Dear friends,The New Year started with a great buzz around Augmented Reality. Our inspiring and innovative technology is no longer the future – it is the present. Metaio believes 2013 will be a big year for the Augmented Reality industry. For the new year, we are in the midst of preparing all new advances and improvements for our software and technology for the coming months.
2013 began at the tail end of significant media attention for Metaio due to our brand new products andservices that we released near the end of 2012. Check out the leading news about Augmented Reality and Metaio:
5 reasons to get excited about Augmented Reality in 2013: Augmented reality may seem like a futuristic concept, but it will be a reality of our digital lives in 2013. AR is a new technology that blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer generated by enhancing what we hear, see and feel. In his guest post in VentureBeat, Metaio’s Trak Lord predicts AR will be everywhere.
5 common Augmented Reality mistakes: There is no doubt Augmented Reality has made a name for itself in the mobile space, with marketers lining up to incorporate the technology into new and existing campaigns. Companies are however still learning, through constant trial and error (much to the chagrin of the user).
7 ways Augmented Reality will improve your world: You might think Augmented Reality is science fiction, but it has its roots in the 20th century. Morton Heilig, the “Father of Virtual Reality”, patented the Sensorama Stimulator, which he called an “experience theater”, on Aug. 28, 1962. Over time, the idea of using technology to create a layer over the real world has been honed and refined and put in our hands, thanks to the proliferation of smartphones.
The Kimberly-Clark Corporation has released an interactive Augmented Reality and 3-D mobile app that focuses on making the potty training process more enjoyable for parents and their children. Designed to be a reward for diligent children, the app contains a variety of 3-D augmented experiences that parents can launch for each successful “flush”. More flushes unlock more content, including interactive games featuring beloved Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Rapunzel. Metaio worked with Kimberly-Clark and Organic Inc. to bring this great project to the consumers and parents. Check out the video to see the new Big Kid App in action.
Join us this February at the biggest event for mobile technology in 2013. Explore with us the directions in which the mobile ecosystem will expand in the near and distant future. Join our booth at Hall 8.1 (App Planet) and discover the newest projects that are in production in the Metaio’s Labs. Our team will be showcasing cutting-edge demos, and will be more than happy to talk as much Augmented Reality as you want. Learn more about Metaio’s presence at MWC here.
As the global leader in the field of Augmented Reality, Metaio is a fast growing technology company located in Munich and San Francisco. Our software and solutions are used by more than 30,000 professionals including a strong user base in the development, creative and engineering space. Today Metaio’s AR technology is helping brands and businesses all around the world to bring digital experiences and educational tools to over 30 million consumers. We have recently updated our website – check it out: www.metaio.com.Our company was founded in February 2003 and currently employs more than 90+ multinational, multi-disciplinary backgrounds. Check out our open job positions and internships and join the most exciting growing technology company in the world.
MUNICH & SAN FRANCISCO, 10 DECEMBER 2012: Metaio, the world leader in augmented reality (AR) software and solutions today released the latest version of its Metaio Creator, the only commercially available drag-and-drop design software, now with the ability to manage content directly from the cloud.
“People aren’t necessarily experts in Augmented Reality yet,” said Peter Meier, Metaio CTO. “The Metaio Creator makes it easy for them to not only launch an experience but also to scale their content – massively, through simple cloud content management.”
The Metaio Creator is the only augmented reality content management tool available. If you use augmented reality content now or plan to make an augmented reality app, this is the best solution possible. Drag and drop to augment content in just minutes, and manage that same content through the Metaio Cloud without ever having to submit an app update. If you’re starting fresh, you can even build the actual app interface – without any coding or programming required.
There are over 15 Million magazines delivered every month with fresh augmented reality content. Each month, those publishers easily swap the content out for the next issue or campaign without ever having to resubmit a mobile application. Recently the Metaio Creator and cloud were used in over 200 million innovative product catalogs, each containing more than 40 instances of augmented reality experiences, all in an app smaller than 7 megabytes.
Publishers, Designers, Brands and Agencies don’t always have access to Augmented Reality developers. This tool allows them to easily integrate and manage augmented reality content in their mobile ecosystems.Learn more and download the free version today for Windows PC or Mac OS X.
