CastAR: Hands-On with the Early Dev Kit and Through-Glasses Gameplay (Video)

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Technical Illusions recently began shipping their first early, pre-production sets of castAR augmented reality glasses to backers. We met up with the team at CES 2015 and got the chance to try out the new hardware. Here’s what we saw.

It’s a cliche that you can’t tell someone what using virtual reality is like, they have to try it for themselves to truly understand. But if you thought it was tough describing the delights of VR to the uninitiated, try getting people to wrap their minds around the unique experience that is castAR.

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The latest castAR glasses with the IR tracking marker in the background

For those not in the know, castAR is a technology that uses dual projectors to project a 720p, stereoscopic image onto special, retro-reflective material allowing you to see the projected game-world in front of you in 3D. The practical upshot of this is, you can throw a retro-reflective sheet onto any surface, vertical, horizontal or otherwise. Even cleverer though, if you add a friend with their own pair of castAR glasses, when they put them on and stare at the same surface they receive their own view of the game. The surfaces property mean that light is reflected back to the source, i.e. the user.

See Also: CES 2015: We Talk CastAR with Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson (Plus: ‘Toby the Cat’ Health Update)

Your position relative to the surface and the projected image is provided by a tracking marker, placed somewhere in the play area. IR LEDs on the marker are picked up by a camera on the bridge of the player’s glasses and used to extrapolate translation information. This means, you can move freely around the play space and the game view will shift as expected.

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The Technical Illusions team had a demo table setup covered with a strip of retro’ material and two sets of the latest glasses to try out. There a new game to try too, a Marble Madness (1984) inspired multiplayer action game. The aim was simple enough, race your marble to the exit against your opponent’s trying not to tumble off the track into the abyss, avoiding obstacles on the way. Exec. Editor Ben Lang and I were pitted against each other, both (of course) wearing castAR glasses and armed with X-box 360 controllers.

Glancing over to the table and the retro’ surface, it’s initially a little disconcerting to see the game world take over the table. As I shifted around the table, I peered down through the table’s surface into the projected world , in this case a twisting assault course suspended high above the earth.

Ben Lang sporting the latest CastAR glasses.
Ben Lang sporting the latest CastAR glasses.

As I got to grips with my marble’s (stop sniggering at the back) handling characteristics, I consciously stooped and peered into the scene, trying to throw off the tracking. It was pretty solid, only breaking when I dropped below the surface of the table, where the marker sat. Although Ben and I were racing on separate paths on the same course, he had an entirely separate view from me following his own troublesome sphere. The scene is modelled in 3D space of course, and occasionally you’ll find yourself ducking around collections of hot-air balloons that obstruct your view, a neat trick which helps sell the illusion of depth nicely.

At this point it’s worth pointing out that the combination of bright projectors and the unique properties of the retro-reflective material mean it’s possible to play with castAR in ambient light. Our time with castAR was at around midday and there were lamps and outside sources of ambient light, yet the projected world was clearly visible. As this is projected light however, playing this way means that contrast ratio is lacking, although your brain does a good job of adjusting – I’m looking forward to seeing castAR in blacked out conditions!

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castar kickstarter campaignThere’s something inherently cool about playing games through castAR. The test game was fun, although clearly far from ground-breaking, yet being able to stroll about the play area stopping in to inspect the action freshened up the entire experience.

As you can see in the somewhat shaky footage we captured, wherever there’s retro’ material, there’s another window into the game world. Once people start receiving the final systems later in the year, I can foresee a raft of one-upmanship as castAR fans post pictures of their play space setups.

The experience isn’t quite perfect of course, the system is still in development. There is noticeable latency when shifting your head, as the projected view catches up with your head’s physical position. However, I didn’t find this to be much of a problem at all once playing. Nevertheless, the team is hard at work trying to drive that latency down. castAR in some ways has a tougher challenge with latency. When you can see your world updating in realtime you have a tough target to beat.

The in-development castAR VR Clips accessories
The in-development castAR VR Clips accessories

Unfortunately, we’re still yet to try the VR Clips, an add on that converts castAR from an augmented reality to a virtual reality system by reflecting projected light directly back to your eyes, as this is still in development. Now that the majority of design and fabrication issues are behind them, VR Clips are No. 1 on their priority with real emphasis being placed on the feature. Also, accessories such as the ‘wand’, allowing you to reach into the game to control and manipulate a game, wasn’t yet playable.  The team were optimistic about castAR’s VR capabilities, extending it’s practical uses and adaptability further.

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The latest design for the castAR wand accessory
The latest design for the castAR wand accessory

Technical Illusions have grown in the last 12 months since last we met and seem to really have a handle on where they’re going and what needs to be done to get the final glasses out to Kickstarter backers and, ultimately, to retail. Although the team won’t be drawn on exactly when that shipping date will be, it’s fairly clear that they’re unlikely to ship anything until they’re completely happy with the product.

castAR remains a unique and exciting hardware platform for gaming, with a truly social focus on multiplayer and potentially family based activities seemingly it’s real forte. The nature or AR means you’re less isolated from other players – the potential for castAR to replace activities such as traditional board-gaming for example is enticing. What we saw was undoubtedly cool and as long as elements such as latency can be tweaked yet further and the software support for the device comes on stream, the final product will wow those who try it we’re sure. We look forward to getting our hands on the final units at some point this year.

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Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • spark

    When are we going to see CASTAR using BLACK retroreflective material.

    Such material is produced for use in outdoor road and traffic signage.

    Surely a black retroreflective material would improve the contrast of the image better than the greyish materials now used.

    • Ron

      Is a material plays so big role in contrast?
      I think there are a lot of other reasons which affecting on quality and on which manufactures should concern about.

    • amplitron

      I was wondering the same thing and just assumed that It wasnt available of the shelve. Turns out it is. And Yes it should make a huge difference in contrast as it would all but elliminate any unwanted light while the current settup doesnt allow anything darker than the material color to be displayed.
      The issue seems to be that the black material only seems to work for relatively small angles of illumination (acording to oralite 5500 datasheet).

      • spark

        There are different grades of black Oralite retroreflective materials.

        This YouTube clip demonstrates related experiments on a DIY projection screen where angular diffusivity is trying to be increased with these materials.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otWTLqMNGgQ

        However, a narrow intrinsic angle of retroreflectivity is desirable for CASTAR applications. It minimises crosstalk with other CASTAR users nearby, and keeps brightness and contrast higher than with a broader return beam. It also reduces power consumption of the projectors for a given image quality.

  • Don Gateley

    I hope they are looking over their shoulder at Magic Leap which seems to be going after the same space with perhaps a better technology. It concerns me as a backer that the VR clip on remains a goal and is not demonstrable in any form.

  • brandon9271

    “cleverer” ? that sounds weird.. more clever? time to get out my dictionary ;P

  • Andrés

    It would be good to interview the Technical Illusions people and ask them what they think maybe about the Microsoft HoloLens and what they consider to be the castAR’s advantages.

  • Andrés

    It would be good to interview the Technical Illusions people and ask them what they think about the Microsoft HoloLens and what they consider to be the castAR’s advantages.