Video courtesy of The Gadget Show.

What do you get when you mix Battlefield 3 with an omni-directional treadmill, full dome projection screen, motion tracking, wireless gun controller, 12 paintball markers, and surround sound? YOU GET THE MOST IMMERSIVE VIDEO GAME TO DATE!!!!

Some of the top technology experts in Europe got a hold of a pre-release copy of Battlefield 3 to make this beast of a system. The simulator drops you in the actual battle zone where every bullet fired by the enemy might actually make contact. This adds a hell of a lot more anxiety before you decide to rush that bunker!

If you are in the UK, make sure to catch them on The Gadget Show, Channel 5 at 8pm on October 24th. I truly hope that this is a feat of engineering and not one of good marketing, I look forward to seeing it in action live.

Using AR technology, the guys at Corridor Digital have developed a totally new way to experience the heat of battle. Complete with bullet animations, sound effects, and a heads-up-display, LASER Academy fully immerses the players into a lifelike shootout.

It also looks like they are planning to have a large scale game in November, check out for updates. You know I’ll be there.

Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock (and assuming your rock doesn’t have WiFi access) just knows. The news of Steve Job’s passing has exploded across the internet with tribute videos, old video viewings, and news blasts in the form of tweets, posts, and updates at an all time high. With one of the most poignant and impactful memorials ever created for… ANYONE on Apple’s homepage, the news hit the tech and consumer world with an impact that exceeded that of The King of Pop’s recent passing. But not to embark on an Apples to oranges argument, the influence of Apple Computers has had, in the tech consumer world, been undeniably profound with Steve Jobs at the forefront.

As also posted on Techzulu (with an Immersive Technologies take on the bottom of this article):

Steve Jobs, CEO, Chariman, and Co-Founder of Apple led nothing short of an extraordinary life with significant ups and downs. From sleeping on floors and collecting recyclables during his adolescent years, to being fired from the very company he founded, the peak moments of his professional career had seen him build not only THE largest computer company in the world, but also one of the most largest film studios (Pixar) as well. Upon news of his resignation as Apple’s CEO in 2011, it was also announced that Jobs was a victim of pancreatic cancer with public disclosure of his declining health. But even through that, he continued to serve as Chairman for Apple’s board of directors until the very end.

So whether you loved or hated Jobs, use a Mac or a PC, love the svelte aesthetics of your Macbook Pro, or prefer the full control of your Android based device, there is no denying Steve Jobs and Apple’s influence on the consumer tech-space. So for your reading enjoyment, we’ve compiled a list of neat Steve Jobs related factoids, some of which you may already know, some you may not. Paying respect to a truly inspirational figure.

“The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.” – President Barack Obama

R.I.P Steve Jobs 1955-2011

1. As of July 2001, Apple had over $4.2 billion in cash. Today? More than $76 billion in cash; 2 billion MORE than the US Treasury.
2. Steve Jobs studied calligraphy at Reed College and dropped out early in his educational career. He directly attributed influence a calligraphy class for the typeface and spacing of his Apple products.
3. The reaction to Steve Jobs’ death was recorded in record breaking numbers. 10,000 tweets per second following news of his death on Wednesday night.
4. The trending search item: “pancreatic cancer” reached Google’s rankings at #2 in a span of one night.
5. As of June 2011, there have been 25 million iPads sold cumulatively since its introduction in April 2010.
6. To date, 14 billion apps have been downloaded via the App Store. In April 2010, just about 1.5 years ago, the number was at 4 billion. Right around when the iPad was launched.
7. Despite lackluster buzz, the most recent iPhone 4S got 200,000 pre-orders in just 12 hours.
8. Jobs purchased animated studio ‘Pixar’ at $5M from Lucasfilms in 1986. In 2006, he sold Pixar to Disney for $7.6B and became Disney’s biggest shareholder.
9. Apple made the first mass-market color digital camera in 1994. The camera had no digital display, boasted one megapixel, took a total of eight photos, and cost $749.
10. Apple is the 2nd largest company in the world, right behind Exxon-Mobil.

