GigaOM » augmented reality

Google Glass minus glass: Dekko makes the world your OS

Amanda Alvarez — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:00:36 +0000

With the advent of wearable tech, apps and operating systems will have to radically adapt to the changing ways users want to interact with their devices and the world. One startup that thinks it is up to this challenge is San Francisco-based Dekko, a new company founded by the husband-and-wife team that used to work at augmented reality pioneer Layar.

Dekko plans to launch its real-world operating system Thursday, which brings the promise of augmented reality (AR) to fruition using the camera on your mobile device, powerful computer vision algorithms, and some serious financial backing.

Dekko’s tech overlays content on the real world, a kind of out-of-the-device OS that goes way beyond just superimposing search results over a snapshot of a landmark or restaurant, like Google Glass does. The system actually builds up a 3D model of the scene in front of you from image frames, then reconstructs it and inserts whatever you want — a favorite cartoon character, perhaps, or a guided walking tour — onto the image. “The tech layer can run anywhere that the camera can see anything,” said Dekko CEO and co-founder Matt Miesnieks. This is a big change from other AR efforts that require an anchor or a known object to interpret the scene.

The biggest advance from Dekko is the ability to complete the entire AR process — scene modeling, object recognition, and reconstruction — in real time on the relatively limited processor of an iPad Mini. This is impressive considering computer vision techniques still struggle with basic pattern recognition, even with powerful post-processing. Dekko’s algorithms don’t even rely on two cameras (like the stereo vision of human eyes) or an infrared field (like the Kinect) to calculate depth. The system just uses the slight differences between moment-to-moment image frames to build up a 3D model of the world, and focuses on surface textures to segment objects.

As is the case for other AR ventures, the cluttered and dynamic real world still poses a challenge for Dekko. The OS works best in static environments, and can now model a 10-by-10-foot window in front of the user. Miesnieks is confident that his team can solve the problem of tracking far objects, and said the window will be expanded to 100-by-100 feet in the next six months. Real time reconstruction at the pixel level should also become possible, with improvements in mobile device GPUs and CPUs.

Co-founders Matt and Silka Miesnieks are veterans of another AR outfit, Layar, which superimposes digital content onto snapshots of printed pages. Disillusioned with what he calls the “gimmicks” of earlier AR efforts that devolved into marketing, the Miesnieks are focusing on gaming as Dekko’s entrée. “We consciously chose gaming as a vertical because it’s often how new technology is introduced to the market,” he explained, citing Microsoft’s bundling of Solitaire with Windows to get users comfortable with graphical user interfaces. “It’s a new way for people to see apps outside the box.”

Dekko’s tech will almost certainly have advertising applications as well. Samsung, Intel, and Facebook have already expressed interest in using it to augment their services and devices, and Dekko is in talks with major hardware manufacturers to integrate its core tech into new devices. On the app side, toy, game, and media companies want to have their superheroes and creatures frolicking among the dishes and books on your coffee table. This capability will be demonstrated when Dekko Monkey, a tabletop game app, comes out this summer.

Dekko is working jointly with developers to build apps rather than just opening up its tools, since Miesnieks thinks that the company occupies a unique space and has privileged and complex algorithms. He concedes that a tension exists between framing Dekko as a tech platform versus a stand-alone app. “Augmented reality has the exciting potential of a goldmine, but no one has come out with a nugget of gold,” Miesnieks mused. “We need to go in ourselves to get the first nugget before selling shovels to others.”

Dekko has already scored something akin to gold, securing $1.9 million in funding last September. Today the company announced an additional $1.3 million of seed funding, mostly from MicroVentures. That cash should help Dekko scale up its OS and make good on the AR promise of a seamless experience between digital and real.

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The Google Now dilemma: Yes, it’s kind of creepy — but it’s also incredibly useful

Mathew Ingram — Fri, 03 May 2013 19:30:03 +0000

One of the reasons I decided to make the switch from using an iPhone to an Android phone — in addition to the freedom it allowed me from Apple’s walled garden — was that I was interested in trying out Google’s version of “augmented reality” search, namely Google Now. Although I’ve used it periodically over the past few months, the utility of it really started to hit home while I was on a recent trip to Europe and relied on my smartphone as a lifeline.

