Lab has separately reported this feature through leaks of a developer screen shot, and on May 22nd Brian X. Chen, also reporting for WIRED Magazine’s Gadget Lab, put the probability of a magnetometer being included in the new iPhone at 90%. Once the iPhone has an onboard compass, augmented reality features will begin to appear, whether through Apple’s own implementation or from third party developers.

UPDATE: Since the time of this writing, the iPhone 3GS has been released, and it does indeed include an magnetometer.

H+ Magazine

In October Ken Goffman (aka. R.U. Sirius) launched a new venture. The cyberculture icon of Mondo 2000 fame has a new transhumanist magazine, H+. You won’t find this one on your newsstand yet, issue #1 of this quarterly publication has been released as a PDF only. You can download it here (and you should).

Transhumanism is a philosophy that explores/embraces the increasing integration of technology with the human race. In the words of the World Transhumanist Association — “The ethical use of technology to extend human capabilities.” H+ covers these issues technologically, biologically and philosophically — concerned with both the possible, and its implications for humanity.

I had held off covering this on GigantiCo, because I’ve been discussing with Ken a possible role for myself with the publication, and thus far none has precipitated. I had intended to cover the launch of the magazine in a more timely manner, with an announcement of my involvement. So far we are just talking. That’s not a bad thing, I hope the dialog will lead to something more. If it does, readers here will be first to know. Until then, keep an eye on H+.

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EDIT: I am now working with H+. Details to come.

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FURTHER READING:

San Francisco Weekly — Mondo 2000

Boing Boing — Bart Nagel’s Mondo 2000 collection

Coilhouse — Mondo 2000: Where Are they Now?

Temple of the Screaming Electron: A history of Mondo 2000

R.U. Sirius @ Maybe Logic

The R.U. Sirius Show

New Year Endorsements

Putting a wrap on 2008, I set a goal to get my own online efforts organized. I had websites scattered across several different hosting providers. In conjunction with the launch of my new website, this was the right time to review my existing arrangements. Having done so, I’m now making some new year endorsements.

MediaTemple for Hosting
My research on hosting providers eventually led me to MediaTemple. So far I’m very pleased with their entry level Grid-Service package that includes hosting for 100 domains, 100 GB of storage, 1 TB of bandwidth and 1000 email addresses, for $20 a month or $200 a year. Their dashboard has the slickest interface I’ve seen in the business, and they also have a sweet iPhone version to manage your websites on the go. Their customer support has been impeccable. I actually got a recording that told me, “your approximate wait time is… one minute.” The other three times I’ve called a technician has answered on the first ring without even going into a queue!

GoDaddy for Domain Registrar
Several years ago I had a similar issue consolidating my domain registrations. I went with GoDaddy, and I’ve been pleased with the decision. The interface is well organized, and has plenty of automation tools to manage my domains. Though the up-sell e-commerce efforts on their website can sometimes be overbearing, their email and phone support are top notch. Amazingly, they’ve also managed to take a service which has, for all practical purposes, become a commodity and add premium value to their offer. They don’t do this to command a higher price— they do this all-the-while remaining one of the industry’s most price competitive vendors. It is no surprise that they remain the world’s #1 registrar. Their cheesy marketing efforts not withstanding, I chose to stick with GoDaddy.

Clicky for Site Analytics
The next service providers on my list to research were site traffic analytics tools. I was using a very dated stats service I’d been with since the 90s. I knew there were better products on the market, but stayed with them out a familiarity. After checking out many products in a very competitive market, I narrowed it down to two choices— Clicky and Mint. Clicky’s filtering tools and iPhone integration were persuasive, but its built in ability to track Flash events and file downloads was the deciding factor. It also doesn’t hurt their case that their interface is smart and slick and easy to get to the information I need quickly.

Squarespace for Blog Platform
There was no debating my choice to stick with Squarespace for my blog platform. I cannot evangelize their their product enough. My site here is but a tiny glimpse of the platform’s capabilities. If you haven’t yet had a look, take a peak at their homepage video demo. To call Squarespace a blog platform is almost an insult. It is a very robust content management platform with the best user interface and customization tools on the market anywhere at any price.

Viddler for Online Video
Earlier this year I switched to Viddler for all my video content needs. It produces better quality video, and less bug-prone uploading than YouTube, and the uploads are exponentially faster. There are also tools for book-marking the timeline, and other value added features, as well as a slicker interface and more professional looking video controller than YouTube. It also gives users the opportunity to monetize their video content with a commission on ad sales run with their video, and several parameters of control over what ads will be run with their content.

Tramsmit for FTP & AASync to Archive
These last two products I’m going to endorse are not web services, but I don’t want to neglect mentioning a couple of the support applications that I depend on to get work done. A hosting provider is useless without file transfer capabilities. For this I use Transmit. It was not a recent decision, I made the move a couple of years ago, but I did audit my options as part of my overhaul. Much like my recent step up the ladder with my stats platform, I had been using a legacy FTP app out of mere familiarity, and finally got around to upgrading to a top flight product. More recently I began using a very minimal backup application called AAsync to archive my files, including my websites, to an external drive. It isn’t a solution that I would expect to scale, but for a small operation like myself, it is very efficient for my needs. It has an intuitive interface that is super easy to use— I tell it what I want to back up (down to the level of individual folders), from which drive, to which drive. I set it on a timer, and don’t have to think about it again. If I’m not here and the computer is off, it will start up the computer itself, and run its backup routines completed automated.

So that wraps up my web service endorsements for the new year. I’ve never felt like I had my online efforts so buttoned up as I do today. Pretty much across the board, competition has driven improvements in quality. If you have not recently audited the offerings of your current providers against the competition, the new year could be the time to do so.

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SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION™
At that, I will segue back into the launch of my new website, the original impetus for this overhaul. There are still several more projects I need to load into the portfolio, and like every site, it will always be a work in progress. My next step is promoting the site, which I can start by inviting you to have a visit at: ChrisGrayson.com.

Applications used in the making of the new website include: PhotoShop, Illustrator, Flash, Swift 3D and BB Edit; as well as Pages, InDesign and Word for the downloadable PDFs and DOC file.

I owe a special thanks to my friends on Facebook who helped me bug test the new site. I’m on a Mac, and don’t have access to a PC in my home office. So I did a little experiment— I called on my Facebook friends to assist me in cross-browser/cross-platform bug testing, and a dozen or so jumped right in to lend a hand. A few glitches, that could have been embarrassing oversights, were found and addressed. Chalk another one up for crowd-sourcing.

Happy New Year, Everyone!