…diary of a weirdo

Yesterday I gave you an introduction to AR (Augmented Reality) and what is possible with this technology. Today I want to introduce you to FLARtoolKit. FLARToolKit is an ActionScript 3 port of the open source library ARToolKit with which you can build your own AR applications. With FLARToolKit you can build easily great AR applications using Flash/Flex in combination with you favorite 3D Flash Engine which means that thanks to Saqoosha, a Japanese coder, we can experience beautiful AR in our browsers. View Saqoosha’s new year’s greetings in the video or print out a marker and try it yourself.

In the next few weeks I will try myself on the FLARTToolKit and post some examples on how to build AR applications with Flex and Papervision3D.

Enjoy

Recently I have been researching on AR (Augmented Reality) which is in my opinion currently the most interesting trend in the industry. According to Wikipedia AR is

… a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with-, or augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality.

So what does THAT now mean? It is not virtual reality as some might think. Virtual reality is composed purely of computer generated elements whereas AR uses pictures (video feeds) of the real world and superimposes computer generated elements on it.

Some of you might have actually already experienced AR in one way or the other. The first time I got in touch with it was a game on my Nokia phone a few years back (can’t remember which one it was) that used the phone’s camera to build the environment of the game. Upon the camera feed were little 3D viruses generated that I had to shoot and by moving the phone I would move within the game’s environment.

AR has many applications and it will change a gamers experience soon. The guys from NVIDIA already started (with others) to develop a unique gaming experience. Let’s take “ARhrrr!”  for example: This game is a project from Georgia Tech and SCAD-Atlanta. The game is developed for the new Tegra by NVIDIA and uses the Tegra’s camera to build a gaming environment on a printed city map. In this city you, the player, have to protect citizens from zombies. The device represents a helicopter in the gaming environment and you can even use real-life Skittles as ammunition. I think it is a bit hard to explain the game itself so here’s a demo video of it:

But the use of AR is not limited to games only. It can be used in many different ways. One company working a lot with AR is Total-Immersion and has lots and lots of examples of use including digital marketing, publishing and education.

One of my favorite marketing applications using AR is “Living Sasquatch“. Many of you may know the advertisements “Messin with Sasquatch” and with Living Sasquatch you can make your own little video with Sasquatch in your own room. All you need is a webcam a printer and you’re good to go. Try it out.

In the future I think that AR will be present everywhere. Scientists are currently researching on digital contact lenses that can show you your vital signs directly in your sight. Though it will take a few years until a first prototype is ready, this idea alone brought up many other applications such as integrations with your phone or pocket PC or the like. Furthermore we can expect at least glasses with AR capabilities much earlier than the contact lenses, as the application of AR on glasses is much easier than on lenses. I myself will probably come up soon with my own little test applications and I already have several ideas how to use this wonderful technology to build interactive websites.

Just a quick dump of a recommendation I got earlier.

Process Monitor is a very useful tool if you need to see what processes are using which resources on your machine. Here’s a short overview from the website

Overview of Process Monitor Capabilities

Process Monitor includes powerful monitoring and filtering capabilities, including:

• More data captured for operation input and output parameters
• Non-destructive filters allow you to set filters without losing data
• Capture of thread stacks for each operation make it possible in many cases to identify the root cause of an operation
• Reliable capture of process details, including image path, command line, user and session ID
• Configurable and moveable columns for any event property
• Filters can be set for any data field, including fields not configured as columns
• Advanced logging architecture scales to tens of millions of captured events and gigabytes of log data
• Process tree tool shows relationship of all processes referenced in a trace
• Native log format preserves all data for loading in a different Process Monitor instance
• Process tooltip for easy viewing of process image information
• Detail tooltip allows convenient access to formatted data that doesn’t fit in the column
• Cancellable search
• Boot time logging of all operations

You can find the tool here

Finially… After a long long period of silence I got myself back together and now I’ll start to write again.

A few months ago I started to develop with Adobe Flex. Quite interesting and sort of easy to use but I got really interested when I stumbled upon Away3D and Papervision3D. Those two are 3D engines for Flash… yes… 3D and not like the good old Shockwave Flash. No, fully fledged “high” performance 3D engines even suitable to program little games with them. I was amazed by the capabilities of those two engines and directly dove into developing small test applications and I am currently working on two websites using Papervision3D.

