Augmented reality, also known by its product name as Total Immersion, has rocked the digital world during the past 12 months. Augmented reality technology, involves combining the real world with digitally created images, animations or text.  Often this involves the incorporation of a video-cam, either through a PC’s web-cam or the camera on a hand-held device such as an iPhone.  It’s futuristic, interactive, fun….and yet to be utilized to its full potential.

The question over the last 12 months and beyond has been, how this slightly gimmicky Augmented Reality technology can be harnessed for mass consumption?

Well, it seems that the world is making progress on the application of Total Immersion technology. I was delighted to recently find out that Topps, a well known producer of American sports collector cards which I haven’t come across in nearly 15 years, has found a way of using augmented reality to revive.  Sure, gone are the days when die-hard sports fans memorize their favorite players stats from the back of a sport-card (now, we simply Google for real time player statistics), but this adds some new and unforeseen appeal to the humble sports card.

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I recently found out about an exciting new Google app known as Google Wave.

Admittedly, being a real lover of the ocean, the name Google Wave immediately struck a chord with me.  That, coupled with the fact that I’m also a huge fan of  Google’s existing collaboration and communications applications including Google Talk, Google Video Talk, Gmail and Google Docs – and this break through in collaboration and online chat appears as though it will combine elements from all of these handy Google applications.

Google Wave is due out later this  year.  It could well be a great tool for both personal and business use, allowing mixed media communication to occur seamlessly through a single collaboration channel.

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A very quick post to let you know that today I discovered a nifty little piece of functionality hidden amongst Google’s Image search parameters - that allows you to search Google Images by colour.

To search Google Images by colour, visit the site below, and scroll down the page until you see the gray form (alternatively, if you’re feeling a little bit geeky, instead of using the form you can follow the instructions which involve appending a bit of text to the Google search URL – but this reeks of unnecessary effort to me!). Either way, click on the link below to find out more….

" target="_blank">Click here to check out the Google Image search form.

The form allows you to enter your search term, and select your desired colour/s.  Once you hit the “Search” button,  magically, only images of your selected colour will appear. Amazing!   That picture of a pink elephant you’ve been seeking for months can now be found in an instant….

Credit for this discovery goes to Blogscoped.

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Have you wondering how the heck you can create a viral campaign using that funny little webcam that comes as standard issue on the top of the monitor of most new notebook PCs?

Sure, we’ve seen a few campaigns in the past that have used webcams to do simple things – like insert the user’s face on a cartoon body, or something to that effect.

But technology has come forward in leaps and bounds since then, and Paper Motion of Australia has recently released a fantastic new piece of software that uses your PC’s webcam to create a fully interactive user experience – creating virtual characters, virtual objects, and movement in 3D.

It’s breathtaking, addictive, and will be the next big novelty item in interactive online marketing. Check out a few demos of the software in action below…..

And another, used for Earth Hour, here…

If you’re interested to see how some existing websites have already used this technology, it is also worth checking out the following websites:

Jack Links

General Electric

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This new technology demonstrated at TED is simply amazing.  Titled the sixth sense, the device itself is made up of a few simple pieces of common and readily available PC hardware (that is, a webcam, a projector and small computer no bigger than a mobile phone with wireless internet capabilities) totalling about $350US.  

So the hardware itself is not revolutionary – it’s the capabilities of this device, and the impact it will have on our lives, that is absolutely breathtaking!

Essentially, this device allows the wearer to examine anything in front of them – be it a book, a person, an item off the shelf in a super market, whatever – and instantly receive meta-data relating to that item so that the wearer can make a more informed choice about their next action.  

Think of it as a device that automatically Googles everything in sight for you, without any effort on your part and allows you to interact with your environment in a way that you probably never thought would be possible!

Confused? Watch the video below…and be prepared to be blown away.

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I came across a browser plugin recently called The Bar.

We’ve heard the claims many times before of tools and online schemes proclaiming that you can effortlessly “make money online while surfing the net“.

Well this appears to be another one of those.  However for some reason this one makes me curious.  

