FLARToolKit augmented reality with Flash

While researching for a project, I’ve been searching the web lately for references to optical glyph tracking. I first learned of it while watching an episode of Prototype This. The project was to build robot boxers for a real-time match based on movements of two people who were “fake” boxing. They used glyph tracking in their system to convert their movements into robotic motions. Very cool.

Recently I found a link to a Saatchi & Saatchi website that lets you print out a special graphic so you can play with glyph tracking using your computer’s webcam. It uses a flash tool-kit called FLARToolKit which I haven’t looked into yet, but looks very promising as a starting point for playing around with the tech.

Bokode – the next Barcode?

There are just a few technologies for tracking object-tagged items: Barcode and RFID are at the top of the list. Each has its strengths & weaknesses but the biggest problem is that they can only be scanned at close range. (Note that some long-distance RFID solutions exist such as those used for car toll systems like EZ-Pass but these are expensive and require large, self-powered tags)

Some new work coming out of MIT’s Media Lab may change this. Called Bokode, the system uses the Bokeh optical effect which maps how rays entering an out-of-focus camera lens will converge onto the camera’s sensor.

To see the details, you’ll have to watch the attached video, but in essense the “tag” consists of an LED with an encoded optical pattern and a small cheap lens. An out-of-focus camera will see the data on the tag’s pattern, whether it is a digital code, an image, text or whatever. What’s more, the camera can also determine the angle of the object by doing some tricky optical calculations (which I don’t understand yet).

The tech is still in the development stage, but there is a development WIKI to exchange information among those interested in working more with it. Give it a read – looks like really fun stuff!