I will post more in the next few weeks about my progress in developing those two applications but in the meantime you can check out some really cool websites developed with PPV3D and Away3D:

Away3D

Eminem’s new album has broken records, and this amazing interactive adventure website lets you discover and immerse yourself in Eminem’s sick musical world.

Some superb 3D User Interface ideas can be seen at AIRFORCE.com’s Supercar site.

Powerflasher’s “PDF Book 3D” tool uses Away3D to breathe fresh air into your run-of-the-mill 2D page flip book viewer

Papervision3D

Nascar and the United States Air Force, the work was performed for GSD&M Idea City out of Austin, Texas.

Site for a band that already broke up in 1986

Don’t you just love those scam emails? To many they are obvious but unfortunately there are still a few fools out there that fall for it. This is what I received today and I fell laughing off of my chair:

BARRISTER FRED JACK

Tel: 27 73 802 2624

Sandton South Africa.

BUSINESS OF MUTUAL BENEFIT.

My name is Fred Jack, personal Attorney to late Mr. Adams Walker,a national of your country who died along with his wife and his Two sons in a a plane crash.

My late client left behind a deposit of Ten Million, Two Hundred Thousand United States Dollars($10,200,000.00usd) in his domiciliary bank account in a bank here in South Africa.

After the death of my client ,his bankers contacted me as his Attorney to provide his next of kin who should inherit his fortune.

The bankers had planned to invoke the abandoned property decree of 1996 to confiscate the funds after the expiration of the period given to me.

I seek your consent to present you as the Next of Kin to the Deceased since you are at an advantage as nationals from the same country, so that the proceeds of this Bank Account valued at $10.2 Million Dollars can be paid to you.

We shall both share the fund, 35% to me and 60% to you, while 5% should be for Expenses or Tax as your Government may require, I shall assemble all the necessary Legal Documents that will be used to back up our claim .

I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law.

Please get in touch with me by telephone or email to enable us discuss further.

Best Regards,
Fred Jack Esq.

Geneva/Jerusalem/Tel Aviv (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is maintaining most of its humanitarian activities in Gaza while trying to clarify the circumstances under which one of its convoys came under fire on 8 January.

Gaza: ICRC medics work on

I wonder how many war-crimes the Israeli Forces have to commit before someone seriously will hold them accountable for them…

Geneva (ICRC) – Ambulances in Gaza must be given systematic round-the-clock access to the wounded everywhere in the territory so that they can save as many lives as possible, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, said today.

Gaza: life-saving ambulances must be given unrestricted access to the wounded

When I saw the reporter throwing the shoes at Mr. Bush I had only one question in mind… what is the secret service taking so long?

Think about it…

EDIT: Unfortunately we still don’t have any news about my friend but some wheels are turning now but I cannot say anything to this point. My friend finally got released. However the issue continues. He won’t be the only one it seems.

Why are you treating your citizens like this? What are you afraid of?

About 2 weeks ago a friend of mine got arrested because someone spray painted anarchist slogans on some wall. Really not a graffiti merely some tagging, pretty ugly. Although my friend was innocent (well he has anarchist ties… but so what? Lots of others do have to and they didn’t get arrested) he was placed under “Administrative Arrest” and was not allowed to talk to anyone not even a lawyer. After a while (we were all worried about what might happen to him) he then finally got announced to be released about a week ago (just before Eid) but not as an innocent man. Although there is no evidence whatsoever that could prove that my friend did the spray painting he then was put under house arrest for 3 months.

So now we have an innocent young man being treated as a criminal because someone unknown has spray painted a wall and my friend was put under house arrest. Ok, nothing anyone can do about it because it seems that the Jordanian authorities can do anyway whatever they want with their citizens, but my friend decided to play by the rules rather than revolting against that ridiculous sentencing. He went home every day on time and didn’t break the law.

Now about a half hour ago another friend of mine delivered me a message:
“they took [Friend-X] from his work about an hour ago”

Not surprisingly I was shocked by this. Why did they take him this time? I mean his hair is cut now, so it cannot be that (in the past the police and mukhabarat have harassed him numerous times just because of his hair). Did someone do another spray paint somewhere?

Jordan claims to be a modern country, with modern views, laws and uprising economy. Jordan likes to blind the rest of the world with big construction projects and tourism. But Jordan is still decades away from being a modern country. It lacks one very important ingredient: Human Rights!!! Arresting innocent people without any evidence of crime and still putting them under a sentence is a violation of basic freedom. I mean hey, why not… let’s go around and arrest everyone we just don’t like.

