The ARToolkit is a piece of software developed by Dr. Hirokazu Kato at the University of Washington and if you are enough of a geek you already guessed what it does. Its a software toolkit for creating Augmented Reality environments. You probably know of Augmented reality from the days of the Nintendo Revolution speculation, the technology behind the EyeToy and those webcams that replace your face with that of a cat.

However this piece of software found its way into the hands of a few diligent Otaku and what’s an otaku to do with a new tool? Use it to further the merging of reality with anime in a bid to end their loneliness. What follows are some examples of their arduous endeavors.

You start out with something simple, perhaps a motionless robot like this Tachikoma you see above. After all what would be cooler than having your own little 3D robot in your desk?

Well how about Vocaloid’s Miku dancing Caramelldansen? In fact everything after this is all about Miku, hit the jump for the rest!

Here’s Miku chasing a Negi around the desk and if your mind does not wander at the prospect of anime girls chasing things around your desk then you might be at the wrong website.

Finally here’s a little video explaining how its done.

Well that was that, the future looks bright, doesn’t it friends?

[tag]Anime, 3D, Otaku[/tag]