Olympus Pen E-PL1 in 3D with Augmented Reality

Salam. I went to Olympus service centre in Mont Kiara last Friday to take my digital camera. Something wrong with the lens and my dad had to send it for repair. At the front desk, I noticed one of their promotional pamphlet ‘Time to EVOLVE’ message on the black card.

I’ve seen this creative advertising concept through internet, which applies augmented reality (AR) for their product. This is my first time to experience AR. I’m not sure if it is first in Malaysia to have this concept. Well what is augmented reality is? According to Wikipedia;

In the case of Augmented Reality, the augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally usable

After I came home, I visited the website at evolvewitholympus.com.my and setup my webcam. Then I flash the card in front of my webcam and this is the result.


Well, it is one of a new approach to view things in 3D. I’m very excited with this technology. Please note that the camera model is not real. When I flash the card to the webcam, it will detect the pattern and it will generate 3D model on top of the pattern. You can see clearly in the picture that I’m holding the card, not the camera.

Well if you want to give it a try, you can visit evolvewitholympus.com.my website and download the marker, print it and experience it yourself!

The camera is Olympus Pen E-PL1. It is Interchangeable Lens Type Live View Digital Camera. I was admiring at this camera because I’m not into bulky DSLR. The price is only RM2499 which is quite reasonable for an interchangeable lens.

P/S: Everything goes in 3D lately isn’t it?