At home with augmented reality.(NEWS: AUGMENTED REALITY)

In terms of computer graphics technology, a lot can happen in just one short year.

During Intel CEO Paul S. Otellini's keynote address at CES last year, a colleague, standing in a set designed to look like a street in China, pointed a cell phone at a menu posted on the outside of a restaurant and saw a translated menu appear on a screen in real time. The demo was reaL, created with Total Immersion's D'Fusion software, but a few off-stage processors helped the cell phone produce the illusion.

Total Immersion returned to CES this year with a different but equally dramatic demonstration of augmented reality. This time, at Pat Meier's legendary Lunch @ Piero's for innovators and media, there was no magic box behind the curtain. Instead, there was a K'Nex toy box, a personal computer, and a Webcam. When anyone pointed the front of the small toy box at the Webcam, the live feed of the person holding the box appeared on the computer screen. And, here's the magic: On top of the box, CG objects representing all the parts inside the box assembled themselves into the toy. The CG toy stayed put even when the box moved around in front of the camera.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The proprietary technology in the markerless tracking software recognized the side of the toy box, looked at the contrast data, interpreted it, and knew what interaction to produce based on what it recognized. It all happened in real time: the calculations and the compositing of the CG animation with the live video. In a second demo, a spaceship levitated over a box and then flew to a table in the composited image 10 feet away.

"Usually when you think of augmented reality, you ...