Throughout the summer, we’ve covered some of the highlights of Bruce Sterling’s Layar-sponsored AR design class at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

As all good things must come to an end, so has this class, but not without some impressive final student projects! Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be sharing videos of these projects as well as footage from last week’s class presentations with Layar strategist Gene Becker making a guest appearance to offer comments and feedback. You can read all our posts related to the Design Class here.

These next two videos were made by students Shi Jie (CJ) Lim, Shih-Hao (Tony) Chiu and Ailun (Karen) Chiu for a mobile app concept called Dobu Dobu. The first video is a demo of the Dobu Dobu virtual pet-making layer (not yet public), and the second is a concept video for a magical 3D Augmented Reality experience centered around interacting with your virtual pets. 

Perhaps Dobu Dobu is the Tamagochi of the future…

Dobu Dobu Prototype Video from Zooproot on Vimeo.

Dobu Dobu from Zooproot on Vimeo.

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On the first Thursday of the month, Layar hosts Augmented Reality Thursday (ART) at our headquarters here in Amsterdam. The objective of this monthly event is to inspire and update people about the current field of Augmented Reality and Layar’s position within it. 

Next to that, we want to connect developers, publishers, brands and (of course) our employees to exchange stories, visions and ideas. 

The setting is very informal (so NO chairs, long presentations or tea-breaks), and the event is free (plus, we supply the beer, wine and snacks) so it’s always a lot of fun! 

We took a short break from hosting ART this summer while bearing down on some exciting new projects, but we’re back with a vengeance on September 1!

Speaking of those “exciting projects,” this coming ART features an introduction by Layar Co-founder and General Manager Maarten Lens-FitzGerald as well as a presentation about the new Layar Vision beta from our R&D department’s Michael Hofmann. Also, just added to the lineup, ARtist Sander Veenhof will showcase one of his new projects, Augmentizer, that he recently introduced at the Lowlands Festival. Come check out the demos, ask questions, and tell us what you think!

After this (as we don’t like to hear ourselves talk and are very curious to hear what you are working on), we’ll resume asking the community to give a short presentation or two each month. If you’d like to present at one of our ART events, please drop us an email at events@layar.com. 

Cool demos, free booze and a chance to make some great connections—what are you waiting for?? RSVP now!

Now that we’ve released the Layar Vision beta and are well into the Creation Challenge, we want to make sure you have all the tools and knowledge necessary to build immersive experiences and win some of that $55,000 prize money! 

We have already provided some tutorials and sample code, but we also want to give you the opportunity to ask non-technical questions and get realtime feedback, so this week we’re hosting a webinar!

Whether you’re having trouble coming up with a concept for the Creation Challenge, you want feedback on your current concept, or you just want to be sure you understand how Layar Vision works, join Layar Strategist King Yiu Chu and Layar Partner Network Manager Ivo van Barneveld this Thursday at 5pm Amsterdam time (CEST) to help you with concepts, strategies and best practices for Layar Vision and the Creation Challenge.

The tips, tricks and expert advice you’ll get from this webinar will surely give you a leg up in the competition, so sign up now!

Throughout the summer, we’ve covered some of the highlights of Bruce Sterling’s Layar-sponsored AR design class at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

As all good things must come to an end, so has this class, but not without some impressive final student projects! Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be sharing videos of these projects as well as footage from last week’s class presentations with Layar strategist Gene Becker making a guest appearance to offer comments and feedback. You can read all of our posts about the AR Design class here.

This first video is for a concept called “enlitenar”, and it features students Ryan D’Orazi and Jennifer Rosetto (as well as a cameo from Bruce Sterling and his wife, author and filmmaker Jasmina Tešanović), who use Augmented Reality to cross over to the spiritual dimension.

In addition to this otherworldly concept video, the students created an enlitenar layer (currently still in testing) with Hoppala that uses audio and visual elements to facilitate a connection between physical reality and the invisible forces that influence everyday life.

If that sounds a bit heavy for you, we’ll leave it at this: if you’ve ever wanted to see Bruce Sterling perform an initiation ceremony dressed as a cyberpunk cult leader (goodness knows WE have), watch this video!

enlitenar: augmented spirituality reality from RYAN DORAZI on Vimeo.

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Now that the Layar Creation Challenge is well underway, we want to make sure you have everything you need to create the most impressive Layar Vision concepts possible! We’ve been busy creating tutorials and updating tools to inspire and assist you with your Creation Challenge projects!

Our beloved tech support manager Xuan created a text tutorial for the wiki on how to build a simple Vision layer. This is the fourth layer creation tutorial Xuan has updated for our API v6.0; you can access all of her wiki tutorials here.

Additionally, freelance layer developer Menno created the Cantine layer (which you may recognize from our Layar Vision video) to demonstate Layar Vision capabilities, and he has provided a downloadable folder with instructions, sample code and images to help you build your own immersive Layar Vision experience to enter in the Creation Challenge!

And finally, if you’re one of the developers using PorPOISe to build your layers you’ll be happy to know that there is now a PorPOISe 1.2 available that supports the v6.0 Layar API! This means that you can now use PorPOISe to build Vision layers for the Creation Challenge! Read the full details and get the download here.