START VIDEO

As you might remember we used Aurasma to create an augmented reality experience for the Dutch Effie awards 2011 where we augmented 43 of the best Dutch marketing cases right here in Amsterdam on the Rembrandplein. Now one of the largest Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf has shown great initiative by using mobile augmented reality on the Aurasma platform to enhance almost an entire newspaper.

Not just the front page but also editorial content and more throughout the newspaper just became interactive in this Christmas special. I know the guys at Aurasma are extatic about this and so are we! I will do a full report and video presentation for you all who are outside of the Netherlands after the holidays but for now enjoy these screenshots. And for you all who are in the Netherlands… go and get your Telegraaf because this is really the first sign of a fantastic new development…

If you want to know more: read my Dutch trend prediction about bridging the gap between print and mobile here.

Note: sorry for the crappy screenshots but my new Samsung Galaxy Nexus takes really bad screenshots… 

Article by Brian Wassom on Wassom.com

For one thing, the United States recently changed its approach to determining patent priority.  It used to be that even if someone else beat you to the punch in applying to register an invention, you could undo their patent by proving that you invented it first.  No longer, thanks to the America Invents Act that President Obama signed into law on September 16, 2011.  Starting in 2013, it will be the “first to file,” not the “first to invent,” who wins.

That, of course, is the system that Europe and virtually the entire rest of the world already uses.

For another thing, others are already patenting their augmented reality inventions.

The AR industry stood up and took notice a few months ago when Apple filed these AR-related patent applications for the iPad:

U.S. Patent App. 20110164163 (July 7, 2011)

But AR has been in the process of “emerging” for years now–plenty long enough for all sorts of companies and inventors to get their ideas registered.  Here are just a few examples culled from the public patent records:

U.S. Patent 7,979,877 B2 (July 12, 2011)

WO 2009/018139 A1 (Feb. 5, 2009)

U.S. Patent No. 6,297,853 B1

U.S. Patent No. 5,742,521

 U.S. Patent No. 5,566,251

U.S. 2011/0090252 A1 (Oct. 15, 2010)

U.S. 2011/0134108 A1 (Dec. 7, 2009)

U.S. 2011/0141254 A1 (Nov. 17, 2010)

U.S. 2011/0151944 A1 (Nov. 30, 2010)

U.S. 6,500,008 (Dec. 31, 2002)

U.S. 7,215,322 (May 8, 2007)

U.S. 2011/0065496 (Sep. 10. 2010)

These are just a few of the more visually interesting registrations and applications on file.   As of Dec. 10, 2011, a search for “augmented reality” in the Google Patents search engine on returned “about 11,100 hits.”

There is, of course, still plenty of room for innovation in the augmented reality field.  Just not quite as much room as some might assume.

And as anyone reading the tech headlines lately knows, patent litigation is all the rage nowadays.  Anyone and everyone with a patent, it seems, is suing or being sued by a competitor with a similar patent or product.  Especially with respect to smartphones and tablets–precisely the platforms on which consumer AR is just starting to take off.

If you’re serious about succeeding with your AR business plan–and especially if you hope to attract investors–it would be well worth your time to research the existing patent landscape in your field, and get your patent application on file as soon as reasonably possible.  You owe it to yourself  to at least consult a patent attorney.

Gossip about the goings-on inside Google’s secret ‘Google X’ lab – the ‘blue sky ideas’ department where the company’s engineers come up out-there products – included the idea of ‘wearable computing’.

Until this week, most had assumed that meant hi-tech watches running Google’s Android phone operating system.

Now it seems the search giant may be working on a much more exciting technology – computer glasses with transparent screens that superimpose information on the real world.

Prototype transparent screens have already been demonstrated at technology shows – so the idea of ‘wearable’ computer glasses is not as out-there as it sounds

‘They are in late prototype stages of wearable glasses that look similar to thick-rimmed glasses that normal people wear,’ reported Google specialist Seth Weintraub on 9to5Google, reporting information from an unnamed source at the search giant.

The technology is reported to be an ‘open secret’.

‘However, these provide a display with a heads up computer interface.  There are a few buttons on the arms of the glasses, but otherwise, they could be mistaken for normal glasses.’ Weintraub reported that Google had recently employed MIT wearable computing specialist Richard DuVal, whose PhD was entitled The Memory Glasses.Various prototype transparent screens have been demonstrated by companies such as Samsung, so the idea is not as out-there as it sounds.

