Matt Mills: Image recognition that triggers augmented reality

236,950 views ・ 2012-07-19

TED


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Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast
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So wouldn't it be amazing if our phones
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could see the world in the same way that we do,
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as we're walking around being able
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to point a phone at anything,
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and then have it actually recognize images and objects
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like the human brain, and then be able to pull in information
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from an almost infinite library of knowledge
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and experiences and ideas.
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Well, traditionally that was seen as science fiction,
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but now we've moved to a world
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where actually this has become possible.
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So the best way of explaining it is to just show it.
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What you can see over here is Tamara,
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who is holding my phone that's now plugged in.
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So let me start with this.
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What we have here is a painting
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of the great poet Rabbie Burns,
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and it's just a normal image,
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but if we now switch inputs over to the phone,
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running our technology, you can see
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effectively what Tamara's seeing on the screen,
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and when she points at this image,
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something magical happens.
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(Laughter) (Bagpipes)
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(Bagpipes) (Applause)
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(Bagpipes)
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Voice: Now simmer blinks on flowery braes ...
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Matt Mills: Now, what's great about this is,
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there's no trickery here.
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There's nothing done to this image.
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And what's great about this is the technology's
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actually allowing the phone to start to see and understand
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much like how the human brain does.
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Not only that, but as I move the object around,
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it's going to track it and overlay that content seamlessly.
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Again, the thing that's incredible about this is
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this is how advanced these devices have become.
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All the processing to do that was actually done
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on the device itself.
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Now, this has applications everywhere,
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whether in things like art in museums, like you just saw,
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or in the world of, say, advertising, or print journalism.
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So a newspaper becomes out of date as soon as it's printed.
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And here is this morning's newspaper,
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and we have some Wimbledon news, which is great.
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Now what we can do is point at the front of the newspaper
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and immediately get the bulletin.
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Voice: ... To the grass, and it's very important that you adapt
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and you, you have to be flexible, you have to be willing
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to change direction at a split second,
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and she does all that. She's won this title.
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MM: And that linking of the digital content
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to something that's physical is what we call an aura, and
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I'll be using that term a little bit as we go through the talk.
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So, what's great about this is it isn't just a faster,
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more convenient way to get information in the real world,
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but there are times when actually using this medium
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allows you to be able to display information in a way
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that was never before possible.
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So what I have here is a wireless router.
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My American colleagues have told me I've got to call it a router,
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so that everyone here understands — (Laughter) —
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but nonetheless, here is the device.
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So now what I can do is, rather than getting the instructions
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for the device online, I can simply point at it,
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the device is recognized, and then --
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Voice: Begin by plugging in the grey ADSL cable.
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Then connect the power. Finally, the yellow ethernet cable.
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Congratulations. You have now completed setup.
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(Laughter) MM: Awesome. Thank you.
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(Applause)
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The incredible work that made that possible was done
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here in the U.K. by scientists at Cambridge,
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and they work in our offices,
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and I've got a lovely picture of them here.
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They couldn't all be on stage, but we're going to
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bring their aura to the stage, so here they are.
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They're not very animated. (Laughter)
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This was the fourth take, I'm told. (Laughter)
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Okay. So, as we're talking about Cambridge,
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let's now move on to technical advancements,
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because since we started putting this technology
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on mobile phones less than 12 months ago,
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the speed and the processing in these devices
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has grown at a really phenomenal rate,
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and that means that I can now take cinema-quality
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3D models and place them in the world around me,
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so I have one over here.
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Tamara, would you like to jump in?
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(Music)
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(Dinosaur roaring) (Laughter)
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MM: I should leap in.
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(Music) (Dinosaur roaring)
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(Applause)
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So then, after the fun, comes the more emotional side
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of what we do, because effectively, this technology
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allows you to see the world through someone's eyes,
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and for that person to be able to take a moment in time
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and effectively store it and tag it to something physical
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that exists in the real world.
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What's great about this is, the tools to do this are free.
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They're open, they're available to everyone within our application,
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and educators have really got on board with the classrooms.
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So we have teachers who've tagged up textbooks,
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teachers who've tagged up school classrooms,
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and a great example of this is a school in the U.K.
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I have a picture here from a video, and we're now going to play it.
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Teacher: See what happens. (Children talking) Keep going.
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Child: TV. (Children react)
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Child: Oh my God.
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Teacher: Now move it either side. See what happens.
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Move away from it and come back to it.
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Child: Oh, that is so cool.
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Teacher: And then, have you got it again?
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Child: Oh my God! How did you do that?
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Second child: It's magic.
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(Laughter) MM: (Laughs) So, it's not magic.
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It's available for everyone to do,
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and actually I'm going to show you how easy it is to do
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by doing one right now.
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So, as sort of — I'm told it's called a stadium wave,
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so we're going to start from this side of the room
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on the count of three, and go over to here.
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Tamara, are you recording?
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Okay, so are you all ready?
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One, two, three. Go!
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Audience: Whooooooo!
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MM: Fellows are really good at that. (Laughs) (Laughter)
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Okay. Now we're going to switch back
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into the Aurasma application,
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and what Tamara's going to do is tag that video that we just
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took onto my badge, so that I can remember it forever.
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Now, we have lots of people who are doing this already,
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and we've talked a little bit about the educational side.
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On the emotional side, we have people who've
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done things like send postcards and Christmas cards
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back to their family with little messages on them.
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We have people who have, for example,
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taken the inside of the engine bay of an old car
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and tagged up different components within an engine,
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so that if you're stuck and you want to find out more,
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you can point and discover the information.
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We're all very, very familiar with the Internet.
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In the last 20 years, it's really
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changed the way that we live and work,
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and the way that we see the world, and what's great is,
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we sort of think this is the next paradigm shift,
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because now we can literally take the content
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that we share, we discover, and that we enjoy
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and make it a part of the world around us.
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It's completely free to download this application.
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If you have a good Wi-Fi connection or 3G,
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this process is very, very quick.
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Oh, there we are. We can save it now.
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It's just going to do a tiny bit of processing
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to convert that image that we just took
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into a sort of digital fingerprint,
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and the great thing is, if you're a professional user,
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-- so, a newspaper -- the tools are pretty much identical
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to what we've just used to create this demonstration.
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The only difference is that you've got the ability
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to add in links and slightly more content. Are you now ready?
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Tamara Roukaerts: We're ready to go.
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MM: Okay. So, I'm told we're ready, which means
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we can now point at the image, and there you all are.
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MM on video: One, two, three. Go!
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MM: Well done. We've been Aurasma. Thank you.
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(Applause)
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