Our German Partner Kreativagentur Thomas did something smart, successful (host and guests were overwhelmingly inspired and happy) and maybe comparable to an event previosuly described. And I also repeat myself: get in touch and let them touch… So, the acengcy invited their existing and potential partners and customers to experience new technologies live and direct, which are influencing the communication process of manufacturers and brands these days. After a day full of speeches and demos dealing with social media, print to web and of course augmented reality the absolute highlight was the concept car presentation for Molitor Racing Systems GmbH, competitors in the Porsche Mobile1 Supercup and the Porsche Carrera-Cup.
Kreativagentur Thomas designed the complete vehicle beginning with the first drafts and 3D renders to the finished model. At the same time, they prepared the data for several kiosk applications and an iPhone and Android app based on metaio’s Unifeye platform. At the launch event, the interactive prototype concept car was presented on touch screens via Augmented Reality. Attendees of the event could then also configure and adjust the car’s paint scheme and appearance. Please find the application and the handsome metaio racing team below:
If you weren’t present last Thursday at metaio’s Get Augmented Spring Mixer in San Francisco than you truly missed out! AR enthusiasts, journalists, bloggers and creative’s came to mix and mingle with metaio employees. Event attendees were encouraged to download junaio to experience use cases such as eBay classifieds and our controversial domestic violence interactive ad campaign for the “Frauennotruf München” (Domestic violence hotline in Munich). Many also stepped into our virtual dressing room and had a lot of fun virtually trying on different clothing items. Attendees became immersed in our Lego demonstration and couldn’t seem to put the Lego box down!
“It was great to see the people we share this city with pick up AR, shake it around and walk out smiling. You really forget how AR surprises people after working on it all day. Hearing feedback from our community really puts things in a fresh new perspective,” said Business Dev Manager Brendan Scully.
We appreciate everyone who came to show support and meet and greet. We anticipate having more mixers in the near future, so please stay tuned for more updates. We hope to see you at the next one!
Brendan Scully showing off junaio to an attendee
Director of R&D Ben Blachnitzky demonstrating the Virtual Dressing Room
Aloha. I am not participating in Carnival, nor have I been on vacation or partying the UEFA (European Football Association) 5-years ranking to hard, where Germany finally succeded over Italy, yeah! No, we are completely revamping our website and several other channels and while this was and is keeping me pretty busy I was also working on some of the cases, which I want to share with you in a plain list this time. Please take my apologies, but I bet some of you appreciate more info and less talking anyway…
See how German and Russian magazines are going digital in a very special way. And keep updated about metaio´s one and only augmented reality browser junaio on this really worth to bookmark and read blog, now mostly maintained by my colleague Ulf.
When you were a kid what was your least favorite subject in school? If you answered “math” or “science”, then you probably could have benefited tremendously from the efforts of Raytheon’s MathMovesU program! This innovative initiative was designed to engage middle school students in math by bridging the connection between math, their passions and “cool” careers.
Since its inception in 2005 to help spur interest in math and science, Raytheon’s Math Moves U (MMU) program has touched the lives of more than 1,000,000 students, teachers and parents. Through interactive learning programs, contests, live events, scholarships, tutoring programs and more, MathMovesU engages and inspires students. Raytheon believes that tomorrow’s engineers and technologists need to be excited by and interested in math today. Recently, I was able to catch up with the producer behind the Math Moves U AR experience, Steve Tiseo.
Steve, can you tell us your affiliation with the Math Moves U program?
Inhance Digital was contracted to create an interactive invitation to the 1-year anniversary (birthday) of the Math Moves U experience at Sum of all Thrills™ at INNOVENTIONS. This took place at Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. For this anniversary, we used Crash, the MMU mascot and had him demonstrate some of the exciting experiences made possible with Math and Physics.
What are the main goals of Math Moves U?
This is probably better answered by the companies that helped develop and found MMU, but the main point is showing how math and engineering is applicable to not only everyday living and innovation, but also to the fun things we all enjoy so much.
