A few weeks ago I posted a summary of a conference panel entitled "The City as Gameboard" which featured a presentation by Blair MacIntyre. MacIntyre is a scholar in augmented reality (AR) and new media experience and, inspired by his talk, I wanted to point out two projects related to these themes.

The headgear pictured above is a prototype of Thesis Helmet (alpha), developed by E. Roon Kang as part of his studies at the Yale School of Art this past spring. This work creates a responsive, 3D tag cloud which is directed by head movement. To facilitate this interaction Kang jury rigged a controller out of the innards of a construction helmet, a Wiimote and infrared LEDs to track the angle and orientation of an operator's head. Amongst the documentation material for this project there is a video that is worth watching to get a sense of how the system works.

[E. Roon Kang / Thesis Helmet (alpha) - diagrams / 2008]

This demo is definitely screen-based rather than AR, but one could image this system as an information overlay. Nonetheless, the project is a humorous meditation on the perception of an introspective designer (or obsessed student). This venture is a followup to a 2007 project 50 Words in Relation in which Kang explored his vocabulary of interests as a designer. This fascination with networks reminds me of what is so great about many of Bestiario's interfaces.

Kijin Shin and Youngbin Lim's The Third Eye is a speculative AR system designed for tourists. This project proposes a monocle which, when peered into, reveals information about the visible landscape. The device can be set to "commercial" or "tourist" modes, and the contents and tone of the display respond accordingly. In the comments of the project page linked above Shin contextualizes the work as follows:

One of the reasons to travel is curiosity and expectation about new experiences of unknown places. Nevertheless, all our fears missing out on adventures by moving to the cities are obligated by whole travel experiences. In order to have a better journey in a strange city, people makes huge effort to prepare and collect information about a destination before they leave. Moreover, it is not so difficult to imagine about your backpack heavily loaded with a thick guidebook, map, and devices. Now, here we suggest you the very simple and smart device for your travel.

Be sure to check out the documentation of The Third Eye as the drawings are sharp.

Bonus Links: Since "augmented" is the topic of the day, Annie Ok just shared a 2008 AR Wrap Up link with me via twitter. Her blog is also a great source of information for AR and progressive gaming news.