While there is something undeniably creepy about the Google Now service, I have to admit that it is also very useful — so much so that I couldn’t imagine going on a trip without it. I’m already imagining how it and other kinds of “anticipatory data” services (including Google News updates) might work through Google Glass.

Useful information when you need it

It’s not that Google Now is really all that revolutionary, in the sense of being surprising or magical or having whiz-bang special effects: it just collects a broad range of information about you and your activity from your search history, your calendar, your email, web services you are signed into, and so on, and then uses that to show you information that is relevant to what you are doing or where you happen to be (Google recently introduced it for iOS as well as Android).

In a way, that could be part of the reason Google Now is so appealing — it doesn’t try to impress you, it just works silently in the background, in more or less the way you would expect it to. That in itself is something to be grateful for.

The first time I noticed myself depending on it (or at least noticing how useful it was), came when I was getting ready for my flight to Italy: sliding upwards from the home button on the Nexus 4 showed a series of Google Now “cards,” and the first one said that my flight had been delayed by an hour. Since I was panicking at that point about how much I still had to do before leaving for the airport, that information was incredibly helpful. I could take a bit more time and relax.

Meanwhile, the second Google Now card showed the traffic on the highway and told me that I should probably give myself more time than usual to get to the airport — and when I got closer to the time of my departure, a third card showed my boarding pass information, including boarding time and the gate number (Google Now got that info from my calendar, but it also supports scannable boarding passes for a limited number of airlines).

Not revolutionary, but evolutionary

Again, none of this information was specific to Google Now, or derived magically by Google search trickery: I could have easily found out about my flight being delayed by using a service like FlightStats, or by checking the website for the airline or the airport itself — and I could have checked the traffic on any number of sites. But the point is that doing these things would take time, and I was already pressed for time. Seeing it all displayed in front of me in a simple way, without me having to do anything, was exactly the kind of thing a virtual assistant is good for.

Google Now continued to perform this kind of function while I was travelling (once I got a local SIM card, of course, so that I wouldn’t get robbed by my carrier for roaming charges). It told me that my connecting flight in Munich was on time, which allowed me to prepare for possibly not making my connection — and once I arrived in Italy, it informed me of the weather, the traffic from the airport in Rome, and also showed me photos of nearby sights that I might want to visit.

These latter aspects were also very useful for someone visiting a foreign country: I didn’t have much use for them while I was at home, but they instantly became much more important when I was travelling. Like the flight information or traffic, I could have found that content myself by doing a web search — but it was much handier to have it displayed for me automatically. And I started to imagine what it might be like to simply look at something like the Colosseum with Google Glass and have information about it appear in front of my eyes. Geeky? Yes. But also hugely useful.

The privacy tradeoff is worth it

The part that clearly disturbs some people about Google Now is the data collection that is involved in making it work: the tracking of your web searches, your calendar appointments, your location via GPS, the photos you have posted, the flights you are preparing to take, and so on. There’s no question that this is invasive — and some users will undoubtedly decide that it’s not worth the tradeoff, and choose to keep the information to themselves. I think the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Are there ways Google could use this information that I might not like? Of course there are. But I trust that Google is aware enough of the dangers — both legal and commercial — of engaging in that kind of behavior that they will avoid it. While some may choose to see Google’s ambitions in this area as evil, I think the company’s goal remains the same: to provide services that encourage users to spend more time on the internet and produce more data that improves Google’s search and/or advertising algorithms. And I am okay with that.

In return for providing some anonymized data and behavior patterns, I get access to a personalized assistant that is not only more unobtrusive than any human version would be, but is also faster and completely free. That’s a pretty good bargain.