They are in late prototype stages of wearable glasses that look similar to thick-rimmed glasses that normal people wear,’ reported Seth Weintraub on 9to5Google

The glasses will run a version of Google’s Android – which ties in with reports in the New York Times about the company’s ambition to export its popular phone operating system to wearable computers.

In glasses, though, Google’s Android search box – which already uses GPS to find nearby ‘answers’ to searches – could be even more powerful.

Instead of having to look in the mapping application to ‘see’ where things are, the information could simply be layered on top. With Google working on a voice-control system similar to Apple’s Siri, such devices could do away with the need for a touchscreen at all.

Google has admitted to an ‘experimental’ division where out-there ideas are trialled – and allows engineers to spend up to 20 per cent of their time on ideas as wacky as robot workers and talking fridges

Google has already admitted to the existence of a secret laboratory – described as ‘Google X’ – where scientists work on wild, out-there ideas. Most Google employees are not even aware the lab exists. ’Google has always invested in speculative R&D projects – it’s part of our DNA,’ said a spokesperson.

‘While the possibilities are incredibly exciting, the sums involved are very small by comparison to the investments we make in our core businesses. In terms of details, we don’t comment on speculation.’

The lab is reportedly located in Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters – known as ‘the Googleplex’.

Engineers are free to work on projects such as connected fridges that order groceries when they run low – or even tableware that can connect to social networks. Other Google engineers have reportedly researched ideas as far-out as elevators to space.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is reportedly deeply involved in the lab. It’s known, for example, that his business card is simply a piece of silvery metal decorated with the letter X.

Brin, a robot enthusiast, once attended a conference via a robot with a screen showing his face. It’s not unusual for tech companies to have ‘ideas labs’ hidden away from their ordinary workers – at Apple, for instance, Jonathan Ive’s design lab where devices such as iPads are perfected, is guarded as if it was a weapons facility.

Google leadership Larry Page, Sergei Brin and Eric Schmidt in one of the company’s fleet of self-driving cars

Google X, though, is far less conservative than Ive’s design lab.

The lab is reportedly investigating the idea of people ‘working from home’ via robots with screens for ‘faces’ – an idea also being tested by legendary game developer Richard Garriott. It’s not alien to the company – which also has a fleet of self-driving cars that have clocked up more than 100,000 miles on Californian roads so far.

Google is now rumoured to be readying the ‘self drive’ vehicles for sale.

A typical Googler’s cubicle. The company is known for attracting high-powered – but often eccentric – ‘ideas people’

Famously, Google always allowed engineers ’20 per cent time’ – a portion of their working hours devoted to more experimental projects.

While Google ‘culled’ 10 of its less successful experimental projects earlier this year, and also got rid of its ‘Labs’ section, where ordinary users could test experimental products, some thought that the company was focusing on its ‘core’ business, and eliminating its more zany ideas.

But it seems ’20 per cent time’ is alive and well – and living in the Google X lab.
Article by: ROB WAUGH of Dailymail.co.uk

While the article focuses on the ubiquity of QR codes for instant product discovery we take this still a step further, as we predict that 2012 will see an entire new class of Augmented Reality applications, integrated in existing native Apps, focusing on instant visual object recognition and enhancement.

We are seeing a few examples of these apps emerging right now, mostly for vertical markets like enhanced printed magazines (including advertising) or TV shows. In the generic space, Google Goggles is going in a much more visual driven direction, making smart use of the increasing capabilities of current mobile devices.

The relevance of this trend lies in the fact that common people will get acquainted with the idea that they can reveal extra information, entertainment, anything by just looking at an image through their phones. This also means that they will come to expect that every product – beginning with the major brands – will tell something about itself through visual recognition powered by Augmented Reality.

No longer is this feature an exclusive experience for geeks and avant-garde users, who are willing to take a side step and dive into technical steps to get extra info. Scanning a QR code is still such an activity which can be cut out of the process using visual recognition and virtual object superposition.

This also means that the whole process from seeing an image or object and getting more information about it stays entirely in the realm of the right hemisphere of the brain, without requiring a side step to the analytical activities which reside in the left hemisphere of the brain.

In other words: don’t make me think, skip to the results straight away. Augmented Reality applications deliver on this promise.

