Sergey Brin shows why augmented reality is THE Social Media tool of tomorrow with Google Glass.

We all know that Sergey Brin loves extreme sports and it is great to see that this particular hobby of his inspires Google to take huge steps in developing their consumer augmented reality Glass product. In one of the most impressive live on stage presentations yet he got a whole team of his buddies to demonstrate Googles’ augmented reality vision in a way to show that AR is not for tech minds only.

One of Google’s big plans for Glass was to help users capture and share the world as they see it, but that’s clearly not all. As we’ve seen in the concept video, it’s also about facilitating communication and putting more information — think navigation information, or a user’s current speed. The possibilities are certainly “incredible,” but why is Google showing it off? According to Brin, it was because of three things — Google thought it was amazing (it is), it’s very visually striking, and because they wanted to appeal to the developer community. As such, U.S. based developers will be able to pre-order a beta build only at I/O, for the low, low price of $1500.

Advertisement

Metaio shows their augmented driver assistance on windshield displays concepts.

On another note… our business partner Metaio shares their skills and future projects through this fantastic video.

Eleven partners from the German automotive industry join forces to explore innovative technologies and concepts for boosting energy efficiency in vehicles. Firstly, cars are to become “intelligent” and, for example, use knowledge of the planned route to develop proactive operating strategies designed to save energy and, based on this, initiate appropriate responses in good time on the part of the car or driver. Secondly, the vehicle power supply and associated components are to be specifically tailored to the possibilities of these intelligent operating strategies. The project is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (BMBF) and supervised by the VDI TZ.

Layar introduces a powerful easy online tool for creating augmented print magazines.

Today Layar launched the Layar Creator, a self-service web application for activating print pages with digital content. By simplifying and demystifying previously complex AR technology, the Layar Creator makes it quick and easy to bring once static pages to life with videos, links and “Buy” buttons that readers can view with their smartphone.

In a matter of seconds, anyone can upload images or PDFs, drag-and-drop any of a number of digital buttons onto the pages and publish them on the Layar platform. When readers view activated pages with the Layar app, these buttons appear on top of the page.

And here it is: Layar Creator places the power of interactive print at everyone’s fingertips (official press release)

The video below explains it all:

And that it’s really easy proves that I created an augmented item on top of our title bar in just a few minutes.

Check it out by launching layar and aim it at the title bar on top of this page.

Wow that was easy! So… is this the end of Layar creation agencies??????

No it is not… 😉 This is just the 1st step to maturity of mobile augmented reality. This creation tool will help publishers to create the 1st level of editorial augmented layer on their magazines. We expect that this will create a demand for real creative and hyper interactive concepts on top of this service. Just imagine agencies like TAB Worldmedia using their years of experience as Layar augmented creation agency to create environments for gaming concepts, interactive real time connections with other services like the weather, integrating location based augmented reality and so on.

Due to the pre-launch of the layar creation tool at TAB Worldmedia we have seen an increase in requests from publishers to work with them to find the right balance between editorial augmented content, commercial augmented contend and content that has high entertainment value. And create fantastic augmented concepts for the brands that advertise in their magazines!

So Raimo, Claire, Maarten and the rest of the Layar team… congratulations and thanks for this great product that will help our mission to transform Augmented Reality to Augmented Media.

Today Layar will announce its biggest launch yet!

An exiting day for the Layar team today as the company will announce, as they are calling it them selves, its biggest launch yet. Of course insiders to the company already know what’s coming but for the public and the print publishing industry this new product, service or brand is announced to be a business changer. As certified creation and development agency for Layar augmented reality concepts we will be following the media announcements closely.

Update: read our first review here!