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Metaio predicts augmented reality chips in devices by end of 2013

David Meyer — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:43:37 +0000

Metaio, the Germany augmented reality firm, says it expects to have its dedicated chips in mobile devices by year-end, despite the collapse of its one big announced customer, ST-Ericsson. The outfit has also revealed the opening of a new R&D lab in Dallas, Texas.

The company announced the ST-Ericsson deal at Mobile World Congress in February. ST-Ericsson’s future chipsets were to include a dedicated augmented reality (AR) processor using Metaio’s designs – much as is the case with the dedicated GPUs we find in mobile devices today, the benefit of a dedicated AR chip is to cut down the power-draw required by specific functions, in this case augmented reality, so people can fire up applications using those functions without worrying about their phone or tablet dying too quickly.

However, less than a month later STMicroelectronics and Ericsson announced the end of their chipset joint venture, along with the cancellation of the ST-Ericsson NovaThor chipsets that were also announced at Mobile World Congress. Nonetheless, Metaio told me at the time that it was still in talks with both STMicro and Ericsson about the use of its technology.

According to Metaio spokeswoman Anett Gläsel-Maslov, these talks are still underway, as are negotiations with other (undisclosed) companies. What’s more, she said, the company is near-certain that it will see its “AR Engine in devices by the end of the year”.

To develop its AR Engine designs further, Metaio is to open a new research facility in Dallas, the company said on Wednesday. Metaio already has an office in San Francisco, so it’s not a matter of getting closer to potential customers – instead, Gläsel-Maslov told me, the firm hopes to scoop up engineers who might be at a loose end following Texas Instruments’ winding-down of its OMAP mobile processor business.

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Metaio’s augmented reality chip will be super-useful… just not in phones

David Meyer — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 11:29:32 +0000

On Thursday, Metaio, the Germany-based augmented reality (AR) company, announced a deal with ST-Ericsson which will see the latter integrate a specialized AR processor into the next generation of its mobile chipsets.

This will be the first dedicated chip of its kind to see commercial deployment, and it should have a big impact on the power consumption of AR applications, which are today generally a big battery-suck due to their intensive use of graphics and, increasingly, 3D rendering. As Metaio CEO Peter Meier put it in the statement:

“The AREngine will do for augmented reality what the GPU did years ago for the gaming industry. This is a great leap in the AR space, and we strongly believe that the AR Engine working with ST-Ericsson platforms will help realize the augmented city — the idea of a completely connected environment powered by augmented reality and made possible with next-gen, optimized mobile platforms.”

Here’s the video the companies put out. Notice the emphasis on the use of the AREngine chip in smartphones:

That emphasis on handsets is understandable because ST-Ericsson’s business today is largely in smartphone chipsets – it is surely no coincidence that ST-Ericsson is supposedly going to be supplying its NovaThor chipsets to Nokia, which takes great pride in the CityLens AR app that runs on its Lumia handsets.

However, while AREngine may make use of such apps slightly more attractive on smartphones, I don’t think power consumption is the main reason why people don’t walk around constantly holding their phone at arm’s length in front of them. Here are three far more likely reasons: it looks absurd, it’s dangerous, and it represents poor ergonomics.

That’s not to say AR is useless – far from it; it’s occasionally handy today and I believe there are many cool applications lying on the other side of a tipping point we’ve not yet reached. It’s just that, with smartphones, AR makes the most sense in short bursts, like when you actively need to establish the direction in which you should next walk. And power’s less of an issue there.

Where the AREngine processor would be superbly useful is in smart glasses, of the Google Glass ilk. These devices will be the real tipping point for AR – they remove the absurdity, danger and poor ergonomics of physically and consciously holding something out in front of you as you walk.

And as such wearables get redesigned to make their users look less like tools, their sleeker, skinnier new look will mean less battery space. Combine that with the fact that such devices will need to constantly display AR data, and Metaio and ST-Ericsson’s technology becomes a no-brainer.

