SAN FRANCISCO – FEBRUARY 21, 2013: Metaio today announces an agreement with ST-Ericsson, a leader in wireless platforms and semiconductors. Under the terms of the agreement, ST-Ericsson will integrate Metaio’s Augmented Reality hardware IP, the so-called “AREngine,” into the next generation of ST-Ericsson mobile platforms resulting in the first application processor accelerating Augmented Reality performance on mobile devices.
Metaio’s cutting-edge technology inserts nearly any 3-D and virtual content into the real world by recognizing images, objects and entire environments. In a mobile future that clearly requires smart devices to be ‘always on’ and connected, the Metaio AREngine drastically reduces power consumption making all-day AR experiences possible… read more.
Are you headed to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress?
Members of the Metaio team will be located at various booths and locations throughout Mobile World Congress 2013. For locations of the Metaio booth and sponsor booths visit www.metaio.com/mwc or download the Metaio @MWC 2013 map below. If you would like to schedule a meeting with one of the team members from Metaio, visit www.metaio.com/mwc and fill out the meeting request form at the bottom of the page.
Many team members from Metaio will be on hand at MWC 2013 at various booths throughout the exhibition halls. Meet the team behind the Augmented Reality technologies shaping the future of how we interact with digital information in the real-world. Visit our booth at MWC and get the chance to meet:
Thomas Alt, CEO of Metaio
Daniel Gelder, SVP Marketing
Sudhanshu Kapoor, BD Manager – OEM’s
Trak Lord, Marketing & Media Relations
And last but not least, don’t miss us at the 2013 Global Mobile Awards Ceremony, Tuesday, February 26 in Hall 4 at the Gran Fira in Barcelona. For more information, check out our last blog post.
We’ll be posting news and updates live from the floor of Mobile World Congress, so make sure to stay tuned on our Twitter and Facebook feeds. And who knows, we might even have time to write a couple posts about our experiences there next week.
Galileo, popular ProSeiben network show, did a feature on Metaio and Augmented Reality [video]
New Tutorial video for junaio for non-programmers [video]
Augmented Reality Interface for Spatial Anatomical Education [blog]
Diego and Dario in Augmented Reality at insideAR 2012 [blog]
upcoming events
insideAR, Oct 1-2 in Munich will feature speakers from Lego and Ikea, among numerous others – register today and don’t miss this exciting augmented reality event [newsletter]
In case you’re curious about the culture of the Oktoberfest, check out the full version of the infographic above [right here]
Trak Lord will be delivering the keynote presentation for the mobile developer M3 Conference, Oct 25-26, Columbus, OH [event site]
Metaio will be presenting at the upcoming Connected Enterprise event in Dana Point, California Nov 9-11 [event site]
Our CFO Andreas Wiedmann will be presenting at TOC Frankfurt on “Innovations in Sales and Marketing”, October 9 (“TOCPartner20TSpeaker” for 20% off registration [event site]
The largest Augmented Reality Event in Canada, OARN is a can’t miss for the industry- Oct 5-6, Toronto (get $25 off admission with discount code METAIOSAVE25) [event site]
there are things that are happening
Google’s Project: Glass made a surprising appearance on the runway during New York’s Fashion Week, with Diane Von Furstenberg, of all people [article]
UK company’s augmented reality glasses could be better than Google’s [article]
There’s a new iPhone 5 and it’s selling like hotcakes [article]
A New Home for Computer Screens: The Face, Wall Street Journal [article]
The metaio Creator: Augmented Reality for Non-Developers [article]
We will be presenting at the Funders and Founders Life 3.0 – Augmented Reality and New Media Event, May 30, in San Francisco- come join us! [event site]
Speaking of presentations- check out Trak Lord’s presentation of the new junaio API at the SF AppShow last week [video]
Pick of the week: T(ether) – a Spatially and Body Aware Window for Collaborative Editing and Animation of 3D Virtual Objects
Tangible Media Group from MIT recently released this demo video. Great stuff guys, but you might want to think of a better marketing name…
Americans- enjoy your holiday. To the rest of the world- happy Monday!
If you’re reading this, I’m in Boston at the CableShow.
We won the Auggies at the 2012 ARE- tightly aligned outdoor computer vision for the win
Events
I will be at the 2012 CableShow in Boston, MA, demonstrating metaio technology for television with our partner, CableLabs [event site]
junaio will be presenting as part of the 14th edition of the SF AppShow, May 23, giving an exclusive first look at the latest updates our API and redesigned UI. Register today with discount code MetaioFans for 25% off [event site]
We will be giving away a junaio Plugin (~$12k value) at the SF AppShow- read the latest post on the junaio Blog to learn how to qualify [blog]
metaio | junaio recap
It’s the last day to get 30% off the metaio Creator, the best drag & drop interface for creating mobile augmented reality experiences in the Universe!! Buy now! Buy now! [buy now]
Speaking of CableLabs, check out this article about what they’re doing with our tech [article]
Check out the ongoing junaio-powered War of 1812 augmented reality experience [blog]
metaio AG Augmented Reality Test at UAEU Media Lab AE [video]
Pick of the Week: Albert Hwang’s Spatial Computing
It’s a virtual environment, but it’s virtually freaking awesome. Hats off to you, Mr. Hwang, and looking forward to seeing more of your work.
