What its real future use may be is debatable, but Spellbinder is definitely cool. The project, developed by Dr. Mark Wright of the Division of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, connects the real and virtual world with digital images using image-matching algorithm. Shown at the Siggraph graphics conference in San Diego, Spellbinder’s heartbeat is a database of images of Edinburgh, Scotland. Uses query the database by taking a picture ofa location on their mobile phone then sending it to Spellbinder. Spellbinder consults the database for a match, no matter the lighting condition or orientation, then replies by sending animage with an extra, a piece of virtual artwork known as Invisible Art. That sounds like fun, but the real use of Spellbinder is helping people establish their location and, in fact, matchalmost anything. “With Spellbinder, the real world becomes a computational resource,” said Dr. Wright. For now, however, fun seems to be the way ahead. Users haveestablished a variant of king of the castle, in which users wear an image on their boy and have to protect a base. Points are won by taking a picture of the defended image or base. Theresearchers are also working on a project called Comera, which can automatically update web pages with location, and could be useful both to heavy social networkers and bloggers.
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