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GigaOM Research highs and lows from CES 2013

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:01:14 +0000

Every January CES sets the stage for the next year in tech, showing off all the latest in consumer electronics as well as smart-home technology, digital health, connected cars, virtual reality, and mobile platforms. Given how CES is now a barometer for such a wide array of technology segments, we at GigaOM Research decided to ask our readers which way the tech winds will blow over the next year based on what they saw in Las Vegas. Our readers responded with the technologies they thought were the most disruptive and least disruptive, as well as the companies they were most impressed with, from categories as diverse as TV technology, smart home, connected car, internet of things, virtual or augmented reality, 3D printing, interfaces, digital health, mobility, and robotics.

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Minecraft creations meet the real world through augmented reality iOS app

David Meyer — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:00:35 +0000

It may be Thanksgiving Weekend over in the U.S., but at Disneyland Paris it’s Minecon, a conference devoted to all things Minecraft. And, in a glorious collision of gaming and next-level augmented reality, 13th Lab is using the opportunity to show off its latest capabilities in an iOS app, developed alongside Mojang, called Minecraft Reality.

For those who need reminding, Minecraft is to digital gaming as Lego is to physical gaming – a sandbox effort that lends itself as much to the demonstration of engineering prowess as it does to standard gameplay. 13th Lab, which also hails from Sweden, is an augmented reality outfit that uses a technique called simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), also employed in autonomous vehicles such as the Mars Rover.

Minecraft Reality isn’t the first attempt to bring Minecraft worlds into the real world through augmented reality, but it’s certainly the most advanced. As this video shows, Minecraft addicts can insert their creations into their environment in a pretty fixed, non-floaty way – all the way from small objects up to entire buildings:

The $1.99 app comes with some Minecraft creations preloaded, but people can upload their own for other users to see when they pass the chosen location.

Now, this isn’t just a one-off for 13th Lab. Indeed, in many ways it’s a demonstration of the company’s new Pointcloud SDK, also launched on Saturday. The SDK is free to download for any developer who wants to build this kind of AR functionality into their iOS app (Android’s on the horizon too) and, according to 13th Lab CEO Petter Ivmark, it’s a vast improvement on the previous iteration.

“Before we had a version which is pretty limited in scale and performance compared to this new one,” Ivmark told me. “We’ve taken everything up a notch, in terms of how big an area you can map. Now we can do full rooms, big areas like that. We’re working to scale this indefinitely, basically. There are a lot of valuable things you can think about if you’ve got sub-centimeter accuracy in the real world.”

The company, which also produces a Pointcloud browser for iOS, has pretty big ambitions. Ivmark talks of making a mobile device’s camera even more important than the GPS chip when it comes to navigating the world. The technology certainly must have impressed Mojang – there have been very few partnerships around Minecraft, despite the game’s extreme popularity. (One, amazingly, is with the United Nations.)

And if this tie-in can get people using augmented reality for more than just marketing-related stuff, all the better.

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Media companies: Embrace Project Glass, it’s going to change everything

Paul Armstrong, @TheMediaIsDying — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:50:06 +0000

As consumer hardware goes, few items have had such an instantly polarizing effect as Google’s Project Glass, the concept smart glasses (or, to be more precise, augmented reality head-mounted display) that have become an omnipresent accessory for Sergey Brin. Granted, to call them glasses is a reductive understatement, though the company’s description isn’t much help either: “[a] technology that frees you to explore and share your world while keeping you in the moment.” Clear as mud? To the uninitiated, think of them as a small computer with a mini screen on a springy headband that sits above your eye.

Watch this Google concept video for a better idea (or to be utterly terrified):

While they were deemed stylish enough by legendary designer Diane Von Fürstenburg to put them on the catwalk, there’s still a very big split between those who instantly shout in horror and crow about security risks and those who instead envision a new dawn in computing. Perhaps they both have a point: For some they will be the ultimate intrusion yet for others they could revolutionize business or the way we interact with the world. The truth is, we just don’t know yet. One thing is for sure, however: Some have more to gain than others

Generally, I am pro Glass: After all, technology is rarely evil (technology doesn’t harm people – people harm people!) But plainly speaking, this is the first piece of tech I have seen in a long time that has the potential to truly change everything. Forget tablets, forget smartphones, the technology behind Glass is not an extension of you, it literally becomes part of you. (Crucially, unlike other tech to-date, it also leaves your hands free – a facet you can see the porn barons already dreaming about.) What is most curious, though, is that I’ve yet to see the media jump on Glass and champion it during this embryonic period. Why are we not hearing about landmark partnerships being done between Google and media powerhouses? (Or is it that Google is not playing ball with them?) Why, as with tablets, mobile and so many developments before, is the media industry so timid that they wait to be involved before leading the discussion?