Read all about trend Point  & Know at trendwatching.com

But… I’m wondering off…. Why I was writing this piece is that Google Goggle has just launched a permanent scan feature… this is so cool because they didn’t have this before.. You had to take a picture of the object that you wanted to recognize but now you can just scan the world to see if they recognize anything in their databases.

Now coming back to my previous point… now when you are using this scanner to get information then Google will presents the information as promised. But now imagine that when you use the scanner and it becomes an option to augment the search content on-top  of the scanned object… That is what I meant with “augmented reality is a presentation model.” My prognosis is that in the near future Google will integrate augmented reality as a content presentation form for adwords. At TAB Worldmedia we believe we have to be ready to service this form of content presentation… this will make mobile search so much more appealing!

Read the following announcement on one of Google’s blogs:

Continuous improvements with Google Goggles 1.7

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 | 10:25 AM

 With Google Goggles, you can quickly add someone to your contacts, learn about paintings, translate foreign text, and even solve Sudoku. Starting today, with Goggles 1.7 for Android, we’re making your visual search experience much faster and providing better results with new features like continuous mode, improved text recognition and contributed results.

Skip the shutter with continuous mode

Continuous mode is a quick and easy new way to use Goggles. You can now get results instantly without having to take a picture – no shutter press required! Goggles will scan the scene continuously so you don’t need to worry about taking multiple pictures. The new continuous mode works best with books, products, artwork, and landmarks. Snapshot mode is still available, and has some tricks that aren’t in continuous mode yet, including translating text and adding a contact. Also, images recognized in continuous mode sessions won’t show up in your Goggles Search History, so if you’d like to refer back to something, such as a painting in a gallery you should use snapshot mode.

Goggles also scans multiple items in continuous mode

Get richer results with text recognition

Starting today, when Goggles recognizes a portion of text, you’ll get results that have a close match to the text you’ve scanned. Let’s say you’re reading a magazine article you really like and want to share it with your friends. Just point Goggles at a part of the page, and instantly find a link to an online version to share immediately or read again later. You won’t even need the entire article in the frame. Goggles will also pull up more information from pages around the web where that text is mentioned, so its easier to learn about what you’re seeing.

Goggles finds web results to provide more information

More comprehensive results with your suggestions

Since Goggles 1.4, you’ve been able to suggest better results when Goggles doesn’t recognize what you’re searching for. To date, hundreds of thousands of submissions have been made to improve Goggles. Starting today, if you choose to suggest a better result or submit a new object altogether, your suggestion could become a result for the next user who searches for a similar object with Goggles. I’ve added a snapshot of the album cover from my old band so that my fans can use Goggles to find out about our music online. Now, if a fan searches for the cover of our album, they will see the information I suggested, along with my name and link to my Google profile.

 

Submitting the result for my band’s album cover

Google Goggles 1.7 is available for all Android devices, but you’ll need a device running Android 2.3 or newer to use Continuous Mode. Scan the QR code below to download, or visitAndroid Market. Tell us what you think on our Google + page.

Download the new Goggles in Android Market

Posted by David Petrou, Software Engineer

Logically it seems that it should be only a short time from now that we should expect that some kind of AR plugin is allowed to be integrated into the mobile browsers. Or the AR functionality including location and image recognition should be integrated into mobile browsers all together.

From the other side mobile AR apps like Junaio, Wikitude, Layar and Aurasma already offer the possibility to integrate standard browser functionality’s (and yes even HTML5) on top of their techniques.

So my question is:

When do you think mobile augmented reality will be available on mobile browsers like Safari, Opra and Firefox?

I’ve posted this question on Quora so feel free to respond there or here…

A funny detail is that Disney put up their augmented reality screen right next to the epic “Forever 21″ augmented reality screen.

And because I don’t want to share just the well directed commercial… check out this vid.

The display is also serving to kickstart Disney’s second “Let the Memories Begin” campaign.

That effort includes crowdsourced home videos and photos of real families visits to the Disney Parks. Visitors to the Times Square installation will be emailed photos from the experience that can be shared across social platforms.

Disney is using the hashtag #DisneyMemories to track experiences at Times Square and throughout the campaign.

