How many of you shop at Ikea..!!! Even more..how many of you actually fix the IKEA furniture yourself.. personally speaking, I just furnished my home (as a student) with all the IKEA shopping, but eventually "outsourced" the job of fixing / building the furniture to another guy who my "portero" introduced me to..I paid him just about 100 Eurs (way cheaper than what IKEA charges) and my job was done. However, the only reason for this was that i just couldnt figure out which screw goes where and how and a single mistake would probably land up in my wardrobe falling apart in the middle of the night..Nightmarish!!!

See what Augmented Reality can do to IKEA and soon gonna come our way..Making our lives more convenient than ever..!!!

More AR and advertising

The watch manufactuer Tissot created a campaign in which the customer, with a paper bracelet, could test different Tissot watches in a screen. All the function were activated by touch.

The customers could access it in a store in London and in Tissot`s website. Watch the video:

Toyota made a campaign in July 2011 with the project "Window to the world", it's a concept that allows using AR in the car windows to project whatever the customer wants, as children entertainment, zoom outside objects or text translation, to name a few ones. 

Enjoy it!

Augmented Reality and Advertising: High growth strategy in Brazil

It is common to see advertising campaigns using augmented reality in Europe, US and Asia. But what about Brazil, the country is growing at high rates and don't want to stay behind this trend.

In a interview, Leonardo Gmeiner, CEO of Intuitive Appz said: "the use of augmented reality has a lot of advantages, as we can see below:

• Improve the relation with the customers and the loyalty with the brand
• Acquire new tech savvy customers
• Create a perception that the company is innovative

(Extracted from HSM, january/2012)
 
Campaigns in Brazil

A few advertising campaigns were successful in the country and proved that this combination between theses areas can improve the relationship with the customers.

One of this campaigns was solicited by Foroni, a notebook manufacturer, to Intuitive Appz and included the challenge of creating a innovative strategy to acquire young clients. The augmented reality was used to launch two new lines of products: Cars 2 and Barbie. The campaign used the notebook covers to direct kids to play online games.

In other industry, the real estate developer Rossi took its customers to a helicopter flight and, through a laptop, the customers could see a new Rossi development in 3D over the empty terrain.

Magnifier

"By showing the development virtually even before the construction has started, increased the perception of the customer about the dimensions, showed them how it would look like and helped them to make a faster decision." said Vivian Cukier, marketing manager of Rossi. (Extracted from HSM, january/2012)

According to her, beyond the increase in sales, this combination (adverstising and AR) helped the company to have higher penetration in social networks and to associate its brand with innovation.

As we can see, the usage of AR in different industry and purposes are increasing fast, even in countries outside the Europe and US. The adversting forecast using AR is estimated to reach $ 350 M in 2014 only in Brazil.

Augmented Reality allows astronauts an instant medical knowledge

In this post we decided to introduce you an AR medical solution the ease astronauts lives dramatically.


ESA introduced CAMDASS, a new AR unit which provide the medical expertise to astronauts.The unit is head mounted and displays 3D guidance for diagnosing and even surgery! This new invention ignites our minds about the future possibilities in medicine.

To date CAMDASS focus on ultrasound examinations but in the future it could guide other procedures. Ultrasound was chosen due its effectiveness as a diagnostic tool and by its availability in the International Space Station.


As the discussion on long distance space travel continues, astronautics must be able to help themselves and their fellow astronauts. When facing a severe medical problem, any minute is crucial and thus discussions with experts on the ground may results in deadly consequences.

CAMDASS is using a head-mounted display and an ultrasound tool tracked via an infrared camera. The patient is tracked using markers which are marked on the interest sites. An ultrasound device is linked with CAMDASS and the system allows the patient’s body to be ‘registered’ to the camera and the display calibrated to each wearer’s vision.

3D augmented reality cue cards are then displayed in the headset to guide the wearer. These are provided by matching points on a ‘virtual human’ and the registered patient. After first testings, untrained users were able to perform difficult procedures with no other help!

The project is funded by ESA’s Basic Technology Research Programme.
Prototype development was led by a consortium Space Applications Services NV in collaboration with a support from the Technical University of Munich and the DKFZ German Cancer Research Centre. 


We found this topic of Medical AR technology fascinating and will keep close eye on future development and of course keep you posted!


Great week!

Want The Jarvis Interface? There’s an App for that…

Want The Jarvis Interface? There’s an App for that…

The most memorable scenes for me in the movie adaptation of Iron Man were the interactions between Tony Stark/Iron Man and Jarvis - the digital interface he uses, as well as the force controlling the impressive holographic display in Tony’s workshop that allows his character to create an interactive digital universe that he seamlessly manipulates with hand gestures. It looked spectacular and left me enthralled!

This captivating innovation that enables physical interactions with virtual objects seen in movies like Iron Man and Minority Report isn’t merely a future imagined in Hollywood films. A project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has made this sci-fi inspired technology a reality.