Let’s take a look at a few reasons why Google Glass is poised to change everything:

Zero setup = perfection

The idea from the start is that you pop them on and truly just carry on being you – they’ll take care of the rest. This is the ultimate device that can not only benefit from contextual information but also demonstrated behavior, such as time of reading, likes, dislikes and so on. The system will quickly pick up on those variables (among many others) and soon enough take care of it automatically: no need anymore for RSS feeds, no circling, no preferences. Just read as you normally would, and it will get smarter and more precise and better at predicting your needs and wants. This fixes my main issues with the way we get news today, which still requires too much input from the user; instead Glass just gets out of the way.

Multivariate testing

Or, in other words, testing lots of variables to see which produce the best results then upweighting that combination. Adaptive marketing will be a heavily used term next year and in subsequent years as we react to the myriad devices giving agencies, planners and publishers oodles of delicious data to crunch. News should be making huge efforts to tailor their product to the individual based on their social and interest graphs (groups, likes, shares, purchases). Imagine a layout that could be tested and then updated because a different layout led to greater consumption. Currently this could really exist only on smartphones via apps, but has not been hugely raved about because of tracking issues.

Think beyond the device

Imagine an army of reporters all using these devices. It makes true real-time, breaking news very possible – in fact, it will redefine the very notion of what news is: no longer organized but reactive. Are the days of phone footage, or images being sent via email as news breaks numbered? Imagine how ordinary people could become live reporters simply because they happen to be right by the action. When an incident occurs, a quick mobile ping and you’ll know who is around to turn their head and broadcast live images and video. I’d certainly watch more of that than fuzzy, ultra-zoomed snapshots grabbed off Twitter.

Advertising ROI

While Google has been less than clear when talking about built-in advertising opportunities, it’s obvious that with the advances in augmented technologies like BlippAR, Aurasma and Obvious Engine image recognition is still sexy and – when used correctly – the results are good. The eye-tracking capabilities Google Glass poses should make not only media agencies and advertisers salivate but editorial departments as well. Shouldn’t better measurement, placement, contextualization, optimization of editorial (not to mention ads) be what we’re all fighting for? Now we might have something that can do it! What’s the holdup?

This is just a taste of what’s going to possible from what my tiny noodle can dream up. The implications of these technologies are pretty staggering when you think about the big bad data wolf that’s smiling sweetly at us in the distance. Whether we like or know it, we’re going to be wearing more and more technology. When you consider the quickly expanding wearable tech trend – not just sensors in bracelets and shoes but actual things – the future looks clear. We’ve already got Nike wristbands, headphones in hats, T-shirts that tweet, bras that help with fitness (?!), sleeptrackers, watches with emergency communication systems and about 50 prototype products from Nokia. Suddenly Project Glass doesn’t look like a crazy leap so much as a solid step in the right direction.

As with most new technologies, there are still old problems to address: namely privacy, connectivity and, of course, battery life. The last two are relatively easy to solve but the first is a deep concern for most people. Even at a surface level there are major issues here that could affect adoption (while Google has stated it has no plans to integrate facial recognition elements, it’s clearly inevitable). But personally I suspect these will be overcome with the gadget-lust/cool factor and general usability the device will inevitably enable.

