With projects such as Google Glass and rumoured competitors from Microsoft, Sony, Vuzix and more expected to hit the markets sometime during 2014 and 15, all eyes are on the Augmented Reality (AR) scene.
With Google Glass-like projects, Augmented Reality would become an always-on, hands-free technology and so any progress in this technological realm may hold some significance for the future. Little did we expect, however, that the next innovation would spur from the 8 million strong (official) Minecraft gaming community.
The new application, Minecraft Reality, produced by game maker, MOJANG in concert with 13th lab, allows users to place models from Minecraft into the real world using high-accuracy, perspective-correct Augmented Reality. Take a look.
We've yet to try the app ourselves, as it's currently available only on the iPhone (we suspect this may have something to do with known camera apertures and the computer vision code-base). It's clear from the demonstration, however, that the app offers a level of consistency rarely witnessed in today's AR, just imagine what might be possible with a project like Google Glass, if it sampled and processed information from GPS, Compass and Video and twice or thrice the rate to achieve similar results with unrestricted movement - what a future!
Of course, for Minecraft users, the app is just a means to cut-down on their ever growing lego budgets.