Sony UK presents its markerless tracking technology Magnat for PS Vita at GDC 2012

At GDC 2012 Sony UK has presented its new markerless tracking technology for PS Vita called Magnat. The technique allows to track basically any textured 3D environment.

The algorithm is able to initialize itself without any need of markers or pre-learning phase. It is also able to detect planar surfaces in the cloud of reconstructed 3D points. This allows the user to add 3D objects interactively.

Since those planar surfaces can easily be triangulated and the corresponding real video texture is known, they are able to deform these surfaces and render them for example liquid. See the second video for this nice effect.

While I have no further information about the actual algorithm that is used by Magnat, my first guess would be a variation of the popular Parallel Tracking and Mapping approach presented by Klein in 2007.

more videos after the break

Reality Fighters for PlayStation Vita at GamesCom

"Fight as yourself anywhere and any time" is the motto of Reality Fighters for PS Vita give its debut at GamesCom in Cologne Germany these days.
You can texture your fighter with your photo and play on real (back)grounds of your choice.

Tracking seems to be relatively robust, for a planar surface of course, with sufficient lighting conditions. The projected shadows on the detected surface add very much value to the entire AR experience