T(ether) is an experimental app created by students, Matthew Blackshaw, Dávid Lakatos, Hiroshi Ishii, and Ken Perlin at MIT’s Media Lab. It combines three amazing features: gestural interfaces, augmented reality and collaborative workspaces.

T(ether) uses the iPad to view a shared virtual space that allows the user to manipulate objects using a special motion-track glove. The glove is embedded with sensors, which you hold in one hand, and in the other you hold the iPad, fit with the motion capture camera, to see into the virtual world in front of you. While tracking your head and hand movement, the app gives you a perspective of the environment, augmented with the ability to collaboratively create and edit three-dimensional objects. You can draw 3-D shapes, rotate, pinch, zoom, and examine them in a multi-user environment. Two people looking through their iPad’s can both reach in independently and manipulate the objects on their screens simultaneously.

It is this collaborative aspect that provides exciting possibilities for anyone who designs 3-D systems on a computer who could benefit from the viewing and manipulation capabilities of T(ether) such as animators, architects and industrial designers. 3-D data can be viewed and edited in collaboration with others. Users can perform object manipulation using a pinch-to-zoom style of movement. Just like the Jarvis interface.

You can watch the spellbinding demo of T(ether) below:

Sky rocket race league – 3D raceway in the sky!!!

Rocket Racing League is unconventional new sport, where highly trained pilots fly rocket powered aircraft through a 3D virtual Raceway-In-The-Sky (RITS). Think of Formula One race in the sky with a slight difference of using a rocket powered aircraft!!! Star Wars here we come!!!

RRL will feature multiple types of rocket races: drag-style racing, closed circuit, head-to-head races of 2-10 participants. The pilots will race by using an RRL-developed Raceway-In-The-Sky (RITS) – a custom Cockpit-based Augmented Reality System projected onto 3D helmet displays. In addition, fans will be able to see the racing live on screens, televisions and PCs enabling a unique experience, giving fans the sensation feeling of participating in the race alongside the well known pilots.

The integrated display helmet provides an essential link between the pilot, aircraft and audience. It enables RRL pilots to receive mission and race critical flight information directly onto their helmet visor within their natural line-of-sight therefore increasing safety and performance. The display shows raceway geometry, altitude, speed, gravitational pull and other parameters directly in front of the aviator’s eyes on a crisp off-the-visor display that adjusts in real time.

This amazing  new  exciting way to race is brought by using the  revolutionary Targo Racer aviator’s helmet developed by Israel's Elbit Systems (NASDAQ: ESLT). This helmet integrates a display system and avionics, that enable Rocket Racing League (RRL) pilots to competitively challenge each other flying the 3D Raceway-In-The-Sky (RITS) sky track.

Targo™ Racer, a variant of the Targo™ family by Elbit systems, is powered by "Helmet Mounted Avionics" (HMA) technology that allows fast and flexible adaptation for unique customer platforms and requirements. The helmet was adapted to the racing environment with the support of RRL's avionics partner, the University Research Foundation (URF) Maryland Advanced Development Laboratory (MADL).

So how farfetched is this idea ???

Well, Rocket Racing League already here :)  http://www.rocketracingleague.com/

The launch was in 2010 at QuikTrip Air & Rocket Racing Show, April 24 in Tulsa Oklahoma.

Official team recruitment began in 2010 and nowadays Rocket Racing League continues its World Exhibition Tour.

Controversies about Google Glasses project

We had posted a video on Google Glasses earlier in the blog, that specializes in AR.It’s called Project Glass, and it’s a pair of glasses that layers digital information over the real world.The first look at it seems like an amazingly brilliant idea. Browsing over the net, we have seen mixed reactions from people. Some love the idea, others dismiss it or at least be skeptical about it. However, there are a few questions around the concept and the product as a whole. Are we ready to augment our reality?Do we really need it?
Is there any particular want that this kind of technology will cater to?

http://tinyurl.com/87svl7g

http://tinyurl.com/cquu5a5

 Codesign.com has an interesting article on their articule: " Four problems Google glasses has to solve before becoming a hit"

http://tinyurl.com/czh972l

They talk about how Google has always been a company that is smart but not pretty, primarily because they never had to be. Think about it, the Google glasses is the first physical product that they will be launching ever. Quoting from the article,
"Technology can be a symbol of your future-forwardness, or it can be the exact opposite: a sign of the future’s ridiculousness. The Segway flopped in part for its cost and in part for the fact that humanity isn’t quite that lazy, but there was a deeper, visceral reaction to the core of the product that signified a silly future rather than an inspiring one. So far, the actual glasses Google is showing off aren’t inspiring. To succeed, Google will need to sell us on either the stylishness, or the invisibility, of video glasses."

From our perspective, we think it is all a matter of time and the ability to solve a real need for people.


Lets hope these new glasses don't became the 15th item of the following list:

Taken from http://mashable.com/2011/09/29/tech-fails-infographic/

AR used in trainings and personal experiences

AR can be used to a great extent in making our lives better, independent and knowledgeable. ..Not only that, but it can be used in almost every industry in some way or the other, primarily by way of trainings.. Want to know how?? Read on..