The way The Bar works, is that firstly you are required to download and install a plug-in in your web browser – the Firefox plug-in seems to be the most reliable from my experience so far.

Once the plug-in is installed, a little button with the initials “E.R” will appear below the address bar of your browser.  Whenever you are on a website – any website – and click the ER button, a small unobtrusive set of advertisements will appear on the left of the screen.  All you need to do is click on one or two of the advertisements in the left-hand sidebar, and you will make money.  Sounds pretty easy huh!

Where the potential to make money increases exponentially, is the referral program for The Bar.

Invite your friends, and you will receive a share of their earnings, as well as your own. So it’s the old story – the more people you bring to the party, the more cake you get to eat.

I’m interested to know if this is just another ‘online network marketing scheme’ where no one except the owner of The Bar profits significantly, or if this is a genuine tool that can benefit any dedicated user.

I would love to hear your thoughts. If you have a few spare moments, and are keen on making a bit of extra pocket money, download  The Bar and let me know how you go.

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No sooner had I written my recent post about Homepage Thumbnails with Picdonkey plugin, did I receive this email from ShrinkTheWeb, one of the leaders in developing applications that create thumbnail images of website homepages on the fly.

If you’re interested in automatically embedding actual thumbnails (that is, automatically generated images of website pages which appear as images)  into your Wordpress blog using a simple plugin, now you have not one, but two choices.

Read the below excerpt from an email from ShrinkTheWeb, who have created the latest addition to the Wordpress Thumbnail Auto-Generator plugin pile.

Hello,

If you are a WordPress user, this might interest you…

You may already be aware that we offer a WordPress plugin that
will allow you to easily show mouseover preview bubbles for
links in your posts. Now, we have enhanced that plugin with a
long awaited update.

Many people have been asking for us to make it easier to embed
screenshots in posts without having to copy/paste code. So, we
are releasing v1-1-0 of our plugin:
http://www.shrinktheweb.com/uploads/stw-wp-thumbnails.zip

With this new version, we introduce the ability to embed a
screenshot of any website by simply using a tag set. Example:

We also support all six(6) default sizes for embedded previews.

Installing the plugin is simple and quick. Simply upload to your
WP plugin directory, activate, and adjust the settings to your
liking. It\’s that simple!

Best wishes in 2009!

-ShrinkTheWeb

http://www.shrinktheweb.com

Looks like we now have another contender for Wordpress plugin of the year! It looks like these guys are really honing in on Wordpress as its use across the world continues to flourish.

So take your pic (sic). Will it be ShrinkTheWeb, or PicDonkey, that gets your vote?

My next tip to both ShrinkTheWeb and PicDonkey, and whoever else out there is developing these nifty little applications is, when can we get rid of those pesky “Thumbnail currently queued for processing” message. Only then will we achieve website thumbnail bliss!

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This is a post to test the new Websnapr Bubble script in Wordpress.  I’ve been after a plugin that enables me to produce thumbnails of websites ‘on the fly’, as I waste heaps of time doing minor graphics edits for blogs such as this one!

So what does this little script (and I mean little, it’s just one line of code) do? Well, you know those tiny little pictures of a website’s homepage, that take heaps of mucking about to create (especially when your graphics editing skills are sub-standard, to say the least!).  An online application called Websnapr inserts a little bubble next to every hyperlink you create, allowing your users to preview websites before actually visiting,  just by hovering over the little speech bubble icon beside each link.

This means you, as the website administrator or blogger no longer have to muck about creating those thumbnails yourself! S-weeet, you know have more time to waste on Facebook! And it also means your visitors are less inclined to click on links and leave your site unless they really really want to, thanks to Websnapr’s nifty ability to allow visitors to preview other websites without actually leaving YOUR site!

Websnapr and its various thumbnail apps have been around for some time, to make your life a whole lot easier. If you want to reap the rewards of the Websnapr suite of apps (and yes, they are FREE), sign up for Websnapr, and you will be able to create thumbnail images of any website or URL in mere seconds.

