Augmented Reality and the O-Gauge Hobby...

D500 posted:

Even fake needs to be real; else, it's all just a cartoon. 

That’s exactly why I’m no fan of the computer train sims. There’s an artificiality of their ‘reality’ that I can’t get past.

The best example is when they wreck, they tumble around things and in ways impossible for the law of physics, sometimes passing through solid objects and there are never damages seen afterward to either the rolling stock or objects along the tracks.

nickaix posted:

My question is: how is this implemented? What makes you "see" the little people getting on and off of your passenger cars? Are they projected onto the layout somehow? Or are you looking at a screen with real-time video of your layout with the little people overlaid onto it? Or what?

At least with HoloLens, the headset you wear looks like a set of futuristic protective glasses.  Unlike virtual reality which blocks out everything, the HoloLens lenses are transparent.  The virtual images are projected onto the lenses and superimposed on the physical environment.  Cameras in the headset map the physical environment and enable the headset to detect the wearer's head movement.

nickaix posted:

My question is: how is this implemented? What makes you "see" the little people getting on and off of your passenger cars? Are they projected onto the layout somehow? Or are you looking at a screen with real-time video of your layout with the little people overlaid onto it? Or what?

 One way, as accomplished through current phone/ipad apps already being played with, is to view the real world through your device's camera. The real images appear on your screen along with the added fictional images.  Basically, you could view and/or record a video with the computer generated images superimposed onto your real layout. Might be neat?

Another way is through a product like google glass (glasses) or Microsoft holo-something.   The computer generated images appear on the lenses of the glasses.  You then view the real world, while looking through the filter of CGI images. If you think about it, regular sunglasses are a very basic form of augmented reality as the real sun's brightness appears less bright to your eyes. All of this stuff requires you to suspend your disbelief, but is interesting to think of it in the context of our hobby. 

While it might not ever make its way into this hobby, it is currently being researched quite heavily and implemented in the medical world. For example, a surgeon, through the methods described above, has the x-ray/CT/MRI scan's images superimposed on the patient in order to know precisely the location in which he will need to operate.  Everything is still very real, however it enhances the surgeons abilities by providing the ability to view the scans in the exact location of the real patients body as he makes a real incision.  

Almost like those mail-in x-ray glasses from the last page of Boys Life magazine. 

JD

Severn posted:

Speaking of... did anyone ever post this one before:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51V1FEoJhTA

(there's a bunch related & hang in there on the vid... it's a little stilted but either mind blowing or crazy ... you decide)

That is insanely awesome! This guy knows the value of DCC!

nickaix posted:

My question is: how is this implemented? What makes you "see" the little people getting on and off of your passenger cars? Are they projected onto the layout somehow?

My pal from DARPA said they already have actual projections in all 3 dimensions, but it just isn't affordable for the open market yet and they haven't worked out all the bugs (like how the hologram would make sounds relative to its location).

How it works, I have no idea. But yeah, they'd be projected onto the 'layout'. I'm sure once this gets going, there'll be an industry where people are paid to do certain actions, scanned in real-time in all dimensions, in the correct clothing/gear. I'd guess you'd buy the 'scans' of a few dozen people of a certain era doing something?

It's still a long way off.