Why do you feel it’s important to utilize cutting edge technology like AR in projects such as this?
The MMU experience itself is a demonstration of cutting edge, experiential technology, so naturally the best way to advertise to potential attendees is with a similarly engaging campaign. By sending out an AR marker that looks like a birthday invitation, it drums up curiosity to partake in the online experience. The augmented reality encourages the user to interact in order to view the various stages of the invitation (Crash having fun with a variety of ride experiences).
It’s not too late! You can still participate in this experience please visit:
Yeah, what a good start into this exciting new year for augmented reality! The readers of Augmented Planet, one of the premium resources for AR, founded and maintained by industry expert Lester Madden, have chosen metaio´s Zombie ShootAR as Best Mobile Augmented Reality Game 2010. Fighting 3D-zombies crawling out of the ground in the real world through the display of your mobile phone offers the best choice of game fun and innovative use of techhnology. With runner ups Space InvadAR for Android (Zenitum) and Urban Golf for Android (Anton Pirker) we saw first and great examples of mobile AR games in 2010. And let me tell you, in 2011 there will be many more to come… Please find a video of the mobile AR Game for the Symbian platform below:
San Francisco- Goodbye 2010 Hello 2011! Augmented Reality has been bubbling under the radar for years and has only recently begun to garner consumer interest within the mainstream sphere. International Augmented Reality software company metaio, set the standard for the most advanced AR computing in 2010 and will continue to lead the pack in the 2011 AR revolution.
metaio has launched a plethora of projects with the likes of Time Out New York, JC Penny’s, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), GSMA, Black Eyed Peas, Popular Science, Lego and adidas Originals to name a few. Will it be hard for metaio to top all their 2010 success? metaio CEO Thomas Alt thinks not. According to Alt, “AR is in high demand for the New Year and the world is ready and waiting for what metaio has in store.”
The ever popular subset of metaio called junaio, is the world’s latest and most advanced augmented reality browser. Growing daily with more interesting content, junaio enables viewers to point their smartphones at any objects relevant to their current locations, and trigger information about places, events, bargains and more. According to metaio’s CTO Peter Meier: “More and more things and objects will become junaio-enabled. junaio will not only be the most advanced augmented reality browser, but also the most used AR browser and the junaio API will become the standard to do real AR browsing including real-time image recognition.”
Projective augmented realitywill be hip in 2011 especially for industrial and architectural purposes says Director of Content Development Ben Blachnitzky. Projective AR is a system that visualizes 3D design data directly onto the exterior surface of a vehicle for example. Combine this technology with so called pico-projectors- miniature components that will soon be embedded into your mobile phones- and you got the perfect AR-projector to share enhanced visions of the world even with your friends.
Everyone will be on the AR bandwagon in 2011 “Even industrial companies and the military will use mobile AR applications, especially for improving workflows and security,” says metaio.
More AR Predictions 2011
What’s to come in 2011? According to metaio, using real-time image recognition will become more and more important to differentiate in mobile AR – while there are hundreds of POI-only based applications. Mobile AR will become even more popular in gaming, (indoor) guidance and mobile advertising.
In 2011, watch out for smart tracking algorithms that will adopt/learn features in unknown environments in first applications. metaio ultimately strives to enable scenarios such as a walk through the ‘Augmented City’ using modern but standard smartphones. AR applications need to become even more context aware, intelligent and adoptable to daily user situations.
As for devices, the arrival of the next generation of the ipad and other tablets will boost AR especially for guided tours in museums/exhibitions and for sales presentations. Also the next generation of Adobe3D in Flash will allow hundreds of AR-web-games and campaigns on PC/MAC.
Real-time AR-shopping windows and kiosks using 3D tracking/reconstruction from Kinect and multiple cameras using Kinect in general will be a huge driver for AR.
metaio is looking forward to more creative games, effective and innovative industrial scenarios and cutting-edge mobile applications in the markets of retail, advertising, research, and industries, just to name a few. This has been an extremely productive year for metaio and as the pioneer in augmented reality it has only just begun!