Source: Christina Warren Mashable

The good thing is that brands and advertising agencies are finding their way to TAB Worldmedia for inquiries to get their own mobile augmented reality experience and high profile projects like the Volkswagen Beetle Juiced campaign, Starbucks Cup Magic and the upcoming National Geographic Flying Monsters 3D campaign that we’re launching. Those campaigns really help drive traffic to our website and blog. So everyone… I’m really looking forward to more fantastic mobile AR campaigns… If you spot one… or created one… sent them over to remco@tabworldmedia.com

Since the dawn of the X-ray, teenage boys have dreamed of glasses that would see through clothing. Now, they have an app: MoosejawXRAY

Outerwear retailer Moosejaw has released an augmented reality app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices that lets users see through the clothing featured in its winter catalog. Male and female models are shown stripped down to their under-layers when the app is positioned over catalog pages, as shown in the video above.

Of the many augmented reality apps we’ve seen to date, this is arguably the most inventive. It’s an effective way to bolster buzz and engagement with a relatively unknown catalog, but we wonder if it rather, ah, distracts from the clothes themselves.

[via Creativity Online & Mashables' Lauren Indvik]

I just came across this QR code campaign that was developed by (or for) J.C. Penny. And I must say that I like the creative and commercial angle that they are using…

Ok now some of you might wonder why I post this… and think that has nothing to do with mobile augmented reality but I have to disagree on that point.
For me… Mobile augmented reality in a broader sense is about concepts where digital and real world interact with each other. But my philosophy about that will be in our upcoming marketing book.

Ok… the video’s below are not much fun to look at BUT they do allow you to experience this great app from behind your Macbooks.

Do go on… download the app from the appstore and enjoy!

RAMP ACTION

TUNNEL DRIVE

BILLOARD PUNCH

HoloDesk is a novel interactive system combining an optical see through display and Kinect camera to create the illusion that users are directly interacting with 3D graphics. A virtual image of a 3D scene is rendered through a half silvered mirror and spatially aligned with the real-world for the viewer.
Users easily reach into an interaction volume displaying the virtual image. This allows the user to literally get their hands into the virtual display. A novel real-time algorithm for representing hands and other physical objects, which are sensed by the Kinect inside this volume, allows physically realistic
interaction between real and virtual 3D objects.

Have a look to see what we’ve cooked up… surf with your Android or iPhone to http://m.effie.nl

For now… I’m off to the Award ceremony… I’ll keep you posted via Twitter: @TABworldmedia and @remcovrOOm

UPDATE  H23:43

Hey… I’m back from the Award ceremony and it was fantastic! We received a lot of compliments from the guests about the web app. It was kind of hard for most to use the AR app because the 3G networks were very slow the whole day. There was some heavy weather with lots of clouds and rain which seemed to be interfering with the mobile network speed. That’s a shame but also a good learning point. During the time it was dry I took the opportunity to show off our AR production to a group of marketeers and advertising pro’s.

UPDATE  October 15th

So Cool! The Dutch magazine for Advertising pro’s Adformatie has promoted our AR feature in their mag.

Looking forward to hearing more from Blippar!

So 5 Stars for Vodafone!

Download the VNZMA 2011 app and bring your phone to life with some clever augmented reality. Plus see whos nominated for the awards, vote for the Vodafone People’s Choice Award and heaps more.

Check it out here http://play.vodafone.co.nz/music/vnzma/app

We borrowed this image from WIRED.com please view their nice tribute to one of the greatest futurist of our time.

This concept movie triggered a lot of interest, both favorable and worried reactions (big brother…). Many people took it even literal and were expecting that such an app was around the corner and soon available for their Android or iPhone.

In reality the technology was not ready for this type of application yet, and TAT has been acquired by RIM since and works on mobile UI development instead.

So… can we conclude that mobile face recognition with all of its interesting social implications was just a dream?

Not at all, as a very interesting paper from a group of Carnegie Mellon University researchers describes in great detail (presented at the BlackHat USA conference, this August).

The paper is titled Faces of Facebook: Privacy in the Age of Augmented Reality (PDF) and describes a series of experimental setups where personal information about unsuspecting people was retrieved from public accessible sources on the internet, based on a webcam snapshot of their face. In the current, limited setup only publicly available Facebook profile images were used for reference but it is easily imaginable that many, many more sources of reference images can be used.

Also, for now the matching process takes some time (a couple of seconds at least) which makes the real-time, online application not feasible yet, but with the pace of technology we can expect that this is only a matter of time before the application will be optimized to run in near real-time.

