Augmented reality in Flash

I wasn’t going to test it, because you’ve got to print a special symbol and my webcam is crap and CPU-intensive Flash applications are a pain on my computer, but I just couldn’t walk away from the page without checking, because I couldn’t believe it actually worked and I had to try.

And it actually works and you absolutely need to try it for yourself.

So you print a symbol (with a big black outline and “Hiro” — for some reason — written on one side to indicate the orientation), authorize the Flash app to access your webcam, and present the symbol to the camera. Bam! an animated 3D monster appears.

There’s nothing extraordinary about the technology (it’s been presented in digital imaging showrooms for twenty years, and Sony uses it on the PS3’s Eye of Judgment game), but what amazes me is that it’s working in a Flash app — no additional install necessary, nothing.

Of course, on my iMac I only get 5 to 10 fps with 100% CPU usage, but that isn’t that much different from what I get just displaying my unmodified webcam image in Flash. And nobody uses an iMac G5 anymore. (Hint, hint, jingle bells.)

via hackaday.com