If only everything on the web was this easy!

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Shrink2One is handy web tool a little like TinyURL or Bit.ly, in that it converts lengthy web addresses into a shorter and easy-to-manage URL . Where Shrink2One outweighs the competitors however, is that it enables you to compress multiple URLs into one short hyperlink.

All you have to do is copy and paste your list of links into a box on the home page, click ‘Shrink now’, and you will be presented with a short and sweet web address.  Send this ’shrinked’ address to your intended recipients, and they are presented with a concise single HTML page containing a thumbnail image of each individual web site as well as the full URL to each page.

It’s useful if you want to send someone a list of multiple web addresses but are confined for space, for example, when using instant messenger or sending an SMS.

Here’s an example I just created http://Shrink2One.com/cc4 – the password is ‘shrunken‘

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It’s been hanging around like a bad smell for the last few months now, and it looks like this lingering odor might be a hard one to scrub away.

Flock is the latest free product making an impact on the web browser marketplace. Flock was built on the existing Mozilla Firefox browser platform (a browser becoming increasing popular with high end users, the web savvy, and web developers due to its array of plugins and user-centric features).

What separates Flock from the rest of the browser pack, is the integration of a variety of social networking and social bookmarking applications. De.licio.us, Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Flickr and a robust RSS feed reader are just a few of the applications incorporated thoughtfully into the browser interface and menus. Additional plugins to support other Web 2.0 applications in Flock are being developed as we speak.

Flock is very much a browser targeting users who are heavily into Web 2.0 applications, customizable content and instantaneous updates via XML feeds. Despite the average internet user not yet being part of this crowd, this is, in my opinion, the future of web browsing. It brings content relevant to you, straight to you, without the need to go searching…..

(….ah yes, while on the topic of searching, it seems that this somewhat fundamental function of web browsers is currently Flock’s major downfall. At the time of writing, Flock has a Yahoo search bar incorporated into the top browser bar, but not the slightest hint of anything Googly. Interesting, don’t you think….almost like the developers are making some sort of, gasp, statement!)

To further backup the notion of customized web browsers being the way of the future, check out Flock’s recent ‘limited edition’ offering, Flock Gloss. This is the first limited edition browser I’ve come across that is more than just a short-term gimmick.

Sure, you can download a skin for Internet Explorer with your favorite brand plastered across the header that will be replaced with your new favorite brand in two weeks, but a browser built with the functionality rather than just the design to support your interests and desires has far more long term potential. Perhaps you could apply this concept to your next online campaign, instead of building a short-term banner campaign that expires in 5 days time. A bit like this innovative and highly successful Doritos campaign we saw a few months ago.

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So you’ve just set up a Wordpress blog and you’ve just realised that you’d be mad not to add the super-handy and super-free Google Analytics package, so that you can track how popular your blog is about to become?

You can’t go past the Google Analytics for Wordpress plugin.  I’ve installed it on a few of my sites (tshirtalert.com, and this very blog that you are reading, breadmilkdigital.com) and can vouch that plugin is one of my most important Wordpress tools, as well as being quite addictive and entertaining, as I watch my stats climb and fall according to how much coffee I have consumed (and consequently, the quality of my blog posts!)

If you need a little bit of help with the whole installation process and setting up a Google Analytics account, this article might also assist.

Happy wordpress-google-analytic-ing!

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Are you ever caught out updating a button on a website without access to a decent graphics package?

Well fear not, My Cool Button is an online web 2.0-style button generator. Just choose your colours, text, size and shape of the button, click “Generate” and you instantly have a web 2.0 button which you can download immediately for use.

Here’s an example of MyCoolButton.com’s capabilities, used on one of my own websites:

The search Australian surfbreaks button from www.shackn.com, created by MyCoolButton.com

If this trend continues, local software on PCs will be a thing of the past.  Already Google has it’s suite of online office application, with various other software providers also following the trend.   Maybe the continual investments in increasing hard-drive capacity will one day be futile, as it seems that we are trending towards an online world that will soon negate the need for us to store software locally!

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