“We are enthusiastic to kick off the New Year with lots of great new projects. Augmented reality is undoubtedly one of the world’s most exciting new technologies and metaio is proud to be at the forefront of this revolutionary movement,” Meier said.
On Dec 6th metaioAsia participated and co-sponsored the prominent Mobile Monday conference (also known as MoMo) in Seoul, Korea. Jun Park metaio’s own Technical Director had the honor of being a keynote speaker and highlighted all of metaio’s most recent AR campaigns.
metaio Asia was established in 2007 with a joint venture with Sungsam and metaio, Germany located in bundang-ku, Sungnam, Korea. In only three years they have supplied AR solutions to various companies including but not limited to: National Museum, National Cemetery in Daejun, Sungnam Children’s Library, Barunson Library in Suwon, Posco in songdo and Exhibition of Relic. They are now concentrating on entering mobile solutions to different markets. metaio’s mobile web browser junaio 2.5, was a key topic during the conference. Jun educated his audience about why they should adopt AR in the mobile arena. “Junaio solutions have a markerless tracking technology which does not require a GPS system. It is a fascinating and ground breaking browser for the 2nd generation of the iphone and Android. By specifying its own various technologies, it should be a fresh business model and activate a new social networking service,” said Jun.
I had the opportunity to interview magician extraordinaire Simon Pierro. You may recognize him from the popular Augmented Christmas Magic viral video (see video above) as seen on YouTube! Simon Pierro stands for a new generation of performance artists and is renowned for his contemporary way of showing his skills in TV and multimedia projects Shortly after earning his diploma in economic engineering he was engaged by the renowned TV show Candid Camera by German public TV station ARD and brought his charming and fascinating magic to millions of spectators.. At the age of 25 he has already won several prestigious awards including but not limited to: 2002 Magician of the Year, 2003 Vice-World Champion of Magic and 2004 Siegfried & Roy Award in Las Vegas.
Me: How did you get your start in magic?
Simon: When I was 15, during a family vacation in the United States, I lost half of my fortune (twenty dollars) in a nutshell-game to a back-street gambler in Manhattan. In order to cheer me up my sister bought me a magic book containing the explanation of the nutshell-game and some card tricks. Ever since then, I have been fascinated by the art of magic and it has been my passion ever since. The first “volunteers” to watch my magic tricks were my family, friends and tennis-team!
Me: In your experience, what are the biggest challenges when presenting magic on television?
Simon: For me on-stage performances and TV-shows are equally exciting; however, each one requires its own approach.
A theater visitor waits patiently through the build-up of a story and patiently anticipates the climax. But, the average person watching TV sits there with the remote in his/her hands and if nothing happens for a while or the entry point to the story is complex, then the viewer changes the channel.
My performance on TV is evaluated exactly based on the viewership numbers. (Down to the minute) Each of these circumstances influences my choice in the magic trick. If I am performing a trick on TV the trick has to be visually easy and simple to follow.
Me: Please tell me about your creative process. How do you come up with these great effects?
Simon: The creative process starts with an idea of a magic effect that I would love to be able to perform. Then, I start developing a solution with friends. On a freezing day I once saw a poster with a girl on a boat in the sun, so I started to think about how to create the illusion to get there. Several months later I performed it on TV. View the video here: http://www.youtube.com/magicontube#p/u/15/wMU2iU9BrZQ
Another way to come up with an idea is to take an existing effect, improve it and change the presentation. For example; a company asked me to make a car appear on stage which is quite a popular magic illusion. I thought it would be much cooler to bring this illusion on the streets and make a car disappear and see how the person would react: Example here: http://www.youtube.com/magicontube#p/u/18/KEBbldmSmPc
Sometimes I just team up with magicians I admire like the great Kevin James, who has been my idol from the beginning. I took his invention, gave it a new situation and performed it together with him here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MagicOnTube#p/u/11/VJjMfGlqb9g
Me: How do most people in Germany view magic? Is it positive or negative?
