Having been somewhat preoccupied with, you know what, the past few weeks I had not had a chance to comment and share the current wave of demos relating to Google’s Magic Leap. This video was published, ‘shot through magic leap technology’ a few weeks ago.

It has some interesting features to take note of. The little character is under the table. However he is also behind the leg of the table. The real world object clips him and obscures him as the camera pans across. He is floating around and bobbing a little, but the registration with the physical in a hand held karma shot is very impressive.
Also intersting, and more obvious in the solar system shot, is the use of focus. The objects are not always in focus just as a real camera would need to adjust as it got closer. Many AR experiences and blended reality experiences do not have that. They may have lighting and a presence relative to a physical space but they are like 3d stickers.
It is a lot more convincing and real than the large Whale jumping one that was doing the rounds. That looked like an aspirational PR video of what we could expect one day.
I am really looking forward to the next few months/years as these devices become accessible. It is way more exciting than just pure VR (though I love that too!)
It enables us to start instrumenting the world visually as much as we are under the covers with the Internet of Things.

Have you bought the ebook yet? If not … cough… why not ? 🙂 Even without a kindle you can read it on any device. Go on you know you want too 🙂
I decided once the ebook was published for Reconfigure it would be interesting to explore the print on demand options from CreateSpace. It was some more formatting work to do and also create more than just a cover page. It needed a back page and the blurb associated with it. It also needed a more physical form of typesetting. ebooks are really HTML and reformat themselves. Physical books have to consider the gutter spacing when the pages are bound so you can read all the words.
The first proof arrived today.

It was very exciting to see the thing in actual print. I had selected the 6x9inch format as that was the recommended one. However now I look at it it looks a little large, more like a text book than a novel. So I am just working out how to reformat it down to 5×8 a normal paperback size. I also removed all the page numbers, which was something I thought it asked me to do. I realise it was asking that you remove page numbers on the preamble pages. ebooks don’t have any footers for page numbers as the device generates those based on the users font size choice.
Now I have page numbers, I tightened the spacing from the double spaced to 1.5 and I am now resubmitting it all. It means buying another proof copy, but the other book is handy for promo shots being a little bigger 🙂 It is possible to do an awful lot with the support tools that are provided. Each PDF upload is checked that it fits in the correct area and formats correctly. You still have to visually check each page just in case of course. The physical instantiation being the final decision on what goes live. The cover art needs to be in a suitable high resolution (mine already was). It even shows the mouse pointer arrow that is a tiny detail mid cube that is hard to see on the digital covers as they are at the moment.
So onwards and upwards. Of course the print version will be relatively expensive as it is a print on demand. I do not have the economies of scale to produce cheaper versions (yet). I will probably do the Kindle matchbook scheme where physical get a digital version too. It seems very fair to me. I can’t do that until the book is physically live though.

I just hit publish on the Amazon Kindle site, I was expecting it to take a few days but it seems Reconfigure, my first novel is live and available for purchase right now.

The UK link is here, but it will direct you to the relevant territory as it is available globally.
It feels a somewhat odd experience to have let Roisin Kincade out into the wild along with all the wonderful tech and adventures she has had.
I hope, if you choose to buy the book, that you enjoy it. It has been a wonderful experience to create it.

Reconfigure!

I just visited Ray-Ban’s virtual glasses modelling site. There have been a lot of ‘stick things on your face on a webcam’ applications but I was impressed with how quick, simple and accurate this one was. My regular glasses are Ray-Bans so I found the model number and tried my actual pair on virtually to see the difference.
The registration of my face even in bad lighting was incredibly quick, and yes I need a haircut!

What was impressive is that the glasses appear to have lighting and a reflection in the lens, The still does not do that justice, but it really adds something over the the cartoon stickers of other AR web cam applications. The arms of the glasses also go around the side of your head.
Here is the ‘real’ pair for comparison.

This is just a webcam on a webpage. Imagine the degree of world changing views we can create on portable holo style headsets.

