A Sneak Peek at ARf, an AR Virtual Pet game for the iPhone

We’ve been working on an AR virtual pet game on the iPhone;  it won’t be ready to release for a while, both because it’s not done, but also because Apple doesn’t have an official API for camera access (preventing us from putting this on the store).

Right now, this is mostly an experiment with different kinds of interactions the game might use, as well as testing the AR technology.  So, you can use the touch screen to direct ARf around, touch him and scratch him.  Since there is a lot of interest in AR and games on the iPhone, we wanted to show folks what we’re up to and some of what’s possible.

23 comments

15 pings

Skip to comment form

    • chusky on November 28, 2008 at 11:38 pm

    Arf, the app i am looking for. Every nights before to shut off my mac, i search in google : augmented reality iphone.
    Today my dreams seems come true. Cant wait to try it 😛 Hope yo see it soon on cydia 🙂
    Great job !

    • admin on November 28, 2008 at 11:48 pm
      Author

    Thanks for your kind words.

    Alas, I doubt we’ll ever do anything with cracked phones … if anything, I’m much more interested in creating free apps that we can give away on the iTunes store (once their is a “approved” method of getting at the camera). It’ll provide an amazing way to do some “large scale” user and game concept testing!

    • robert on December 8, 2008 at 6:55 am

    Will there be an open source publishing of your code or parts of your code?

    • admin on December 8, 2008 at 7:36 am
      Author

    At some point, but not very soon. First, not all of the code we are using is freely distributable (e.g., StbTracker). Second, we’d like to finish the “game” and evaluate it before making it available. This will all happen over the next year.

    • mathsniper on December 13, 2008 at 10:29 am

    hi blair, how did you get the source code of stbTracker?
    I have a problem of developing cell phone program using artoolkit.

    • admin on December 13, 2008 at 11:28 am
      Author

    We are collaborating with the folks at Graz and Imagination on some projects, so we are lucky enough to have some of their software.

    It is for sale; you can find out more by going to http://www.imagination.at/

  1. Good words.

    • Jose on May 4, 2009 at 2:27 pm

    Nice Job!
    How did you get access to the iphone camera? I’m want to try some of my homemade ARToolkit apps on the iphone but I couldn’t access the cam 🙁

  2. Virtual pets and toys market is growing. It’ll be even more powerfull in the future.

    • rassall on May 13, 2009 at 2:15 am

    Hello,

    How I settings arttolkitplus s60 library,path to carbide c++ 2.0? I can’t able to run simple cube ar program into carbide c++ 2.0? tnay suggestion/any procrdure..i have already installed SDK,Carbide c++ 2.0 also dowanload cartoolkitplus S60.plz suggest me….

  3. one more nice topic in your blog and nice comments too keep it up, by the way Graz is a very lovely city I enjoyed it so much

  4. this is awesome! you know the first thing that came to my mind was that i wish i could play again with my departed cats via this game. not trying to do a pet cemetery here, but i really think a feature like that would make this even more valuable for a lot of people. if there was some way to create the pets based on our real pets’ image then it would be like taking care of our demised pets even if only in the virtual world.

    • Vinny on August 31, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    I love this game lol its sooo cool

    • Matt on August 31, 2009 at 1:53 pm

    Great application.

    I’m curious if development work is still active, and if so, what technique you are using to access the live camera feed on the iphone. The current API still does not appear to allow direct live camera access, but you mention you’re using a non-jailbroken phone.

    Thanks!

    • Joost on November 18, 2009 at 12:56 pm

    I’m also curious.. should be able to port it to the current iPhone API? Any progress on this project still.. drop me a line!

      • admin on November 18, 2009 at 2:52 pm
        Author

      No, you can’t port to the current SDK. It allows graphics to be overlaid on video, but not to access the video. So, we can’t do computer vision on the markers to find out where they are.

    • Aubrey on May 5, 2010 at 12:01 pm

    That was awesome! I saw a site the other day that was doing this with famous places – so if you hover over where the beatles crossed that road, it’d pop up with that photo of them and give you more information about it.

    • vala on June 23, 2010 at 7:58 pm

    So, you can use the touch screen to direct ARf around, touch him and scratch him?

      • admin on June 23, 2010 at 10:15 pm
        Author

      That’s the idea; you use the touch screen for interaction. It really only scratches the surface of what would be possible with this approach, but I think it’s a fun example.

    • Jorge Bretones on July 18, 2010 at 8:04 am

    Hi,
    I’m interested in pet application for commercial purposes. Actually I’m working as a freelancer doing AR applications for PC but customers (Spanish-Chinesse association) want IPhone applications too.
    If you or your commercial company associated is interested please contact me at this email and Ill tell full description of the idea.

    Thanks in advance for your time and apologyes about my english.

    • Milly on February 14, 2011 at 7:41 am

    Hello, can u give the code or a tutorial?
    I really need it. Thanks

    • Amina on January 2, 2013 at 12:43 am

    i hope they do one for the ipod

  5. Great stuff! I want to try ARf on my iphone, do you have any link to download and would you consider putting it on a social networking site for pets? I think, It will be a wonderful.

  1. […] PS see also AR virtual pet game for iPhone. […]

  2. […] Georgia Tech Augmented Environments Lab: We’ve been working on an AR virtual pet game on the iPhone;  it won’t be ready to release for […]

  3. […] people from Georgia Tech made a nice demo using the iPhone and releasing a virtual dog into your living room. You can pet […]

  4. […] ARF: iphone augmented reality By giotilab fonte: […]

  5. […] is an example of it on the iPhone via the Augmented Environments Lab […]

  6. […] is a first peek at an augmented reality virtual pet game being developed for the iPhone in the GVU Center’s Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia […]

  7. […] ARF – Virtual Pet App for iPhone Right now, this is mostly an experiment with different kinds of interactions the game might use, as well as testing the AR technology. So, you can use the touch screen to direct ARf around, touch him and scratch him. Since there is a lot of interest in AR and games on the iPhone, we wanted to show folks what we’re up to and some of what’s possible. […]

  8. […] Click here for more information on the project. Share this post with your friends in your favorite social network: […]

  9. […] Augmented Environments Lab » A Sneak Peek at ARf, an AR Virtual Pet game for the iPhone] Januar 7, 2010 | abgelegt unter […]

  10. […] visit  http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/lab/2008/11/28/arf-iphone-peek/ for more information. Share and […]

  11. […] Click here for more information on the project. […]

  12. […] Nun gibt es schon seit 2008 erste iPhone-Konzepte mit AR. Siehe Sneak Peek at ARf, an AR Virtual Pet game for the iPhone: […]

  13. […] a concept and tech-demo nearly two years ago were augmented reality apps like ARf — video below — which is a virtual pet that can interact with the physical world […]

  14. […] a concept and tech-demo nearly two years ago were augmented reality apps like ARf — video below — which is a virtual pet that can interact with the physical world […]

Comments have been disabled.

Switch to mobile version