Further research on the project

This is a little update to some stuff I have found with regards to the idea I posted on the 4^th Jan about being able to try on glasses virtually. Sorry its in note form.

I found another program that allows users to virtually try on glasses here
Sorry mac users… its only for windows. But quite honestly I wouldn’t bother using it anyway as it is rubbish. Its difficult to use, slow and the results are poor.

This site also allows you to try on a very limited selection of glasses. But its very basic software and pretty restricting. You pretty much have to go through their catalogue of glasses until you find one that says “Try on this frame”.

http://www.specsonthenet.com/ also offer this service with a little demo video on the front page. There’s also flash tutorial videos here – This looks like one of the better examples of this sort of software.

The service on Glasses Direct is quick and easy to use, which is a good thing. Not entirely sure how accurate it would be, given that it would be hard to tell if the glasses are at the same scale as your uploaded face, but it gives an idea.

And more here

Here is an interesting article on a virtual system that uses 2 cameras to calibrate the exact shape and measurements of a customer’s face, then generates a 3-D model. Customers can use the 3-D model of their face to try on different glasses.

During the research I stumbled across another form of interaction – Eye Tracking Technology. Probably not useful for a project like this, but interesting to see if it goes anywhere. Here are some videos from YouTube: -

What’s more interesting here is seeing how the user scans the screen as they go to new WebPages.

Virtual Broadstairs

My original idea for this project was to further develop my Virtual Broadstairs Flash project. Which was originally inspired by www.virtualbyron.com – Click ‘Explore’ on the right. This software is also placed in kiosks as you can see on this page.

Essentially my idea was along the lines of the interactive map and the virtual tours sections. However I had planed for the pan images to pretty much fill the screen. The user could then pan in either direction using arrows at the bottom or where relevant, could click a forward (UP) arrow to move in that direction, for example. The may be a pan at the top of Broadstairs High Street, when looking down the street an arrow will give the user the ability to virtually travel in that direction. Using video that I would shoot myself, the user would see this journey on screen (perhaps speeded up) to the next point of interest which may be the bottom of the High Street for example. Essentially it would allow tourists to get a feel for the town before they arrive and help them find and explore the points of interest with ease.

This would be placed in kiosks at tourist info centres not just in the region but also in London and at train stations in between.

Unfortunately Garrett was not keen on this idea so it was back to the drawing board, but maybe there’s something here that might help others.

Chris.

Nicolai Cornell

Just stumbled on the work of Nicolai Cornell which is of relevance to your current project. Apparently he is know primarily as a flash designer but he uses his flash interactive media beyond web uses, pretty much what I’m try to get you all to think about (except we are using Director). The results are visually stunning and most definetly innovative. Take some time to have a look through his work, it’s worth it.