Whilst I may have been quite focussed on my own Science Fiction vision of the future with my book writing experiment I have not been completely detached from the world. Yesterday some new demos of Microsoft’s impressive looking Hololens came out. I am still not convinced they should really call them holograms, but we can let that slide. This blended reality demo of a game, albeit a blow stuff up one, understanding the environment around it, using the walls as canvases is impressive. I still think I prefer the minecraft examples though.

They are obviously not overly keen on small companies or individuals getting their hands not eh dev kit as its $3k for the kit and only in the US and Canada. Still it’s a start.
We have yet to see the kit from Magic Leap/google.
Of course this got me thinking, my Reconfigure story, the things that happen in the physical world could easily be emulated with a Hololens. It would be great to create a Hololens powered version of my character’s experience. Not a 3d 360 immersive film but a blended reality, this is what it would feel like to be Roisin Kincade. Now that is exciting!

I have just completed a third triage of the manuscript for Reconfigure. I am now at the printing the thing off and reading it out aloud stage. Its a fair old chunk of work. 72,000 words, and with the double line spacing hilton 206 pages of A4. I am still very pleased with it. Whether anyone else will be I shall soon find out I guess.

Every pass I spot minor tweaks. Usually spelling and grammar of course. Starting sentences with So, a lot and Well, too. So those are getting filtered and adjusted. I also created a page and a url reconfigurebook.co.uk which is just a redirect to the page above on the navigation tab. On there is a description of the book, a first pass at the abstract that may, or may not entice people into reading.
I also had a go at a stylised cover, it is pretty much all built from Unity3d, it describes some of the images and ideas in the story, without giving too much away, I hope.
I am reposting the image here, but it all is subject to any changes I fancy doing of course 🙂

***Update this is the new book cover.

So head on over to reconfigurebook.co.uk to see what this science fiction, set today, is all about (ish).

Last Friday I finished writing the story that I had in my head for Reconfigure. I surprised myself at the speed it came out, but when you have to do something, you have to do it! I also learned a lot about how I thread idea together. The story is set now, the tools and tech in it is, for the most part, genuine and real. Constructing it form the initial plan to the first draft has felt just like a software project. Architecture, Internal Design, Code. It now differs in that there is not a “compiler” to help spot any errors. There is of course spell check. This stage is one of reading it, lots it would seem. Checking it makes sense, meets the spec and then adding or taking away from it to create a good user experience. As it has a basis in fact there is real world continuity checking. There is also speculative science fiction continuity that I can double check too.
My biggest surprise was the elements of the story, the little mental pictures and feelings that I discovered on the way. I had the structure, that was fun to conceive but the colouring in has been an interesting mix of conscious thought and of Flow.
When I started to re-read it for the first time I was not totally sure what it was going to sound like in my head. A few times I have written articles and looked at the end result and started again. Same structure just different words. I was hoping that was not the case this time. Of course this is all potentially self deluding, but I like it so far.
Another thing I was not expecting is in building the potential for a follow up, if not a series. The core elements have several threads that seem to be brewing as I re-read the text. I was thinking this would be done and dusted.
I am looking ahead to just getting it out there, probably just on Amazon Kindle store. I don’t think I can justify making actual print copy books though services like LuLu do over print on demand. So I have to think about pricing. There, like the app store, seems to be lots of discussion of people not paying over $0.99 or 99p for a book. Discussions of free, just for the publicity or of making something reassuringly expensive because it has enough words per pence. I don’t know, but I think I will release it and see if I can charge for it. Just enough that maybe my social media friends and colleagues might feel happy to sponsor me by buying a copy.
I have started to consider cover designs, an early one, just an alpha (rather like the text so far) was this last night.

It was using the iPhone app Typorama. I will have to rebuild the image in the right size and shape and may make the cubes in Unity3D instead of the stock image, that being more in keeping with the story.
I started to work on the back cover hook, the abstract. It was interesting trying o find a balance between telling the story and hinting at it. Introducing the central character and allowing her strengths and vulnerabilities to try and surface in a paragraph. I still have work to do on that but may share that in another post.