During the SIGGRAPH 2011 conference in Vancouver this week, a team comprised of researchers from various universities showed off a demo during a Microsoft Research presentation of how the Kinect Xbox 360 accessory can be used in the real world to create real-time dynamic 3D models. The project, dubbed “KinectFusion,” shows off the Kinect’s ability to render 3D models of an entire room nearly instantly as one researcher pans the accessory around. After the device has scanned the entire area, ...

Layar, the company behind the popular augmented reality app for the iPhone and Android smartphones, announced on Monday that Layar 5.0 is available. The latest iteration allows users to share screen shots — of anything they view through the application — through Facebook or Twitter. Layar 5.0 also provides new animation capabilities, which means some layer content can come to life in 3D form. Coincidentally, we were using Layar this weekend while walking around a new town, and while we find it much easier...

A team of German developers is doing some pretty interesting work with Kinect thanks to the OpenNI open source framework, which allows programmers to build applications utilizing the technology surrounding Microsoft’s Kinect sensor. The team of researchers from the Technical University of Munich has created an augmented reality app dubbed Magic Mirror that allows a user to view a simulated x-ray of his or her skeleton. Using a CT scan from an anonymous patient, the app tracks the user’s motions al...

It seems that an AR-like capability within Mobile Safari has gone pretty much unnoticed (or at least unimplemented by a third party) until now. Occipital, a company that has developed a panoramic photo iPhone app, has come across the new feature in Safari for iOS 4.2 devices, and it’s related to the gyroscope. If you have an iOS device with a gyropscope (iPhone 4, latest iPod touch) you can try a live demo for yourself. It’s ridiculously impressive, and by using the gryoscope and a panorama image,...

Could there possibly be a better way to introduce the world to an app that locates sex offenders? Antoine Dodson, who inadvertently earned a place in the Web video hall of fame as a result of the Internet phenomenon Bed Intruder Song, does his best to keep America’s children safe by introducing the world to Sex Offender Tracker. The mobile app makes users aware of local sex offenders using a nifty augmented reality interface that… Seriously, just hit the jump for the video and let Antoine tell you...

Sure it looks a bit odd in the image above, but don’t be fooled — Layar’s preview of its updated AR interface is as cool as the other side of the pillow. What’s better than augmented reality? 3D augmented reality, of course. We told you about Layar’s AR browser for Android back in August and since then, it looks like the Layar team has really kicked things up a notch. This morning, Layar released three new videos that preview its new 3D augmented reality browser that is currently...

Augmented Reality is quickly becoming a hot ticket item in the mobile world and we’ve seen various nifty applications of the technology previewed recently. The key of course, is finding useful and valuable ways to apply AR concepts to mobile devices. Today, a preview of another infinitely useful AR app is making the rounds and we’re digging it big time. While the app name isn’t overly creative — Augmented Traffic Views — the application itself is fantastic. Built for the Android ...

Ok, seriously… Layar kicks ass. Big time. Sure you look ridiculous swinging your phone around to see which new icons jump onto the screen, but it’s totally worth it. For those who haven’t yet heard of Layar, here’s how it works: Using the camera on your Android handset, Layar displays the world around you with an added layer of location-based content on top. So if you search Google or Yelp for a restaurant, the Layar browser will plot results in a 3D layer above the live video displaye...