'i3D' Demo App Shows Off Head-Tracking 3D on iOS Devices

[MacRumors]

Last month, French researchers Jeremie Francone and Laurence Nigay posted a video showing off a method for using head tracking by a device's camera to simulate three-dimensional scenes for the iPad, a concept in which Apple has expressed some interest.

As noted by MacStories, a new demo app from Francone and Nigay known as i3D has appeared in the App Store, giving users the opportunity to test out the technology on their own devices.

i3D is a free universal app running on the iPad 2, iPhone 4, and fourth-generation iPod touch. It contains a sample video image displaying a bounding box as it tracks the user's head location, as well as five demos showing the simulated 3D perspective that can be generated using the tracking.

Article Link: 'i3D' Demo App Shows Off Head-Tracking 3D on iOS Devices

 

[motwera]

mm Cool hope the next idevices get this integrated already

 

[Trius]

Cool concept... but it doesn't work very well yet..

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I wonder if a free API for this will be released... I can think of some cool features it could be used for in a game...

 

[dlewis23]

Cool concept... but it doesn't work very well yet..

The problem is as soon as you get somewhat out of view of the camera it doesn't work right. It's a cool concept but in the real world probably wont go anywhere.

 

[Satori]

Just downloaded this for my iP4. Some demos work better than others - and overall it is a bit jerky. I don't think the head tracking is quite right yet. Very promising though -it will be so cool when it's perfected.

 

[JilzVT]

Good start - but we're still several years away.

 

[adztaylor]

Cool concept... but it doesn't work very well yet..

Agreed.

 

[VTNick7]

fake vid?

I just want to know how it works when no one is touching the ipad.. I can understand the technology with the accelerometer in place.

 

[ghostface147]

Hmm, not as cool as I thought it would be.

 

[nwcs]

It is a bit smoother in the video than in real life but I think these researchers deserve a lot of credit. It's quite good for a proof of concept research project.

 

[EricStriffler]

I've been so excited to try out this head tracking 3D, and after playing with this app for a few minutes I'm so underwhelmed. It doesn't feel anywhere near as cool as I expected it to. Maybe it will be better with some more development, but I'm definitely let down.

 

[eawmp1]

It's a cool concept but in the real world probably wont go anywhere.

Famous last words.

 

[guzhogi]

Just downloaded it and I have to agree - very cool stuff, but still needs a lot of work.

I just want to know how it works when no one is touching the ipad.. I can understand the technology with the accelerometer in place.

Actually, it doesn't use the accelerometer. According to the article, it uses the front camera to track where your head is in relation. Because of that, there's no need to touch the iPad.

 

[FSMBP]

I just want to know how it works when no one is touching the ipad.. I can understand the technology with the accelerometer in place.

Thanks for the concern, chief, but read the article/watch the video. It's not a "fake vid."

 

[AppleMacDudeG4]

fun for a demo

This is basically a demo to show as a proof of concept. It will only get better with time but it was still fun to play with. Given the fact that Apple has shown some interest, perhaps there will be a future product that will support this better.

 

[samcraig]

Cool in concert. Not nearly ready for prime time obviously.

The demo was "neat" - but kludgy at best

 

[Small White Car]

I think the current problem is that it seems to rely on ONLY the video camera. I think this accounts for a lot of the jerkiness and lag.

I suspect this technology will get much better once it starts using more iPhone sensors in tandem. Imagine if it worked by accelerometer and gyroscope and only used the camera to re-calibrate every half second or so. Then it won't be as big a problem when the camera loses you for a second.

I think they'll get there. Apps like MotionX-Dice already use a basic form of this trick using only the accelerometer. Once they make this better you'll see it spread to more and more apps.

 

[Frosticus]

Not bad for a proof of concept.

After trying it on my iPad 2 and iPhone 4, it seemed to work better and feel more natural on the iPhone.

Just an afterthought.. although the suggestion of 3D using this technique is cool, is it really that useful on a device which (in my case at least) is always held in the same position relative to the face? Would be interesting to see how something like this works on a desktop. Does a similar thing exist for Mac using the iSight camera..?

 

[dcbjones]

Very cool!

 

[*LTD*]

I've been so excited to try out this head tracking 3D, and after playing with this app for a few minutes I'm so underwhelmed. It doesn't feel anywhere near as cool as I expected it to. Maybe it will be better with some more development, but I'm definitely let down.

It's experimental at this point.

 

[lesiu]

Will be nice to manipulate some excel presentations
What is the music from ??

 

[GadgetAddict]

Great concept and a decent first attempt. If in the future iDevices get wide angle front facing cameras this could really be a great feature. Till then, congrats to the makers!

 

[chadley_chad]

Wow!

Sure, it needs a small amount of work but WOW, unlike most others I was very impressed!

Looking forward to this being introduced into iOS and apps real soon!

 

[jclardy]

This is a cool demo but I don't see the tech going anywhere.

The problem is when you use a device like iPad or iPhone is that you would have to be aware of it all the time. If you have your ipad on a table and go to touch the screen your camera angle will change because your hand will probably block the camera.

And of course the iPad front facing camera is not very wide angle so once you move out of bounds it can no longer track you.

It might be a neat trick for games or a little bit useful in a 3d modeling app (to peek around the side I guess...still not that useful.) but I don't see it being used in anything other than that.

The extra processing power required for head tracking plus switching to a 3d interface wouldn't be worth the small benefit that the "3d" would allow.

IMO 3D will remain a gimmick until we can interact with our computers in 3 dimensions (Mouse: 2d, trackpad: 2d, touchscreen: 2d). That and we have displays that allow multiple people to see the effect without glasses.