At the Computex show in Taipei last week, Cyberlink demonstrated the 3D Augmented Reality Effects of their next-generation webcam software. They plan to release the application sometime this year.
We recently covered on Camscape the use of webcams in computer games, and how the latest games manage to cut out your body and superimpose it on the game background. With the reduction of technological limitations, Augmented Reality is a further development on the technology used in such computer games, and another future use of webcams with mouth-watering potential.
Cyberlink already have produced YouCam 3, a piece of software that allows you to produce many neat effects that can be used in real-time in a video chat. For example, it uses head tracking, allowing the software to place an imaginary hat on your head that stays on top of your head should you move about. You can also turn yourself into a snowman or an alien, with face movements to match your own. You can watch these effects in action here.
The 3D Augmented Reality effects will build on effects of YouCam 3, taking them to the next level. This new software has the ability to recognise real-world objects in your webcam video, and add virtual 3D objects to replace or add to the real-world objects.
This could mean that if you have a baseball card in view, the software will draw a 3D representation of the baseball player on top of the card. And if you turn the card around, the 3D model will turn as well.
Augmented Reality effects have been around for a while now, with software like ARToolKit (which is free to download) allowing anyone to create Augmented Reality videos in real time. However, the technology is only finding its feet, and there are many exciting applications that could be explored in the future.
One untapped application is thought to be in education, as textbooks could be made far more interesting and engaging. A child could literally watch a 3D volcano erupt rather than just look at a picture of one. It could also be used with your mobile phone webcam, displaying information about whatever it is you’re looking at, like restaurants and famous monuments.
I think we can be sure that Augmented Reality will be widely used in the future, although with the great variation in possible applications, it’s hard to imagine exactly how it’ll influence our day-to-day lives. Time will tell.
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[...] mentioned before on Camscape how Augmented Reality (or AR) could be used to make textbooks more appealing to children by using their webcam to turn books into a 3D experience. This is now starting to become a [...]