And the ImTech take (please note this is my personal opinion and perception):

Steve Jobs’ Apple products have directly and indirectly influenced a huge spur in development and awareness of immersive technologies. The iPhone entered into the peak of a mobile industry monster that ran on button interfaces, and maybe sometimes, styluses. In just a few short years, they made touch-based interfaces the standard. Along with the iPod touch, multi-touch tracking pads and mouse, and the iPad; these devices fueled a continual growth in interest for touch-based computing further moving consumers away from the conventional (and aging) buttons and mouse.

The iPad and Macbook Air and the convenience of personal computing: Prior to the introduction and upgrades of these products, you were forced to choose between portable and lackluster, or powerful and inconvenient. The introduction of unobtrusive product offerings for personal computing that actually could handle a reasonable workload has been key, especially considering that the tablet and netbook market was small and slow to adopt. In addition, the iPad has played a huge role in the tablet industry BOOM.

Also, keep in mind the huge spur in momentum for the Augmented Reality industry from the iphone/iPad boom.  Prior to the iPhone, even the constant action of holding phones in the air (to seek & view visual digital information overlayed on the physical world) didn’t exist. The app store model and popularity of the iPhone also led to strong competitive development by Google’s Android OS and their (more open-source friendly) brand of products contributing to the augmented reality industry.

We can also discuss the iPhone as a technological extension of one’s self (human-android relationship) (there’s an app for that). The iPhone entered into a niche market of smart phone users at a high buy-in price Now, the prominence of smart phones (with touch-interfaces no doubt) is ubiquitous. We use our phones to guide us (GPS) and our decisions (Yelp); to schedule, document, then broadcast our lives, and to connect to others. Smart phones have become our first full-time extension of our physical forms within the digital space. (When’s the last time you put down your phone?)

And let’s not forget the influence on the development of the Android OS industry – whole industries and markets created to compete against Apple iOS. Some might enjoy the open source availability and rootability of Android’s devices, and maybe they curse Apple’s proprietary nature and marked up prices of their products. But no matter what side you’re on and what you prefer, we can at least mildly agree that the quality of Android’s operating system has been strongly influenced by the iPhone’s success… competition breeds continual innovation. From both sides.

And finally, we speak on the widespread adoption of 3D media. While Apple didn’t invent 3D technology, the wide monetary success of 3D animated films by Pixar (and a consistent growth of quality 3D productions by other studios) has given the 3D industry such a strong demand that 3D media appears to be rapidly on its way to being the standard.

I understand Apple doesn’t necessarily invent these breaking technologies, nor are they ever the first do adopt/implement. Instead, they do seem to be the ones to set the standard. So whether you admired Jobs’ vision, or thought he was pompus and abrasive, own Mac products, or prefer performance per dollar over aesthetics; I’d like to point out just the same to everyone how influential it appears Apple has been on the Immersive Technologies space as a whole.

Kyle McDonald and Arturo Castro have come up with a piece of software that will change your ugly mug into someone else’s via your webcam and a picture of the person. The results are both amazing and creepy.

But why is it immersive? This takes us one step closer to having lifelike avatar control. Imagine hanging out in a virtual world full of avatars and having a conversation with someone across the globe complete with realistic facial expressions; beats the hell out of a phone call! The software is built with open source code so here is your invitation to experiment!

Here is a video of their take on a scramble suit inspired by the novel A Scanner Darkly

Augmented Reality (AR) applications are on their way to the Apple App Store! Qualcomm has updated their AR Software Development Kit (SDK) to work with iOS. This allows for developers to now make high quality AR apps using Apple’s Xcode and Unity 3. Support is for the iPad 2, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and 4th Gen iPod touch.

The upgraded SDK will continue to work with devices running Android 2.1 or higher.

Intelligent Decisions Inc. has announced that it is going to use the Inertial Labs OSv3 inertial sensor to provide tracking information in its new training simulator for the US Army. What makes this system better than any of the ones proposed before it is the high fidelity of movement that is made possible through the use of this particular sensor. Soldiers, leaders, and even whole units will be able to train while all of their natural hand and body movements are accurately represented in the virtual world, a must to make this a truly immersive system.

