Keiichi Matsuda has created a haunting six-minute concept film called Hyper-Reality that takes augmented reality and corporate branding to its logical conclusion.

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I recently got to attend an exhibit at Huashan Creative Park in Taipei, Taiwan around horror manga master, Junji Ito.

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As people color in the picture in the coloring book, they'll be able to see a 3D model also get colored in as it sways and bounces on screen.

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Augmented reality is fun, albeit usually a bit contrived in execution at times. Like, okay, you have this design on a piece of paper that turns into a kitty when you look at it with your iPhone camera, but what are you supposed to do, carry the paper around with your everywhere? Of course, if you had the design on your fingernails, you could show off adorable 3D kitties every time you took a picture of yourself—and soon, you'll be able to do just that.

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It's no secret that the government is creepily watching you all the time, like that weird dude who was really into you in high school. Many people think Google Glass won't help the matter (cameras on you 24/7?) - but this new augmented reality browser for the Glass might actually solve your privacy problems, instead of exacerbating them.

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Pepsi recently installed incredible new technology at a bus stop in London and tricked commuters into running from approaching meteors, dodging tigers, and photographing a robot invasion. I would say they should implement this in New York, but my commute is already unreasonably harrowing.

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"I've been trying to take over Washington Square Park for a little over a week now, but it's overrun with Resistance portals, and I'm not powerful enough to shut them down," is something a crazy person, or someone playing Ingress would say. I wrote about the trailer for Ingress back in November. It's Google's Android augmented reality MMORPG. The game is still in closed beta, but I got an invite a little bit ago and I've been trying it out. I really have been trying to take over Washington Square Park. It will be mine, I tell you. Mine!

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The earliest it is likely we'll see any augmented reality glasses on store shelves is 2014. That's when the Google Glass augmented reality eyewear is supposed to become available to consumers, but that won't stop other companies like Microsoft from getting on board the smart glasses bandwagon early. A recent patent filed by Microsoft shows their take on augmented reality lenses. Hopefully all this excitement over souped-up eyewear leads to the return of Virtual Boy.

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Augmented reality certainly has some promise, but many of the examples that come to mind, while interesting, are a little trivial. The guys at Teehan+Lax are doing their best to buck that trend with their new Touch Vision Interface. Using the technology, you can point a mobile phone at a screen, draw on the phone's surface, and have the effect show up on the big screen in real-time.

While it's only reasonable to assume it requires software on both ends, they aren't ready to start talking about the nuts and bolts of what makes this technology work. Still, the results are pretty cool. It appears that the technology can actually be used to draw a single line across multiple screens that are visible to the phone's camera like dragging a mouse across a multi-screen desktop. What could this technology ultimately be used for? Perhaps personal interfaces for public terminals. Or public billboards that everyone can draw profanities on. Either one really. Hopefully both. Video of the tech in action after the jump.

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Now that most of us carry around touchscreen devices with cameras, it seems only natural that augmented reality becomes more prevalent in everyday life. There are AR dressing rooms, AR tattoos, AR translator software, and like all good technology, AR is now making its way into the apparel business. Zappar and Hybrid Apparel have teamed up to make Zapparel, a line of clothing that features AR amusements.

Take your standard iOS or Android device, install the Zapparel app, point the thing at someone's chest, and you'll instantly have access to a digital triviality of some sort or another. In the case featured above, it's a simple little game. Now, it's cool seeing this technology become more pervasive, but the AR -- while amusing -- is still pretty inconsequential, not to mention potentially awkward. It seems that the user has to keep the camera trained on the wearer and that the wearer has to stand still, resulting in a weird little stand off.

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Even for people who love to shop, trying on clothes in dressing rooms can be a trying experience. If you hate to shop, it can be a form of torture that should only be reserved for your worst enemies. The clothes don't sit right, the sizes seem off, or it doesn't look as good as it did on the rack. You could spend hours trying on clothes and still strike out, but would the experience be any better if you could try the clothes on without ever having to leave the comfort of your home? UK retailer Banana Flame has teamed up with software company Zugara to develop an augmented reality shopping experience that lets people try on the company's clothes while they shop online. Using a webcam and the e-commerce software Webcam Social Shopper, people looking for some new threads can see what the clothes would look like on them, and even ask friends for their opinions on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

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The above video is in Japanese, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be watched, as Sony shows off some impressive augmented reality. Called SmartAR, Sony's augmented reality system is able to identify arbitrary objects; as shown in the video, the system can identify a mug sitting on a table and have balls bounce out of it, then it identifies a book, which deflects the balls and changes their direction. In a later part of the demo, a woman points her smartphone at a book sitting on a table, which SmartAR identifies, then creates an interactive e-book on her phone. Make sure you watch to the end of the video, or at least skip to 4:35 into the video, where SmartAR turns the whole room into an augmented reality paradise.

Sadly, Sony doesn't disclose what kind of machine is running SmartAR (at least, not in English), so we're left wondering if it is consumer-affordable, or some kind of top secret rig that'll overthrow society and plug us into its impressive augmented reality, effectively keeping us in a vegetated state, but able to harvest our bodies for energy.

(via ExtremeTech)

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Trinity College student Keyosaurus (which is his YouTube moniker) mashed up Kinect body controls, a Wiimote and a bit of head tracking to control an augmented reality version of portal-less puzzling classic Tetris. The Kinect motions control most of the game, from zooming the camera to moving the tetraminoes, while the Wiimote rotates the pieces. For some reason, the video showing the hack in action doesn't play any of the instantly-recognizable Tetris themes, but blasts our ears with elevator music instead.

(PC World via Engadget)

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A new augmented reality interface, dubbed Twinkle, designed by researchers at Tokyo University and Keio University uses a camera to project a character onto a surface, who can then interact with obstacles featured on said surface, including pictures and shadows.

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The architects from the firm of Königsberger Vannucchi in Brazil needed a new way to help their clients visualize the buildings that they had commissioned, and they really liked augmented reality as a way of doing so. So they created the worlds largest AG marker (as verified by Guinness) in the lot where their skyscraper was going to be built, and then flew around it in a helicopter. Hey presto! Instant tower. You can watch their short video below.

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"Don't be ugly by accident" (OKCupid)

How Star Trek imagined the iPad 23 years ago (Ars)

Hot professors on the plight of being a hot professor (Chronicle)

Washington Post covers 4chan, LOIC imminent (Washington Post)

Voice cast for Fallout: New Vegas announced (Rawls!) (Bethesda)

25 worst pimped rides (Auto Mechanics' School)

Augmented Reality cookies (GammaSquad)

Bonus video: The Avengers as a '50s sci-fi flick:

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For anyone who has been wanting to add a little something extra to a plate of sugar cookies, designer Mike Clare has the perfect ingredient: augmented reality decorations. The two-toned dough pattern creates a small grid for coding the cookies for augmented reality. And while the dough is a basic recipe from The Joy of Cooking, the measurement and assembly are actually fairly complex.

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