NFL Fans: Soon You'll be Able to Get Even Closer to the Game

As any NFL fan knows, sometimes new camera angles and tricks enhance the viewing experience; sometimes, they're just flat-out annoying. Hopefully this development will fall into the first category.

Kris Kitani, a post-doctoral fellow at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, is working toward his dream of enabling sports fans to watch the games from the ball's point of view. I imagine in a lot of cases, the resulting image would be a nausea-inducing mess. But what about "BallCam's" view on a long hail Mary? Now that might be worth seeing.

Kitani, whose specialty is computer vision, is working with colleagues at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo on the project. They think the up-close-and-personal BallCam angle is the next big thing in sports broadcasting, according to the American Physical Society's Buzz Blog:

"It took a couple of tries — shredded balls and broken cameras — to find a good way to put the camera inside of the ball," said Kitani, "in the end, we cut a hole in the side of the ball and pushed the camera in."

By embedding a camera inside of a football, the scientists are exploring a new area of research that Kitani calls Digital Sports.

Using cameras and other sensor-detector technology, Kitani is interested in how technology can aid in analyzing athlete training, augment the spectator experience of the sport, and even create new sports.

Augmented Reality Glasses for the Battlefield?

Image credit: Rheinmetall Defence

As Google Glass continues to gain popularity, we can all rest assured that the military, as usual, is leaps and bounds ahead of us in the technology realm.

Case in point: the Gladius soldier system, augmented reality technology that provides soldiers real-time mission information on a helmet-mounted display. Designed for the "future soldier," Gladius is "the most advanced system of its kind anywhere," according to manufacturer Rheinmetall Defence.

So, how does it help soldiers to do their jobs better? Like Glass, it overlays a soldier’s vision with relevant data while also providing positional data in from nine of his buddies, instantly and automatically. It's designed to let each unit of 10 soldiers work as one, all while serving up all the relative data to each of their helmet displays. You know, like in Halo.

The German military recently placed a second order for these Gladius systems. Meanwhile, our own troops might soon be outfitted with Innovega's AR lens and glasses duo. What does that mean for us? A very strange future of warfare indeed.

Win a Pair of Google Glasses!

Or, you know, the chance to buy them!

Google just announced a contest in which the winners will be able to buy their own $1,500 pair of their groundbreaking augmented reality glasses.

How do you win? Get ready to get creative. Explain why you need/want/are dying to have your own pair on Twitter or on Google+ in 50 words or less (plus up to five photos and one video) by February 27. Include the hashtag #ifihadglass in your "application," and then cross your fingers. If you're chosen as one of the next "Glass Explorers," Google will reach out to you and ask you to attend a special pick-up experience to get things going.

In the meantime, check out the video above to see what you've been missing.

And for more info, check out the Google Glass website.

15 Super Smart Augmented Reality Ad Campaigns

Sometimes when we're checking out the latest augmented reality research and capabilities, it can seem like such an out-of-touch tech trend. But then we stumble on a gem like this: Business Insider's top 15 augmented reality ad campaigns.

These companies are making fun, insightful advertising using AR -- in a way that actually makes sense. Check them out and get inspired!

Japanese Robot Uses AR to Give Life to Virtual Characters

The Japanese are taking robotics to a whole new level (as usual).

Check out U-Tsu-Shi-O-Mi, an interactive "mixed reality" humanoid robot, originally developed by NTT DoCoMo, which appears as a computer-animated character when viewed through a special head-mounted display.

The augmented reality robot can take on the appearance of any virtual character. How? Basically, a computer-generated image gets projected in real-time onto a green-screen robot; the result is viewed through a head-mounted display.

This is just the latest project in the realm of mixed reality: a trend that gives virtual objects (such as avatars) a physical presense in the real world. This lets the user physically interact with the virtual character like never before.

We know what you're thinking: sex robots, right? It's possible. (OK, probable). But the technological possibilities that will come from this type of innovation go far beyond anime sex. And we can't wait to see how it all pans out.