Video courtesy of Intelligent Decisions: www.intelligent.net

Considering I had literally no idea what I was getting myself into only a few days prior to accepting the invitation and heading out to The Playa, I was (beyond) pleasantly surprised with my experience in Black Rock City. Across the board, I could not believe the amazing amount of collaboration that went on between attendees. For those who are not familiar with the overarching concepts of Burning Man, there are ten principles that everyone is to uphold; among them are radical inclusion, decommodification, communal effort, and gifting. These guiding principles create a friendly atmosphere like no other place on earth.

I also thoroughly enjoyed how much innovation there was in such a desolate place. The mad scientists come out in full force with mutant vehicles, towering structures, and eye-catching art displays galore to display for the masses. Because their efforts, for the most part, are only enjoyed one week out of the year, it is clear that they do it out of passion. It made me feel good inside to think about how everyone who built one of these things was doing it for the greater good of the festival. I truly believe now that some of the best things ever built are not for compensation but are out of selflessness and compassion.

Our contribution to the festival was a 12-piece band that played almost every night. Although I was not able to contribute to the actual musical portion of our camp, I tried to help in other areas so that things kept running smoothly. In all honestly, my favorite part was seeing the smiles of those who stopped by to listen, many of whom stayed for the remainder of the set. I must say, our band was undoubtedly one of the most entertaining stops to see in the whole city.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my Playa family, The Crossroads Camp, as well as all of the other great people I met that made my first burn an experience that I will hold on to for the rest of my life! You guys and gals were absolutely amazing and the sum of all our parts was truly a force to be reckoned with. Thank you all SO much and I look forward to seeing you all again in the near future!

Love, ya boy, Casey.

We had the opportunity to attend SIGGRAPH 2011, Vancouver this past week and were really happy with what we saw. It takes a certain level of innovation to excite us at this stage of the game but the exhibitors this year definitely did not disappoint. The video above is a compilation of just some of the things we got to see in the Emerging Technologies section of the event.

Since it is not entirely clear what the functions of everything in the video is, I will do my best to explain each briefly in order here:
(please keep in mind that some of these names are not official)

Face-to-Avatar: A blimp that houses a projector, microphone, and camera for new age telepresence applications. It can display either a static image or a stream being sent to its on board wireless receiver.
Cyclone Display: A display that spins disks with different patterns on them. The speed of the disk, along with the speed that the projector is flickering at, determines what colors you will see. Essentially each disk is a sort of pixel.
ISCAN3D: A 3D scanner for your iPhone that works in a few minutes on just input from 5-30 pictures.
InteractiveTop: A twist on the game of tops with graphics and sounds galore. It tracks the collisions and features a magnetic controller for each top too.
Mommy Tummy: A strap on tummy that is used to simulate both the joys and stresses of pregnancy.
Recompose: Actuated Surface: A series of actuators that can be controlled using gestures as well as direct manipulation.
Vection Field: A device that can influence pedestrians to walk in a certain direction by displaying a certain dynamic pattern.
Toucheo: An immersive multi-touch workstation that can be used to easily manipulate 3D assets.
Telenoid: A telepresence robot that can transmit voice and facial movements and is neither male nor female, young nor old.
Virtual Crepe Maker: A haptic representation of fluid dynamics that has been made fun by the crepe making game.
True 3D Display: A 3D display that uses laser-plasma technology to output a virtual object with the amazing resolution of 50,000 points per second. (A part broke in transit and they only were able to operate it at half of its capability.
Thermal Interactive Media: A display that senses the temperature of its input and reacts accordingly.
PocoPoco: A new age musical interface and sequencer with 16 solenoids that are loaded with sensors.
HAPMAP: A sort of haptic navigation in which the user holds a device in their hand which simulates the feeling of sliding your hand along a railing. The “rail” is on a pivoting actuator so that it can steer the user in the right direction.