Learn all about this amazing new service:
In addition to augmenting magazines, catalogs and other print media, the Metaio Creator is ready to augment entire objects and environments, just like in popular science fiction movies like Minority Report or Avatar. Advanced users can import point clouds and SLAM maps just like any other asset, and drag and drop the augmentations just as easily.
Now available for PC and OS X 10.7 and later.
Download the free version of the Metaio Creator today at http://metaio.com/products/creator and start building your first augmented reality experience!
In something that will probably happen more often than it has in the past, we will be regularly interviewing Metaio team members and sharing some insight as to what it’s like to work here (spoiler alert: it’s awesome). So next up is the newest member of our Industrial Team, Gülcan Ucbek!
In June this year I received a contact E-Mail from Metaio explaining what the company is doing and that there are some open positions which I might be interested in.
Firstly I made the quick search on Metaio’s website and then I started to read more about Augmented Reality. I got so excited while I was reading that I just grabbed the telephone and called Metaio to find out more. We exchanged some information and met each other couple of times. And now here I am
What do you like most about working for Metaio?
I really enjoy getting to know the whole metaio team with so many different people and their interesting backgrounds. I can truly say that Metaio has a great and rich “culture”.
What do you do when you’re not Augmenting Reality?
As I am a person who gets easily inspired, I always want to do many things at the same time but end up doing the same things in the end
I love the nature! So I go hiking (even in the winter), mountain biking, walking etc.
Tell us a secret.
Ok, now you know it all: I love my Snoopy Slippers.
Aaaand we have a shot of that:
Thanks again to Gülcan for being such a good sport, and once again a huge welcome to her as one of our newest members. Want to join up? Visit http://metaio.com/career and maybe we’ll see your face up here.
The newest version of the Metaio Creator is the most powerful Augmented Reality content production system available. It’s the ideal tool for publishers and designers who want to bridge the digital and real worlds to add content to their print media- magazines, t-shirts, posters, logos, business cards, catalogs- nearly any image or object is just clicks away from being augmented. Publishers, Designers, Brands and Agencies don’t always have access to Augmented Reality developers. This tool allows them to easily integrate and manage augmented reality content in their mobile ecosystems. Over 300 million magazines and catalogs have already been delivered in 2012 powered by Metaio Augmented Reality technology. We are convinced that the Metaio Creator will enable a content explosion for augmented reality.
Technology leader introduces only commercially available platform-independent AR software with SLAM and Continuous Visual Search
MUNICH & SAN FRANCISCO, 18 October, 2012- After observing a year of remarkable growth in the amount of Augmented Reality (AR) users, developers and business applications, Metaio announced at its annual InsideAR technology conference to over 500 attendees that it will introduce scalable and sustainable AR production methods in order to empower AR on every smartphone, including a unified, platform-independent solution and software development kit, a new and improved desktop publishing tool, and integration of camera technologies like continuous visual search and SLAM, effectively enabling AR on anything, anywhere. Metaio also unveiled the results of extensive R&D: Live outdoor augmented reality on downtown Munich, real-time object recognition and tracking flying at 10,000 feet; Recognizing and augmenting every image of a 100-page magazine with a mobile device; and instant, do-it-yourself augmented reality for entire environments.
SLAM camera tracking is basically real-time object and environment recognition that allows for instant digital overlays in nearly any situation. When Metaio decided to integrate SLAM into its SDK, they wanted to benchmark it to make sure it would be the best available. So they did, from 1000 feet in the air. Notice as the Drone flies over the small town that the Camera automatically and gradually learns its environment, recognizing more and more of the town and terrain. The image on the right is a skeleton display of the feature points, showing how the camera literally learns and understands what it’s seeing. This technology is available today for no-charge download in the brand new Metaio SDK http://metaio.com/products/sdk
Metaio has fostered the idea of an Augmented City for the past two years – this year we delivered the first accessible Outdoor 3-D Augmented Reality demo. The new SLAM feature and Metaio’s award-winning Augmented Reality algorithms powered this AR overlay directly on Munich’s city hall. Day or night, now anyone can witness the famous “Glockenspiel” demonstration that normally only occurs at 11am.