"The Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge", Anon., ca. 1937, last known giant Ubermensch pictured. After installing the bridge, he sank back into the ocean, never to be seen again except for Oktoberfest every year.
junaio 3.6 is now available for iOS and Android! [post]
MEDIA Magazine, “Augmented Reality Comes to Mobile”, by Trak Lord [article]
Circa – The Evolution of Image (a Kickstarter Project built with the metaio Mobile SDK) [kickstarter page]
Steve Bull is debuting a new Art Installation powered by junaio [blog]
We welcomed Digital Delta Design as junaio Certified Developer [post]
CityView AR mobile app preserves past and present of quake-afflicted Christchurch, NZ [blog]
Certified Developer Augmented Minds covered in gizmag, “Augmented reality brings jigsaw puzzles to life” [article]
Learn more about metaio and junaio’s affiliation with the VENTURI project [post 1] [post 2]
Business 2 Community, “10 Mind-Blowing Augmented Reality Campaigns” [article]
junaio used for Location-based NYC Documentary [video]
Media & Entertainment Technologies, “Metaio 3D Augmented Reality” [article]
If you want to check out the best Augmented Reality conference in the US, register for ARE 2012 with this nifty discount code (on us!): METAIO375 [event site]
Google’s Project Glass Recap
As you all know, Google released its “Augmented Reality” Project Glass concept video:
What followed was total internet chaos. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together- mass hysteria. Amid the internet detritus, blog flotsam and various OMG WTF’s, I have curated a list of well-written and (mostly) educated responses.
Gene Becker, “Google’s Project Glass Is A New Model For Personal Computing” [blog post]
Let’s not split hairs, but this is definitely one way to go about A-ing the R. Hats off to TNT for being so creative in launching their Belgian channel.
Yes! We now have two (count them) Certified Developer programs, both rife with opportunities for mobile AR developers. See you projects promoted here on this blog, on our Facebook page and on Twitter, and in some cases we’ll even contact you to assist us or takeover on special projects. Whether you’re working with our brand-new mobile software capable of three-dimensional object tracking and recognition, or our mobile content platform junaio, it’s a great way to get your work out there and into the hands of our user-base.
If you haven’t heard of Augmented Minds, shame on you! We’ve recently listed them on our website under “Success Stories” due to the number of projects they’ve launched using our software. Make sure to check out all the links above and learn more about how you can become our newest CD.
Did I mention that all of our mobile software is free to develop and deploy? Don’t say we never gave you anything!
Following Dr. Alt’s Welcome Address, CTO Peter Meier took the stage to talk about progress, growth, and most importantly, the process of making the experience of accessing digital information more intuitive and convenient.
In his address, “Making the Digital a Natural Experience”, Meier stressed the importance that all digital experiences need to be natural, intuitive, and fun- an interaction that bridges the gap between virtual and physical. Meier added that though there are many that talk about accomplishing this, metaio is making measurable steps to make this a reality.
“It’s important to have a dream- it’s also important to make it come true,” noted Meier.
junaio is one of metaio’s most visible benchmarks- the world’s most advanced AR browser saw tremendous growth in the last year in available content, developers, and channels in development (per developer) of at least 300%. More channels active per developer means more content, and both Meier and metaio believe that great content combined with great technology is the key to utility. Overall usefulness is imperative for AR to become the next mass medium.
Meier detailed some of the advancements we’ve made in the past year:
junaio has incorporated visual search, giving any user instant access to junaio AR content
the German Green Party used metaio technology to develop a political mobile with large potential for change
Meier announced what will eventually be the metaio Creator, a point and click interface for easily and quickly creating AR content for our software. The Creator will start with junaio and eventually be rolled out to all of metaio’s advanced software solutions.
Meier went on to demonstrate cutting-edge research that would eventually be presented at ISMAR in October- inarguable evidence that metaio is looking toward the future. We may be a product company, but no small part of our efforts are devoted to continually research and developing new technologies and interfaces. And as Meier explained, emerging technologies clearly favor AR. NFC, HTML5, and high powered telecom networks all point to enabling richer, smoother AR experiences.
Our CTO closed his presentation with a brief comparison between AR and the gaming industry, which had a gradual climb before ascending to a $65 Billion industry. Some of the gaming industry’s largest advancements came in the form of outside hardware and chipset manufacturers like NVIDIA. metaio has embarked on similar initiatives by entering into collaborative R&D partnerships with mobile chipset and hardware providers.
As Meier said at the close of his presentation, “Let’s go make this a $65 billion industry!” With the right content and hardware providers working with metaio’s technology, anything is possible.
Stay tuned for our next post- a recap of John C Haven’s insideAR keynote, “Virtual Advertising Rights”.
From October 26th to 29th, the city of Basel in Switzerland is host to ISMAR 2011, the international conference on research, technology and application in Mixed and Augmented Reality. Part of the conference is the very interesting AR-4-Basel project, organized by PEREY Research & Consulting and its partners.
