The video embedded above is pretty easy to follow despite being a screencast of a complex design application. The developer simply drags and drops a few elements onto the screen to initialize the video input device, recognize a marker, and incorporate a 3D model of a teapot. After connecting a few dots and tweaking some settings, we see the teapot appearing on an AR marker via the developer's webcam.
The experience itself is not the impressive thing - fans of AR have seen webcams place objects on black and white makers for a while now. What is interesting about this video is how quickly and easily the plugins for Quartz made what is normally a fairly complex process of programming an AR app.
This application is an innovative implementation of the ARToolKit, a free and open-source library for creating AR apps created in 1999. Just as SDKs for platforms like the iPhone make mobile app development much easier, these types of plugins for visual design tools will make the development of AR apps quick and easy. The easier (and cheaper) it is to develop AR applications, the faster the technology will grow and the more exposure it will receive in the public eye.
Source: readwriteweb
When looking for a cheap, reliable way to track
In 2008, before most people knew what a tweet was, Iain Dodsworth, a Within a few months, it gained the kind of momentum most entrepreneurs
only dream about. Tech bloggers praised it, and users flocked to it.
Ashton Kutcher posted a video online showing him and his wife, Demi Moore,
using the service.
But then Mr. Dodsworth received a message from a company he did recognize: Betaworks, a New York City technology firm known for its eye for emerging Web services.
“Money is nice, but I actually needed expertise more than anything else,” he said. “Betaworks had a track record in this field back when no one had a track record in this field.”
In the two years since then, Betaworks has become prominent in New York technology circles for helping entrepreneurs fine-tune and expand their companies. The company has guided some entrepreneurs to lucrative sales and helped others raise cash from notable New York and Silicon Valley investment firms.
Such incubators are familiar in more established tech hubs. Silicon Valley, for example, has the technology incubator Y Combinator, and Pasadena has Idealab.
Chances are on social media. Your local restaurant is blogging, your grocery storeBut how about other businesses? Manufacturers? B2B service providers? Equine dentists? Are they experimenting with social media?
You bet. Here are five examples, all at different stages of their experiments, and all indicating the breadth of business use of social media.
Source: Mashable
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