Then you have the other P-word, piracy. If you think cellphones were an issue for copyright and IP theft, imagine how quickly these bad boys could destroy an industry. Taking that idea further, how would you protect your important documents in a business? What about customer service? Or will they just force us all to be in better control of these things? Ultimately, though, the deciding factor for most issues will be a lot like the success of the Nike Band: the Glass-style technology that eventually takes off will be the one that doesn’t need to be taken off by users.

Right now, this isn’t likely Project Glass for the majority of folks out there, but it does leave me hopeful that future incarnations are close by (without surgery). Whatever way this technology goes, and I believe it will go far if the marketing continues to be as slick as it has been, it’s clear the nerds – and more importantly the cultural influencers – love Project Glass.

So, media folk, I say this: Start making connections and beefing up your technology departments. Google I/O (Google’s Developer Conference) attendees were able to sign up for a beta, and they’ll start getting their units very soon. This technology or a version of it is coming, the only question is how soon.

Paul Armstrong is Head of Social for Mindshare; follow him at www.paularmstrong.net or on Twitter @TheMediaIsDying.

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If the world were your platform, what apps would you build?

Janko Roettgers — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 23:04:56 +0000

The media world just got used to producing content for mobile — and it’s already facing the next challenge: Soon, people could consume information on a device like Google’s Project Glass. An internet-connected set of glasses with a small display, able to overlay information on top of the real world. That’s a huge change, argues Atlantic writer Alexis Madrigal in a recent post titled “The World Is Not Enough: Google and the Future of Augmented Reality.” In it, he writes:

“Imagine you’ve got a real-time, spatial distribution platform. Imagine everyone reading about the place you’re writing about is standing right in front of it. All that talk about search engine and social optimization? We’re talking geo-optimization, each story banking on the shared experience of bodies co-located in space.”

The article is a great piece of tech writing; if you haven’t done so, you should definitely head over to the Atlantic’s website and read it in its entirety. But it also made me think: Who says media is the only thing that is going to change once we use a display that doesn’t function as a separate information entity, but instead overlays bits and pieces onto our view of the real world? And what about that camera, ready to capture whatever we see at any given time?

Chances are, the effects of Project Glass or devices like it are going to be felt far beyond the media world. Case in point: Google first introduced the device at its I/O developer conference earlier this year, and gave developers a chance to sign up for first beta versions of the device on the spot. I see that as a good indicator that Google is going to allow developers to build their own apps for Glass, with code either running directly on the device, or an API that gives apps running on your Android phone a way to exchange data with your Glass device.

Which begs the question: If your apps aren’t just running on a phone or a tablet anymore, but essentially on top of the real world — what kind of apps do you build?

It’s a fascinating question, and I suspect that we can only scratch the surface of it without actually having access to this kind of technology. But even with as little as we know now about Glass, possibilities abound:

Your video memory: An app could use the Glass camera and record videos of any conversation you have during the day. These videos could then be run through Google’s automatic captioning algorithms, which would instantly make them full-text searchable. Can’t remember the title of that book someone told you at that part last night? Just search your video memory, and you’ll be able to buy a copy with a few clicks. (Of course, this also gives Google’s goal of organizing “the world’s information and [making] it universally accessible and useful” a whole new meaning.)
The quantified world: Project Glass could take the idea of the quantified self to a whole new level. Fitbit may be able to track your exercise and sleep rhythm, but what if apps could track everything around you, turn it into data and guide your lifestyle choices? Your Glass app may notice that you haven’t seen all that much nature today, and suggest a walk in the park. Or maybe it will gamify social interaction. Got a smile from the cute barrista at your favorite coffee shop? Achievement unlocked!
Speaking of games: Can you imagine all the social gameplay that an internet-connected Glass display could enable? Forget MMORGs – it’s time for massively multiplayer live action gaming, where game play on computers and cell phones is extended with real-world action. Think Assassin on steroids.

Those are admittedly wild guesses, and chances are, we won’t really know what’s possible until developers actually have access to Glass. But why not collect a few ideas in the mean time? Feel free to leave your own thoughts on apps for the real world in comments — and make sure to check out GigaOM’s RoadMap conference next week in San Francisco to hear more about designing for a connected future.