What would you do if your car breaks down at 02:00 in the middle of nowhere? Or how many times did you have to take your car to the shop multiple times because they couldn't find the problem at the first time? I personally hate it. And being extra picky on this subject I remember taking my car three times to the mechanic for the same problem.Here an interesting video on Car mechanics by BMW. They did a concept piece on augmented reality where a mechanic is replacing a fan while wearing special glasses, which project the instructions onto the car as he looks at the engine compartment.

Using such glasses, I would myself not have to go through panic attacks when my car breaks down.I can maybe just put on these glasses, and get instructed on what needs to be done for me to get on the road again.

Biology and Chemistry teachers can avoid laboratory mishaps. Tedious subjects like literature, art and history (at least tedious for me!!) can become more interesting using visuals of AR. Classes wont be boring anymore and students won’t feel the need to bunk them.

Would you not like to have more information on what the doctors are doing with your body and health? I can think of when my aunt was in the hospital going through a series of surgeries in her brain, with every surgery leading to some or the other side effects (like she stopped hearing from one ear after one of her brain surgeries). We were unable to understand what was going on. With the help of AR, patients and their peers can better understand what goes on in the internal system, and thereby understand and ask the right questions to the doctors. Doctors themselves can use AR to enhance visualization, plan operations and train medical staff and students in various procedures, giving them a live experience but not on a real patient.

Areas of Military and Fire support deal with panic and terror attacks all the time. Augmented Reality helps them to create real life experiences and train on them. It would increase the probability of people surviving such situations, and may affect the lives of so many people and in many different ways.

However, the possibilities can be implemented only after some successful tests and price of the technology becoming more affordable.

What's next?

Well it hasn’t been easy. After millions of publications, thousands of computer games and hundreds of movies, we have life enhancers. Life enhancers… What the hell are life enhancers??

I call every piece of information which supplements the reality at the correct time, a life enhancer.  It’s the information you choose to have when you need it in the form of augmented reality without being bombarded. Let’s look at some of the life enhancers we currently use.

Hud – Heads Up Display

I thought it was the coolest thing when I first saw it on a fighter jet. I didn’t know that someone at the good old GM has been installing HUD’s to cars since 1988, the 1998 Corvette having the first colored HUD. They showed speed, rpm and fuel level. Great invention for the USA with the very strict speed limits. Later, other manufacturers followed GM with this technology. Now they’ve squeezed all this with navigation, lane departure warning and much more into an application for smartphones.

Golfscape

Anyone who tried a golf game would be familiar with these screen shots:

Standard screens showing information about the next hole look very informative and extremely cool to a golf player. Unfortunately I’m not. But technology didn’t skip on the golf players. Again an application for iPhone shows tons of information by only aiming the cellphone at the golf course.

More information on Golfscape

I guess you’ll all agree that we can find many more examples on the subject. As always the big question is: What is next? Should we watch more movies, play more games or listen to technology gurus? Well, I’m more interested in the companies’ vision that have the technology, commitment and resources to shape the future.

I believe that one day we’ll all see beyond. Almost every major technology company is working on life enhancers. What would you think about shades that contain the processing power of current computers with a HUD and voice recognition. Do you think I’m going too far or beyond posible? Have a look at this:

Hello again world!!

In today´s post we are going to write about one of the most spread business applications of AR, which is advertising though it. 

The buzz around AR advertisements started around 2008, but it has only been recently when some major brands have started to use this media in order to achieve higher consumers’ engagement and experience. AR technology enables customers to use their smartphone’s camera to point on an advertisement or any other object and activate a 3D video correspondence. Since smartphones’ market share in the cellular arena has increased dramatically in the last couple of years, AR has a tremendous business potential as an advertising tool. AR ads gives companies the ability to integrate the real world with the digital world, which may appeal to the younger more sophisticated generations, who look for a new standard of advertising.

Some examples of corporate powerhouses that have started to use AR technology to promote their products are:


Disney

Nike

Starbucks

Absolut Vodka

Nivea

 St. Pete's & Clearwater Show

Lynx

Have a nice day!! :)

Welcome & Introduction to Augmented Reality technology

Hello world!

We are a group of International MBA students at IE business School located in Madrid Spain.

We decided to explore the amazing world of Augmented Reality (AR) and share our thoughts and insights with you. The blog will introduce you to AR technology and mainly will focus on AR’s business aspects & opportunities.

So, what is Augmented Reality?

The term AR was first introduced by Boeing in the early 90s to describe a blended display of virtual graphics on real physical inputs. The more detailed definition of AR is the interaction of superimposed graphics, audio and other sense enhancements over a real-world environment that’s displayed in real time.

AR is not new, so what is the reason for the recent buzz around it?

The recent high public interest in AR is due to the huge progress in the mobile industry. Higher processing abilities alongside with high quality integrated cameras have brought AR to the knowledge of the general public through increasing number of AR’s smartphone applications.

Please follow us in the beautiful journey of discovering the amazing possibilities that AR technology brings to the business world.

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Yakir.G