Zooburst is a digital storytelling tool that is designed to let anyone easily create their own customized 3D pop-up books that can be visualized in augmented reality. The Zooburst framework will be available in early April 2010 for public beta use. For more information, and to sign up to be a beta tester, please visit the Zooburst project blog at http://blog.zooburst.com.
Here’s a quick video that describes the project in more detail.
Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve posted an article up here. I’ve been swamped with class, work, and preparing for some upcoming events, including the NJEDge.NET 11th Annual Faculty Best Practices Showcase (I’m the keynote speaker!) – mark your calendars (Friday March 12th) – it’s going to be a great event!
I’ve also been busy on a number of augmented reality projects, including experimenting with the Box2D physics engine and Flash. Here’s a real rough prototype video of how one could use a physics simulator to drive an augmented reality scene – in it I rotate a marker and use its orientation in space to affect the gravitational forces being exerted on a series of virtual objects.
Labryinth-style augmented reality game using Flash+Box2D
To check out a live demo, click here. Use the marker below to give it a try.
Here’s a quick demo shows an experimental AR system that lets people construct their own augmented reality spaces by manipulating a series of printed cards. The screenshot and video below showcase how this kind of system can be used to grow a small virtual garden on your desktop.
Creating a technocolor garden by moving around a series of printed cards
The eventual goal for this project is to create a series of physical manipulatives that can be used in a pediatric rehabilitation setting for recreation & therapy purposes. I’ll be sure to provide more information as we begin testing the AR environment with actual users in the weeks ahead.
The ‘Virtual Gardener’ (depicted below) is a very simple web-based 2D augmented reality game engine. Using color tracking in Flash, players can tend a virtual garden and grow a small patch of flowers by waving around a physical object in front of their webcam.
waterin' the virtual plants
The game is currently a very rough prototype and is missing all sorts of niceties (i.e. sound effects, scoring mechanisms, etc.) – hopefully I can refine this framework so that it can serve as the basis for a host of color-drive 2D AR games.
If you’d like to try it yourself feel free to click on the ‘Start’ button below. You will need a webcam and a solid colored object about 2″ by 2″ in order to play. When prompted, simply hold up this object so that it fits within the small rectangle in the middle of the screen. Once the object appears within this region, click on the button that appears to cause the game to “memorize” the color value of your object. From here you will be able to wave your object around in front of your webcam as though it was a mouse cursor.
Wow, it seems like a while since I’ve posted here – over the last few weeks I’ve been busy teaching a course on educational technology here in Cairo, Egypt for The College of New Jersey’s overseas program. I’m working with a great group of K-12 school teachers and administrators – I wish I could stay longer!
Hanging out by the pyramids of Giza on my day off!
