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Osmo

playosmo.com

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Re: Osmo

#81

Post by dlinder »

DonHopkins wrote: post #25
bullfight wrote: post #16

I really like this. It seems to me to be an early approximation of Neal Stephenson's A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer from The Diamond Age . A commensurate companion, guide, and teacher. Sure this may only be a few activities but the responsiveness and seeming magic to it is fantastic. I particularly like that you can set down a toy in front of the camera and it renders out a flat illustrated version of that toy.

Here's a free "magic" iPad app that I'm developing, which doesn't require any gadgets! http://pantomimecorp.com/ https://search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZContentLink.woa...

Hey Don!

I was about to post a link to your new gig when I spotted that you had beaten me to it!

Re: Osmo

#82

Post by danielweber »

mikeash wrote: post #72
User9812 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one of those trick sites, where you never realize you can scroll down (thank you fullscreen image trend). Go back to the site, scroll. First thing you'll see... Setup is a snap. Simply mount Osmo over your iPad's front‑facing camera. Reflective Artificial Intelligence and a built‑in mirror recognize and respond to your every real‑world move. Then it goes on to describe the available games, and has other key info…

I scrolled all the way down, but nothing tells me what it is. I didn't watch the video, though. The bit you quoted raises more questions than it answers. Why is there a mirror? What the hell is "reflective artificial intelligence"? What does it do with the recognition of your real-world moves?

It's not understandable without the video.

(I'm not taking sides here on what should or shouldn't be expected on a website.)

Re: Osmo

#83

Post by User9812 »

mikeash wrote: post #80
User9812 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that was self-explanatory. Your iPad camera faces forward, the mirror redirects it down to the playing surface. The AI tries to track the location of the letters and colored blocks in the mirrored image. What does it do? The examples are pretty obvious, what more are you looking for? Arrange tangible puzzle pieces into matching on‑screen shapes. Be the first to guess and spell out the on‑screen hidden word…

Maybe the problem is just that what it does is so far removed from the superlative language used to describe the product as a whole? The introduction leaves me with the impression that it must be more than a silly augmented reality puzzle game. I still don't understand the mirror. iPads have a camera in the back already....

http://i.imgur.com/0OXmc9h.png

The blue line is an iPad, the red region is the camera line of sight. On the left, you have no mirror, the camera is looking straight ahead at you. On the right, a mirror is attached, it redirects the camera view down to the playing surface.

Re: Osmo

#84

Post by lnanek2 »

mikeash wrote: post #15

OK, seriously, why is it so hard for companies to just tell me what their product is? I guess it's some sort of augmented reality thing? With a clip-on mirror? (???) And a standard Tangram game? "For the first time, fun knows no limits." Did somebody redesign zombo.com for the 21st century and try to attach a product to it? There are so many beautiful product pages out there which completely fail at the basic task of…

I have no interest in watching to video either, but I can clue you in on the mirror's purpose at least. Normally the camera looks straight out at the user. They need the camera to look down at the table/floor/play surface. The on screen games depend on the app being able to see where you place each piece. Without the mirror the camera wouldn't be pointing at the pieces.

Re: Osmo

#85

Post by [deleted] »

lnanek2 wrote: post #84
mikeash wrote: post #15

OK, seriously, why is it so hard for companies to just tell me what their product is? I guess it's some sort of augmented reality thing? With a clip-on mirror? (???) And a standard Tangram game? "For the first time, fun knows no limits." Did somebody redesign zombo.com for the 21st century and try to attach a product to it? There are so many beautiful product pages out there which completely fail at the basic task of…

I have no interest in watching to video either, but I can clue you in on the mirror's purpose at least. Normally the camera looks straight out at the user. They need the camera to look down at the table/floor/play surface. The on screen games depend on the app being able to see where you place each piece. Without the mirror the camera wouldn't be pointing at the pieces.

[deleted]

Re: Osmo

#86

Post by mikeash »

lnanek2 wrote: post #84
mikeash wrote: post #15

OK, seriously, why is it so hard for companies to just tell me what their product is? I guess it's some sort of augmented reality thing? With a clip-on mirror? (???) And a standard Tangram game? "For the first time, fun knows no limits." Did somebody redesign zombo.com for the 21st century and try to attach a product to it? There are so many beautiful product pages out there which completely fail at the basic task of…

I have no interest in watching to video either, but I can clue you in on the mirror's purpose at least. Normally the camera looks straight out at the user. They need the camera to look down at the table/floor/play surface. The on screen games depend on the app being able to see where you place each piece. Without the mirror the camera wouldn't be pointing at the pieces.

Thanks. I kept insisting on thinking that the mirror let it look back, which made no sense as there's already a camera back there.

Re: Osmo

#87

Post by mikeash »

danielweber wrote: post #82
mikeash wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I scrolled all the way down, but nothing tells me what it is. I didn't watch the video, though. The bit you quoted raises more questions than it answers. Why is there a mirror? What the hell is "reflective artificial intelligence"? What does it do with the recognition of your real-world moves?

It's not understandable without the video. (I'm not taking sides here on what should or shouldn't be expected on a website.)

People are saying that, but I'm skeptical. Language is pretty versatile. If Wikipedia can explain the concept of an ergosphere to me without video, surely it can be done for somebody's iPad game.

Re: Osmo

#88

Post by mikeash »

User9812 wrote: post #83
mikeash wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the problem is just that what it does is so far removed from the superlative language used to describe the product as a whole? The introduction leaves me with the impression that it must be more than a silly augmented reality puzzle game. I still don't understand the mirror. iPads have a camera in the back already....

http://i.imgur.com/0OXmc9h.png The blue line is an iPad, the red region is the camera line of sight. On the left, you have no mirror, the camera is looking straight ahead at you. On the right, a mirror is attached, it redirects the camera view down to the playing surface.

Got it, thanks. Nice diagram. I can't help but think that if the connection between the iPad and the stuff in front of it was made a bit more clear on the site, as you have done, that it would be much easier to understand. Or maybe it's just me.

Re: Osmo

#89

Post by jberryman »

Greenisus wrote: post #14

I don't understand all the hate in this thread. This is a clever and creative use of technology that combines a favorite toy (iPad) with the one thing it lacks: physical interaction with real world objects. From what I understand (I'm a new dad so I'm still reading and learning), this sort of thing is very important for a developing mind.

Haven't read the thread here, but the idea of an iPad mediating such simple play between kids makes me depressed, and I can't imagine it's not simply diminishing what the equivalent experience without the screen would have been. Also that's not how the Tangrams puzzle is supposed to work.

I did think the drawing bit was cool though.

Re: Osmo

#90

Post by aresant »

GuiA wrote: post #26

The company introduces Osmo, an iPad suite of games for children which uses the iPad's camera to use physical tiles on a traditional tabletop as input. The demonstrated games include tangram, a tile based word guessing game, and a physics-engine based game in which players must draw a path for falling objects to hit targets. While the product describes itself as using "reflective artificial intelligence, a groundbrea…

Thank you for the well researched and thoughtful post on the potential "educational" benefit of Osmo.

As a parent I like to think that the top of my list of buying qualifications be that something is educational and enriching.

But from a product perspective this thing just looks like FUN.

And my reality is that spending $50 for "fun" potential for my little kids is a no brainer.

That it's interactive and even POTENTIALLY educational is the icing on the cake, not my primary.

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