Finally safe driving with augmented reality navigation, Wikitude Drive.

Congratulations to Andy Gstoll, Andi Hauser and Martin Herdina for launching Wikitude Drive! As you probably know we are augmented reality fanatics so every new product or service that comes to market we have to see for ourselves! Well… it’s not a big secret that Wikitude has been working on Wikitude Drive and so we are very happy that they have launched it in the Android market. Now we just hope that Amsterdam is on their roadmap ;).

Wikitude drive is the worlds first fully functional mobile AR navigation system with global coverage (for Android 2.1 and above). It is a light weight turn-by-turn navigation system that uses Augmented Reality. Wikitude Drive launched in Austria, Germany and Switzerland!! All other countries, please stay tuned!

The system works by attaching your mobile phone on top of your dash board looking at the road. The application then overlays video captured through the camera with driving instructions. This allows users to literally drive through their phone, watching the road even while they are looking at directions.

Wikitude Drive distinguishes itself from other navigation systems in two ways: First, due to the overlaying of the route onto the live video stream of the surroundings, the driver can easily recognize and follow the suggested route. Instead of looking at an abstract map you are looking at the real world. The navigation system leads the driver through unfamiliar territory in a natural, real and easy way.

Secondly, Wikitude Drive solves a key problem that all other navigation systems have. These systems require the driver to take his eyes off the road in order to look at the abstract navigation map. Just by looking at the map screen for one second when driving at 100 km/h (62 mph), the driver is actually “blind” for 28 meters (92 ft). Think about how much can happen in those precious meters. Since Wikitude Drive provides you with driving directions on top of the live video stream, you still see what is happening in front of you when looking at the display of your mobile AR navigation system.

In some driving conditions however, for example when driving in the dark, a traditional map is in fact advantageous. With just one tap on the cell phone’s touch screen, you can switch between the Augmented Reality view and the traditional 3D map-view. To give you additional navigational directions, voice commands are provided as well.

Navigational data comes from Navteq, a global supplier of mapping and routing information. A future version of Wikitude Drive will integrate with Wikitude World Browser to offer millions of Points of Interests to leverage the full power of the Internet and user generated content.

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The next big promise for mobile augmented reality by Safari.

This is what we’ve been waiting for… The first step towards a true mobile augmented reality browser is being taken by Safari. The Next Web just posted this revealing article about this little new feature of the new mobile Safari 4.2+. So thanks to TNW who published this article we get a sneak peak into the future!

Occipital, the company behind the grand app recently profiled by TNW, 360 Panorama, has discovered something new and exciting contained within the Safari Mobile Browser.

To use what Occipital’s discovered note that you’ll need an iPhone or iPod Touch with iOS 4.2 and gyroscope support to see the new mobile Safari magic.

What you’ll see is something, as far as our research can determine, which has never before been experienced in a mobile browser.

What is it exactly?

Occipital has uncovered a little known feature that only appeared with the release of Safari Mobile 4.2.  The feature involves using HTML and gyroscope support for panorama viewing right inside Safari Mobile 4.2+.  It’s an AR-like experience right through the built-in browser.

Super neat and here’s what you can do with the feature, now live, when you visit http://occip.it/pt3dmqna from Safari’s Mobile browser:

After you capture a panorama with the 360 Panorama app, one can upload the picture, getting the URL to view the experience in Safari Mobile.  In essence, the raw jpeg image files are hosted on either TwitPic or yFrog after a user uploads a panorama through 360 Panorama.

After launching the URL in Safari Mobile, one will see “Gyro ON” and simply by moving your phone in any direction, you can have a complete panoramic experience using the photo you’ve captured.  Moreover,  experiences can be viewed on TwitPic, or the location of the experience using Apple’s “Maps” app.

Absolutely incredible.

As for 360 Panorama, Vikas Reddy, Co-Founder of Occipital, provided us with the following stats on the app’s growth since its update:

• “We’ve been the #1 App Store photography app in the US and 20+ other countries.”
• “Will cross 20K panoramas UPLOADED (hundreds of thousands captured) this week despite only having Twitter integration.”
• “On track to exceed 800K panorama views by the end of the month.”

Uncovering an amazing new Safari Mobile feature and incredible stats for a fantastic app, 360 Panorama.  Occipital is on the rise and you’ll definitely want to check out today’s latest release.

How augmented reality will influence FIFA World Cup 2022

I just NEEDED to share this inspirational video with you!

Briks Mágikos augmented

I just found this super cool case on a website called behance.net

Objective: with no option of using TV support and very little resources, our challenge was to communicate a new promotional campaign with a simple but revolutionary idea: digitalise the milk-carton, turning it into a magic brik through the use of aumented reality.

Creative solution: we carried out an Internet-based PR campaign creating a limited edition exclusive pack with a beta version of the AR-games and invited some bloggers thus placing the job of spreading the news into their hands.