Simon: Sometimes magic is only related to children’s entertainment. But it’s up to our generation to be as innovative and contemporary as possible to bring the fascination of magic to viewers of all ages.
Me: Why did you choose to join forces with metaio and use Augmented Reality (AR) technology?
Simon: AR is a great technology, really magical, that made me feel a kind of wonder when I first experienced it in my own hands. I felt that there lies true potential by combining AR with my magic. And when I found out that the headquarters of metaio is in my neighborhood I did not hesitate to contact them and they welcomed me warmly in their world of augmented reality. Instead of our supposed one hour get-to-know each other we spent three hours brainstorming and started right away to think about a Christmas project to start with.
Me: What were some of the biggest challenges with incorporating Augmented Reality with your magic effects?
Simon: Many questions came up such as; what are all the things that are possible with the AR technology? I started playing around with it and brainstormed with metaio and my colleague Denis Behr. Other challenges I came across were; how fast may I move the objects without losing the tracking point? What happens if I put my finger on the marker? And most important: what will the viewers think about it if they have never heard of Augmented Reality? How can they differ between illusion and (augmented) reality? I am sure many viewers think this is just post-production. After all, our first project is more a kind of art with fine thinking than an unexplainable illusion.
Me: Can we expect to see more Augmented Reality in your future magic routines?
Simon: I am convinced this is just the beginning of some great concepts. Now we have to find out what people think about it, how we can bring all of this in a live situation for stage performances and trade fairs. Maybe I can also include AR into my TV work. I am very happy as long as I can be creative – the AR technology and the atmosphere seems to offer a wide playground for creativity in the future.
Me: What advice do you have to give to aspiring magicians?
Simon: I’d like to reference a quote from the great Henry Thoreau, “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” Be yourself and hope for a bit of luck on the way!
Special Thanks to: Christian Schorm, Denis Behr, Petra Bohnenberger, Simon Pierro, Oliver Gerl, Andreas Gapel, Katharina Buckl, Pino Zampella, Christian Effert, Ben Blachnitzky, Jan Schlink
Stephan Misslinger leads discussion at ARDevCamp 2010
Last Saturday December 4th metaio, Inc was in full force at the Augmented Reality Development Camp (ARDevCamp 2010) that took place at Grey Area Foundation For The Arts (GAFTA) right in the heart of downtown San Francisco. The self proclaimed “un-conference” has a very realistic goal in mind and that is to bring all people who believe in AR and the AR experience together. The open format allows for each person to contribute ideas, ask questions, and pick the brains of some of today’s leading AR experts. Our own Director of R&D, Stefan Misslinger led a discussion about metaio’s technical endeavors using instant tracking. Product Marketing Manager, Lisa Murphy also discussed metaio’s recent projects, and our popular mobile augmented browser Junaio 2.5.
Tis’ the season to make augmented holiday magic! metaio´s developers and the renowned Magician Simon Pierro, have created a story about love, peace and red-nosed reindeers! This story (video below) was captured in a single shot and contains no post production or editing except sound and some on air design (credits). Augmented Reality technology has always been closely related to various expressions of “magic”. Some examples include the first magic book application by Mark Billinghurst et al. from HIT Lab (NZ) and people around the world describing the experience of virtual content in the real world as “magical”. This “magic” happened once Simon Pierro stumbled upon AR technology. After finding out that the headquarters of one of the market leaders in AR lied right in his own neighborhood he inquired, witnessed and was eager to get started. After a few brainstorming sessions and some much needed Christmas inspiration, the scenario and the story became clear. Simon Pierro and metaio would like towish everyone a Merry Christmas and a lot fun with discovering: what is real and what is an illusion? Leave a post and tell us what is real and what is AR magic.
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