There is a lot more to it, the researchers’ Face Recognition FAQ provides interesting background information.

For us the real interesting question is: how will this technology be used? A lot of applications come to mind, many of them scary and maybe unwanted, but personally I would really like to be able to set my Social Network Aura and adapt it to the situation just like the guy in the TAT video does before going to college.

Now combine that with AR glasses and we’re in for some real new social experience…

Also I believe that the definition of mobile augmented reality will have a broader perspective in the future. At TAB Worldmedia we use the definition “Augmented Reality is there where the real World and digital World interact with each other”. In that perspective this app by Lego is very foreseeing.

We salute the Lego team once more… thank you for this great concept!

Aurasma offers a fantastic range of standard capabilities for brands to easily start exploring the potential of the platform. For those of you who know us… we always aim to see how we can create more unique content experiences than the standard capabilities offer. After a couple of weeks  of concept programming, for a client of ours, we were very impressed with the backend of Aurasma and what is allows us to do creatively and commercially.

Check out this little test that we did in our local zoo Artis.

Check out the video and if you’re exited to give it a try… just take out your Android- or iPhone and go to the Layar.com website. You will be guided to the app-store suitable for your phone.

Of course we’re very  proud that Layar chose to use our Instagram channel for this demonstration.

This incredible short film was created by Bruce Branit of branitfx.com

Check out the vid:

All I can say is that we can’t wait for the insideAR conference to take place in September and like last year… TAB Worldmedia will be there! We’ll be taking a seat in one of the public panel discussions, be active on the expo floor and participate on the second day which is exclusively for Metaio partners.

Watch the demo of the augmented city here:

Metaio presents: “The Augmented City”. Experience how the vision of AR turns into a roadmap. At insideAR 2011, Sept. 26th/27th, Munich, Germany. More information: http://www.metaio.com/events/insidear-2011/

Have a look at it and we’ll report more on this case as soon as we find out.

Also view: Lego box by Metaio

Finally the word is out… as you may expect from us we we’re already informed about this at an earlier stage but today the word is out! Layar introduces a new feature to it’s AR functionalities that will make the product even more complete. Also this morning @kingyiu from Layar dropped by the TAB Worldmedia office to discuss the first projects that we’re already have in production that make use of this new feature. In our opinion this is a great time for Layar to come out with this feature as the highly competitive mobile AR market is rapidly evolving and clients are expecting more integrated experiences.

Have a look at this promo film from Layar.

(actor: @groenhart)

Quote from Tech Crunch: “

Thus today Layar, the largest of the mobile augmented reality platforms, is launching Layar Vision. As implied, Layar will now be able to recognize real world objects and show digital content on top of them. It works particularly well with posters, magazines and newspapers.

The Layar platform is already used by over 10,000 developers worldwide on 10 million mobile devices. This extension of the platform wil be of particular interest to brands and publishers wanting new ways to engage with customers. Right now it can instantaneously detect up to 50 objects and combine them with location-based layers.

As Layar co-founder and General Manager Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, puts it: “Mobile devices can finally ‘see’”.

As a dive fanatic, one of my dreams is to use mobile augmented reality for my sport. In the eyes of critics it might not be the most sexy 3D whooptydoo experience but I believe many divers will be very exited to get a glimpse of what’s below the sea level. If you’re a bit familiar with diving you know that almost every dive site in the World is documented in maps. And many statistics like wind- and current conditions can be taken realtime from online databases. Also the dive community is very well known for the millions of breathtaking pictures and film-clips that we all take during our underwater journey’s. Most of them are even tagged with geographical locations these days. Who knows… maybe in the future we can even integrate the visualization of GPS tagged sharks? That might come in handy when you want to spot one in the wild.

CONCEPT BOARD

We usually don’t share our concepts before we’ve fully executed them but in this case we want your feedback on how we can make this the absolute best mobile application for us divers. Participate by sharing your ideas below or via email (remco@tabworldmedia.com) of what we need to integrate in this app and follow the process of how we are building it.

FYI: the background picture is from my recent diving trip in Egypt.

However… I’m not gonna bore you with long stories now… just have a look at the promo video and let us know what you think!

If you have your mobile phone with you type in: http://m.efteling.com/rabokluis or scan this QR code…