Is Jordan really that afraid that they have to go around and arrest small time people that just try to live their lives somehow; Yes my friends and I do have a different lifestyle than what probably many in the Jordanian government like to see but yet we are not criminals. We do not impose a threat on anyone; We are peaceful and happy people (well happy except for the authorities always stomping on our feet. This stomping does not limit to political arrests, just have a look at what happened during Ramadan, the closure of many restaurant-pubs).

I am sorry Jordan, but please give us the freedom of expression and the freedom to live our lives as we choose to and we chose to live peacefully without harming anyone, apparently you chose to live your life not in peace but in war with everyone who does not live by YOUR standards. Not standards of law but standards of a life-style.

EDIT: I received several comments after I also posted this on Facebook. This is what others had to say (I re-posted the comments as they are and I’m not responsible for any typos or the like; to protect the identity of the authors I have not disclosed their names):

“Dear Jordan,
Why is it that the governor of Amman has the right to put any one in prison (administrative arrest) for an indefinite amount of time with out charging him/tacking him to court?

Why is it that the “law enforcement” can send any one to jail through the process of administrative arrest, simply by clamming that they suspect him of a crime?

Why is it acceptable to send some one to jail for not liking how they look like?

Why is it that my friend was sent to prison for 10 days and placed under house arrest for 3 months with out being charged of anything, with out seeing a judge, with out having the right to appeal or protest and with out having the right of legal representation?

How is that democracy Jordan?” – A.H

“Dear Jordan:
i have no comment, i am not shocked, i have nothing but pity..there is a reason why i left, and there is a reason i’m in no hurry to return.

I’d happily give up my passport/citizenship to live in Palestine where they openly admit we have no rights as citizens, humans or Palestinians, because of the Israely occupation, rather than hold a passport to a country that fabricates lies, over taxes its poor, starves the hungry, stuffs the rich pigs, allows some *name* privileged boy to shoot someone in the face, jails someone for having an opinion, stares a woman down in the street, treats children like a burden, allows illiterate fucks to hold influential jobs, closes down shops/bars/restaurants because of someone’s choices, changes laws and bends rules at will conveniently, sells precious land to other countries, hold treaties with enemies, gives passports/visas to 1st world countries and denies it’s neighboring sister country, pays a foreigner more for holding a passport, discriminates, raises prices at any given time, allows the drunks with connections to drive/ kill / hold an unliscenced gun, and is still the only country where HONOUR KILLING IS LEGAL.

This is exactly why they will stay a 3rd world country, with the majority of the population hating the government, spiting on the law, & leaving with no return.

I have no hate, I have no solutions, I hold no answers, I just know that this is plainly mind blowing obvious that there is something wrong with the system, and the system was created by the people, and the people are a production of society. People should blame themselves for ALLOWING this to have come this far, I take part of the blame for choosing to leave rather than help in change, but when you’re only allowed to be dumb, deaf and mute in a surrounding where you have no authority to do anything, you look around and say fuck it, I’ll be a secretary in the Emirates, mistaken for a terrorist in the US, treated like an outsider in Europe, be in exile in Australia, or live in a blur in Asia, rather than being a dazed executive assistant in some money laundry, corrupt, enslaving company.

I’d appreciate it if people took this as is, not read between the lines and don’t raise eye-brows, because you have simply thought this at one point.

I don’t need your approval on my opinion, I’m speaking out, I have a right to in my own mind. More power to you if you disagree, even greater power to the stronger of my peers who are in Jordan now living this, battling it, surviving it and still breathing. And no I’m not over-exaggerating.

Thank you Mozzy, i was begging to worry about our friend again, now i know, someone fucked up is on his case yet again.” – B

“Dear Jordan
your favorite bitch is Amman, loaded with plastic faces and ugly,dark blue,stupid men proud of their blck stinky mostage, cold white buildings constructed by paid slaves to keep the filth of the city safe and untouched. expensive cars driven by fat cell phones running over children on traffic lights ,on the radios voices screaming for mercy mixed with uploads and cheers for prostitution and the political masterbation

I know that my words may not make any sense but … I still have more and more to say but I dont think that you’ll ever get it

leave us alone and we’ll be happy ……….. yes maybe we have to leave, I know that there is worse in this world but I’d rather suffer in a place that I chose, I never chose you, I might come back but believe me if I do I won’t shut my mouth till Im dead.

Sam7oooona” – B.O.