Autodesk Labs Software Developer, Eddy Kuo, and Technical Evangelist from the office of the CTO, Brian Pene, have been working on augmented reality. Augmented reality is the ability to add 3D computer models to real world scenes. This is typically made possible by inserting a marker into a scene, viewing the scene with a video camera, and using computer software to replace the marker with an image of the model. As the marker is moved, the computer model is correspondingly moved, and the streaming video is updated. All of this happens in real time. By now you've all seen the motorcycle demo from AU:
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YXdjNofHgI
non-YouTube: Download through_the_screen.mp4 (2940.1K)
Prior to AU, Brian Pene filmed an architectural-based demo of this at our Customer Briefing Center at One Market Street in San Francisco. I placed a low quality version of his video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCtP8QOrjgM
For you non-YouTubers or those who want a higher quality movie, you can see the view as:
Exploring another way to experience a design before it is real is alive in the lab.