Model by VirtualcitySYSTEMS
The purpose of this project is to establish a framework in which creative professionals can push the envelope of what has been done in Smart Cities with 3D data sets and to showcase the first generation of services that are available to the public with smartphones during the ISMAR 2011.
The project coordinates resources in the city of Basel and internationally for the purpose of implementing real world mobile AR services, and receives the support of businesses, government agencies, municipal service providers, private and public institutes of learning. In order to help build AR based services for people in Basel and visitors to the conference, the project provides datasets of 3D city models (see image above). This is an interesting challenge for researchers and developers in the field of Augmented Reality. We at metaio are curious to see what our colleagues will present.
Current technology is advancing rapidly. While having a readymade 3D Model available is certainly useful for projecting AR overlays correctly aligned onto buildings or street views (we have been using those lots of times), our current approach at metaio however goes a step further. We now have technologies which can in fact create a model of reality on the spot, dynamically and at the very instant the user looks at the world through his smartphone camera. By using very advanced 3D optical recognition and tracking technologies we are able to capture and reconstruct the environment around the user without having to rely on a prefabricated city model. 3D objects can then be directly inserted into this “live” three-dimensional space in perfect perspective, alignment and occlusion.
It will allow people in the near future to walk through any cityscape with their smartphones and benefit from correctly aligned digital overlays and useful Augmented Reality information services as a completely natural experience. We call this the “Augmented City”. You may have seen this video, but we show it once more to illustrate the point:
Mobile devices are evidently the warmest place to hide.
metaio had the opportunity to develop this very cool mobile application with Universal Pictures to promote the highly-anticipated prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter cult-classic of the same name, out in theaters October 14th. We wanted to create a game that drew on the same suspense, horror, and isolation of the film while generating excitement for its release.
After downloading and launching the free THE THING: Flamethrower application for Android or iOS, players assume the role of one of the surviving Antarctic scientists, trapped in a virtual laboratory and assailed from all sides by creepy alien hybrid versions of their former colleagues.
Sounds like fun, right?
We really mean all sides, because this game is played in 360 degrees- players will have to move their mobile device in real life to defend themselves from the attacking aliens. FYI- it’s dark, the lighting quality is very poor, and you only have a limited amount of flamethrower fuel.
Try to hold out as long as you can, but as fans and people familiar with the film know- it’s very difficult to survive THE THING.
After playing, check out the INFECT YOURSELF feature that uses our advanced Facial Recognition AR capability. Watch as THE THING literally rips your face apart. Even Danika of @twitt_AR fame succumbed to the crafty invasive life form:
This game utilized metaio’s advanced Mobile SDK, the most comprehensive solution to create Augmented Reality applications for iOS and Android. Featuring a high-level API and the latest image recognition technologies, it allows developers to produce high-quality applications with low effort. And best of all: we’re releasing a free version in the near future.
Once again- the film hits theaters this Friday, October 14, so get out to your local cinema and happily cringe to this great horror thriller that more than does justice to the 1982 film.
For more info, check out the press release and don’t forget to download this amazing game.
Hopefully by now you’ve all seen the teaser video and read about the very, very cool announcements we made at insideAR this year. I honestly wish that I could adequately describe insideAR. Maybe it’s because I helped assemble and move 15-20 very heavy table. Maybe watching these camera arrays and industrial prototyping demos come to life, piece by piece gives one more of an appreciation in seeing the finished product. Maybe it was just my first time in Germany, combined with the anticipation of Oktoberfest in Bavaria, combined with the excitement of meeting all of the people with whom I’ve only ever communicated via Skype or telephone or email. Luckily, we don’t have to rely on my floundering attempts at description- we have videos!
This is the first clip of many that we plan to roll out over the coming days and weeks, demonstrating the current and future technologies under the hood (sometimes literally) of metaio.
insideAR was divided into various exhibition segments- one of these was called “Augmented Living”, where we demonstrated some of the potential uses of AR in the household, including the new junaio 3.0 SCAN release that allows the user to get pricing and ingredient information from grocery item barcodes. In that same area, we were also showing our Bosch 3D studio app for iPad that allows people to practically redesign their kitchens with new appliances- without ever leaving their homes.
Many attendees played around with the Around Me Geo Trivia junaio game is a very creative example of how gaming, education and mobile AR can work together to shape an engaging user experience. Sensor fusion takes elements that we tend to take for granted — orientation, geographical relative position, radial distance — and translates them into usable information- in this case, a very fun trivia game.
Our company was built on out-of-the-box industrial solutions, so it should be no surprise to see those prototyping examples in the above video. The sub-millimeter tracking with a guided camera-arm would allow any manufacturer the highest digital scrutiny in examining a prototype on the factory floor; and with the “window-to-the-world”-type 3D mapping you can overlay the original wireframe to the real-word object itself, regardless of its size. With this kind of technology, metaio is naturally bridging the industrial gap between the digital creation and the physical construction of a given product.
Really cool stuff we’re talking about here. Really cool.
Once again, we’re going to be rolling out all sorts of video in the near future, so be sure to either subscribe to this blog or to our YouTube channel (or both!) in order to stay posted.
Posted by Trak 