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Forget Bad Piggies, check Angry Birds in augmented reality

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:13:38 +0000

Rovio may have launched its Angry Birds follow up, Bad Piggies, on Thursday, but I’m actually more impressed by a version of Angry Birds that’s a proof of concept. PendAR, a company that specializes in augmented and virtual reality solutions, created its own vision of what mobile gaming might look like in the future.

Here’s how it works. Using an integrated camera, a mobile device can “see” the world around it. PendAR’s technology looks for a certain image — in this case, a printed Angry Birds startup screen — and then superimposes the virtual game on top of the physical image. The game then becomes 3-D-like and part of the gamer’s actual environment. Take a look:

VentureBeat caught up with PendAR CEO, Mojtaba Tabatabaie, and learned that this version of Angry Birds isn’t coming to an app store near you. That makes sense, since the original game’s development shop, Rovio, would surely — and correctly — accuse PendAR of taking certain illegal liberties with the Angry Birds franchise.

So don’t expect to play Angry Birds with your home or office in the background. However, this technology demo has me thinking that we should see more augmented reality games in the future. Mobile device hardware is quickly improving to the point where any flagship phone can handle a virtual reality app with ease.

To date, the only type of apps to truly benefit from such technology are generally navigation-based, showing virtual directions and point of interest information on screen. We’ve gone from 2D to 3D gaming graphics some time ago, so what’s the next big step? Augmented reality games on mobiles makes sense to me; at least until we can project interactive holographic games, that is.

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Telefónica bets on augmented reality with Aurasma tie-in

David Meyer — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:29:56 +0000

One of the platforms for that great unrealized piece of mobile tech, augmented reality, has just got a big boost. Aurasma, which was created by Autonomy in its pre-HP-acquisition days, has inked a deal with the Spanish telecoms giant Telefónica.

The deal will see Aurasma, which allows print and outdoor advertising to trigger interactive content through mobile apps, integrated into Telefónica Digital’s advertising services. Telefónica suggested that the functionality would plug into its location-based marketing and mobile couponing services.

The telco will also promote the Aurasma Android and iOS apps to its 300 million customers around the world.

“Augmented reality has the potential to fundamentally change advertising, transforming current static formats and introducing new levels of interactivity,” Telefónica Digital ad chief Shaun Gregory said in a statement.

Augmented reality is one of those technologies that seemed to be waiting for the advent of the smartphone, combining the camera with connectivity and a capable processor to overlay all sorts of imagery and interactive content on top of live, real-world imagery.

Yet, despite the early days producing innovative mash-ups of useful location-relevant information, it is now seen primarily as a marketing tool. Even the pioneering Layar is now pushing that as its primary angle.

And there’s no question that the technology fits with marketing particularly well. Last week Qualcomm gave me a demo of recent ads capitalizing on its Vuforia platform, a big rival to Aurasma. It’s quite something watching a model of a running shoe pop off the page, for example, then split into segments to show the customer how it’s built.

Advertisers are certainly keen. The Vuforia tech is used in 1,500 apps, and Aurasma’s in around 400. And the various layers of the mobile value chain are staking their bets too, as the keenness of Qualcomm and Telefónica demonstrates.

But it’s not something I see people doing in day-to-day life just yet, and that’s where the problem lies.

In a way, I would lump augmented reality in with QR codes, another mobile technology seized upon enthusiastically by advertisers and few others. Both technologies require the active participation of the consumer – you do not by default wander around with your phone held out in front of you.

On top of that, very few people I know would actively seek out enhanced advertising, unless there’s something in it for them. If augmented reality had taken off three or four years ago, through the fun and informative stuff it originally promised, perhaps people would be used to it by now. But they’re not, and advertising is a pretty lousy way to get people using a technology as a matter of course.

Perhaps the only way to truly make augmented reality a no-brainer is through something like Google Glass, which is in front of your eyes by default. Even then, would people want to frequently see enhanced ads jumping around in their field of vision? Some may; many will not.

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