LA class seeks augmented reality help: apply within

Paula Cohen, from Los Angeles, has the kernel of an art project idea for her class. When she told me about it, it felt like an augmented reality twist might make it come true. I can see the concept, but lack the technology skills to see how to pull it off. I'm hoping someone reading this blog might be able to share their expertise and ideas on how to make a living graffiti project come alive. Here is Paula's original email, published with her permission:

I have this project I have been wanting to get off the ground with my students.   I was visiting SPARC this summer and it came up of how there is a current ban on murals in Los Angeles going back to some signage legislation that was intended for corporations.

A local drive entails passing a multitude of billboards, many digital, flashing distractive messages and sales.  That is when I got this idea to help young people reimagine their communities.

What if they could take a series of digital photos of their communities and through a program like photoshop and  deep conversation, they could transform their communities on screen into what they imagined.

For example: lawns could turn into food gardens, billboards could become PSA's and murals, each corner could have a youth center, etc.  (Ok, that's my imagination!)   Do you have any ideas?

Thank you, Paula

In my mind it's something with Layar that could work best, and I've shared my small selection of AR links with Paula in the hope there's some inspiration in there. But what would you do?

Comments

[monika hardy]

very cool. we are currently doing something very similar with google sketch up....

[teachernz]

Have you considered aurasma... A fledgling ar company ... But can set any image/object as a code to trigger. We're you thinking of something more location based?

[teachernz]

Edit-Aurasma does location based ar too. It's available for Android and iOS.

[Yuba City Photographer]

I like the idea of taking digital photos and editing them on photoshop. It shouldn't be too difficult technically, and might make some interesting eye-capturing results - especially if the original place is still recognizable after the edit.

[Caitlin fisher]

The ar lab at york university would love to help! (the screenshot you're using is from one of my doctoral student's projects at moma).
LayAr would be good, but we've got some unity/qualcomm projects we're trying to build right now that are close to what you describe. Contact us: [email protected]

We also have east ar tools for use in classrooms.
Www.yorku.ca/arlab
Futurestories.ca