Holography is a visual trick which lets viewer think they are in front of a 3D object in front of them.
Questioning the reality of holograms is questioning the reality of life “a la” matrix. A philosophical debate.

Different holographic solutions where presented and explained at a Tokyo Interaction Center event.

Whatever technology is used to create holographic images, non interactive images or animations are extremely boring and rarely engaging.

Interacting with light is a tricky issue as there is nothing to touch and placing devices like a mouse or a trackpad “killes” the effect.

Finally the best is to interact is tracking finger pointing at the hologram.

AirStrike is the perfect tool for achieving this goal.

Here is a simulation showing the association between a “dreamoc” holographic system (but there are other manufacturers, and we would be happy to collaborate with them) and AirStrike. A real object is on display. Holographic contents appear around the object and propose menu to the viewer who “clicks” it. The content can be stereoscopique adding more to the 3D effect.

Applications are numerous in retail and museums.

Here is an example designed for a luxury watch maker. The visitor points at a real watch on display in the glass case. Holographic contents appears around the selected watch.

Holography can be larger scale.

In the below example, a system similar to “Vizoo” is used to create the holographic effect which separates the viewer from the artifact.

AirStrike lets the visitor get augmented information according to where he points toward the artifact’s details.

A movie from a recent installation of AirStrike in Le Bourget aiport.

Le Bourget is a military and executive airport North of Paris. AirStrike is installed in luxury lounge of a private airlines company.

The installation was completed by AD-Lux from Estonia.

More information about AirStrike capabilities can be found on AirStrike web site.

We unveil 3 new web sites for latest products.

- AirStrike™: http://airstrike.lm3labs.com

The touchless (mid-air) finger tracking product was launched a few years ago and already has an impressive track record but it never get its own web site. We correct the mistake.

- 3DFeel®: http://www.3dfeel.net

3DFeel is full body tracking and will imply collaborative work with a partner generated library of materials.
The site will evolve to a forum centric site with collaborative work between partners (module, avatars, game logics,…).

- Moovaction®: http://www.moovaction.com

Moovaction is precise finger tracking for interaction on any kind of surface (wood, glass, etc…). It addresses the interior and shop design, interactive furniture design and all integrations where the technology must be stealth.

LM3LABS has one of the most comprehensive portfolio of interactivity technologies on the market, which can be summarized as finger, hands, gestures, body, face and image tracking.

We open a new site to present interactive solutions for Museums.

This site focuses on Computer Vision technologies: Gesture Tracking, Face Recognition, Passive and Active Interactivity, Augmented Reality,…

Touchless, computer vision-based technologies are well fit to museums as they are mass-proof, invisible and require no learning.

A reference site for curators of the 21st century !

http://museums.lm3labs.com

Over the last 7 years, LM3LABS has built a complete set of technologies and products all based on computer vision. They are software and electronics products as it is difficult to create high-quality CV products on software only.

We recently mapped those technologies for a better understanding of what product does what.

If all of them belong to the “gesture control” world, the best segmentation is made from 4 categories:

• Finger tracking: precise finger tracking, it can be single touch or multi-touch (this latest not always being a plus). Finger tracking also encompasses hand tracking which comes, for LM3LABS products, as a gestures.
• Body tracking: using one’s body as a pointing device. Body tracking can be associated to “passive” interactivity (users are engaged without their decision to be) or “active” interactivity like 3DFeel where “players” use their body to interact with content.
• Face tracking: using user face as a pointing device. It can be mono user or multiple users. Face tracking is a “passive” interactivity tool for engaging user in an interactive relationship with digital content.
• Image Tracking: Augmented Reality (AR) lets users use images (flyers, real products, t-shirts, faces,…) to interact with digital content. AR can be markerless or marker-based. Markerless technology has advantages but marker-based AR is easier for users to understand. (Please note here that Markerless AR is made in close collaboration with AR leader Total Immersion).

Most LM3LABS’ products are leader on their segment if not unique.

Singapore-based Grain&Pixel has made a beautiful integration of AirStrike for Dior.

A larger than natural book is projected from top. AirStrike is installed on top and tracks gestures of users who can turn virtual pages of the book.

We want to thank all our visitors at Digital Content Expo 2010 last week.

LM3LABS demonstrated 2 solutions out from their technologies:

The Touchless Ironman Experiences

Thousands of visitors could experience the touchless interaction with digital content displayed on a semi-rounded and transparent interface similar to what can be seen in the Iron Man movie. LM3LABS’ AirStrike was tracking fingers, hands and gestures very accurately in mid-air.

The experience was magic.

Interactive Go: hi-precision finger tracking on a piece of wood

LM3LABS’ vision is aimed at hiding technology to make it invisible to users. We wanted to demonstrate the association of digital technology to analog environment and we have selected our finger tracking technology in association to a traditional Japanese Go game (also called Go-ban). A Go-ban is a very beautiful piece of wood made in a single piece. We projected the game from the top, integrating the projector and camera into a (our designer Edern’s) hand-made traditional Japanese lamp.

The technologie is called Movaction and it tracks fingers extremities, hand and gestures very accurately. The tracking is made from top ad it is completely impossible to embed any sensors into the 20cm thick piece of wood.
Players could point at the position they want and “stones” appeared in a magic way.

After a few stones, the game was accidentally broken and Japanese carps were swimming under the Go grid.

LM3LABS’ work had a great media coverage:

Here are some links to TV broadcasts:

Nikkei:
http://www.nikkei.com/video/?bclid=67379774001&bctid=635659962001
MSN:
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/economy/business/101014/biz1010141442018-n1.htm
Nippon TV
http://www.news24.jp/articles/2010/10/14/06168673.html#
TV Asahi:
http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/ann/news/web/html/201014021.html

Here are some links to magazines:

Sankei (in Japanese):
http://www.sankeibiz.jp/business/news/101014/bsj1010141443009-n1.htm
Mainichi:
http://mainichi.jp/select/biz/graph/20101014/index.html
Biglobe:
http://news.biglobe.ne.jp/it/1017/rbb_101017_7029398793.html
Yahoo:
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20101015-00000781-reu-int
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20101017-00000000-rbb-sci

End of June, EDB, Singapore’s Economic Development Bureau, presented at World Cities Summit 2010.

The 2,000 square feet booth was designed by former Red Dot Design Awards judge Chris Lee. Inside it embedded LM3LABS’ interactive technologies like AirStrike. The result is a state-of-the-art interactive experience.

CNET Asia’s Nicholas Aaron Kho covered the event with an article.

Nicholas’ movie:

Pictures from blogger Pat Law:

Marlboro deployed AirStrike in Eastern Europe for better attraction of their interactive campaign.

Interactive booth were deployed in shopping centers.

An other campaign with happy customer Philip Morris.

The campaign was managed by JustPromo.

AirStrike and Ubiq’window have been enhanced with a new set of touchless gestures and actions.

Those gestures are recognized motions made in the air, on AirStrike, or at proximity of  the surface, for Ubiq’window. They can be associated to a series of actions understood by the applications.

The new set is available for free to Ubiq’window and AirStrike customers as part of LM3LABS’ lifelong support policy.

This gesture set paves the way to the soon-to-be-announced “4th dimension”, the contextual gesture adaptation to environment, an ultimate layer of intelligence in touchless and multi-touch interaction.