Also, using complex geo-locational data for downtown Munich, Metaio added brand new line-of-sight Points of Interest (POIs). No more random floating billboards on the horizon that have no connection to reality – the new POIs combine GPS and real-world data to appear exactly where they’re supposed to be. This isn’t a research demo either- it’s an experience available to anyone with an Android or iOS mobile device using the free augmented reality browser app, junaio. http://dev.metaio.com/junaio
When Metaio augments something, it stays augmented. GPS is good enough to get a user somewhere, but not good enough to “anchor” 3-D content to a physical location. Metaio is working on a “snapping” algorithm that uses GPS to get close and then “snaps” the 3-D reference to the physical location to allow for tightly-aligned, life-like augmented reality. Instead of streaming the GPS data, the models are locked in, and they’re not going anywhere once they are.
In 2009, it was difficult to augment a single page of a magazine in a browser on a PC with huge processing power. Today the Metaio SDK enables augmenting over 100 unique images, on a consumer mobile device, with no cloud necessary. And since it doesn’t rely on an internet connection, the augmented reality is instantaneous, robust and smoother than ever. Learn more about the new Metaio SDK athttp://metaio.com/products/sdk
With one week left to go until we host our yearly conference InsideAR we already have a record number of registrations for the event. metaio will unveil the latest advances in the exciting field of Augmented Reality (AR).
Business and technology professionals come from all over the world to see the newest industrial installations, the latest mobile app developments, wearable computing prototypes and futuristic projects straight from the R&D labs of metaio and its partners.
We proudly present a brand-new release of metaio’s most powerful Augmented Reality tool. After integrating additional modules for calibration and alignment, metaio Engineer provides every function for adjusting AR analyses. This applies especially to set-actual comparisons in product development, based on tracking with a measuring arm.
Here are the most sophisticated new features of metaio Engineer 5.0:
Integrated high precision camera calibration
Instead of the Sextant Calibration with a chessboard pattern, now you can chose the Extended Sextant Calibration based on a 3D AICON panel.
Efficient high precision off-set calibration
The offset between a camera and an external tracking sensor – like a measuring arm – now can be determined based on a 3D AICON pattern.
Alignment without external help
For finding out where an external tracking sensor is located in relation to the real object that has to be analyzed, no more external measurement tool is necessary.
We invite you join us at insideAR 2012, October 1-2 in Munich, Germany! With ARM, STEricsson, Intel and Imagination as sponsors, metaio unveils the latest advances in the exciting field of Augmented Reality (AR). Business and technology professionals come from all over the world to see the newest industrial installations, the latest mobile app developments, wearable computing prototypes and futuristic projects straight from the R&D labs of metaio and its partners. Find out all about it: http://www.metaio.com/insidear/
Highlights of insideAR 2012 include:
Presentations by AR Industry Luminaries including LEGO, NVIDIA, Beijing Institute of Technology, Volkswagen and many more
The world’s biggest AR live exhibition with showcases such as AR for Digital Marketing, Retail, print & publishing, Industrial solutions and the Augmented City
Free Seminars & workshops hosted by metaio and its partners to share best-practice AR solutions and help developers getting started with the new metaio AR solutions
InsideAR 2012 brings together the AR industry and customers from all over the world to give you a 360° view on the state and future of Augmented Reality!
Other news:
Everyone’s talking about the new 2013 IKEA Catalogue:
At metaio we constantly want to improve and be at the top of the Augmented Reality world. In order for us to present to you the best of our efforts and to improve the Augmented Reality experience we need your help.
metaio Creator is a next step tool in the Augmented Reality content production, and is specifically designed for non-developers, designers and people who have the desire to create amazing AR experiences without the need of a hard-coding knowledge. We would love to receive your feedback on our product and hear what you would like to try-out in future versions by completing the following survey. This will automatically make you a participant in our lottery that will provide 5 free entrances to one of the most important Augmented Reality Conferences – insideAR - this year at 1st & 2nd October.*
We appreciate your continued support and want to remark that your opinion is an important key point for us in order to be at our best.
Enjoy using metaio Creator!
-Your team at metaio
*metaio GmbH covers a free entrance to the insideAR conference without providing transportation or housing expenses.
Both iOS and Android users can download the amazing IKEA Catalogue app for free(!) to discover all 43 pieces of augmented and activated content when the publication finally hits mail and IKEA stores around the world.
Check out all the great press around this innovative product catalog:
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