PeauProductions

So some of you may remember a small post I did back in January mentioning using FLAR, and I am finnally getting around to having some time to tinker with it.
For those of you who dont know, the FLAR project brings Augmented Reality to Flash usually using the 3D library Papervision3D. There is a good tutorial here by Mikko Haapajo and a good video by the gotoandlearn.com team here.

I made up a first test using the below pattern:

Which I printed out and stuck to a tall candle. Then I just made some simple Papervision3D app of two planes with some bitmaps on them that rotate. The video of the test is below:

Just some fun to start with.

Here are some comparison shots showing just how much better the PS3 camera is once you replace the OEM lens:

(Setup: Outside, midday)

Left: OEM__________Right: 3.6mm m12 Lens

OEM Lens

3.66mm m12 Lens

The perfect focus of the after-market lens is important when trying to get very accurate blobs in optical-based multitouch setups, and also when using fiducial patterns like those used by the Reactivision Team.
For finger tracking, the OEM lens can work fine, but should really only be used if on a tight budget, as the results from the more focused image will be better.
Here are some comparison shots using both lenses in a MT table:

(m12 lens)

(Comparison: OEM on left, m12 on right)
The reason why the OEM looks in focus is because the camera is only a few inches from the hand. Once you move away from it more, the image will go out of focus quickly, thus setups with the camera more than a few inches away won’t be in focus.

(OEM lens)

(3.66mm m12 lens)

(2.1mm m12 lens – Fisheye/Wide Angle)

(OEM lens)

(m12 lens)

So as you can see, the screen shots support what I said before. The OEM lens can work for either really short camera distances, or for finger tracking systems that dont need high accuracy.

My store carries both m12 and OEM moddified cameras, so be sure to check it out and let me know if you have any questions.