Popularity of Augmented Reality Platforms by User Rating
We've started a space on our website to showcase the things that inspire us. It's a collection of videos, images and quotes, all pointing toward our Augmented Future.
It's a small start. Keep watching as the resource will undoubtedly grow.
Please get in touch with your own inspirations or let us know what you think.
Head over to http://inspiration.mobilistar.com
What type of AR will the killer app be?
Augmented Reality Contact Lenses, hit or miss?
There are many hurdles Augmented Reality must overcome to achieve mass user adoption. Here, we present a survey for anyone with a half interest in AR to fill out. There are some pretty important topics raised here but we do try and approach them in a fun way.
Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey, there's an opportunity to be enshrined in AR if you do!
Mobilistar Augmented Reality (AR) Survey
Yesterday, Layar - the global leader of augmented reality in terms of number of users - announced that the latest version (6.2) of their browser will be hitting Android and iOS devices imminently.
The big news is that Layar Vision will now support video in AR view. Whilst this is very exciting for Layar developers and their audience, it isn't anything new in the AR industry. Although I personally feel that video in AR is mostly a gimmick, it has proven to be a very popular feature with users of other AR platforms and it was an essential step to bring Layar up to speed with their competition.
Reading on through the announcement something else caught my attention; this short statement:
"GetPOIs Response optimization - In the future we'll be changing the UI for Vision layers to exclude Geo POIs. In the mean time, some parts of the GetPOIs response for Vision layers have been deprecated."
In effect, what this announcement means is that if you build an app on Layar that uses Layar Vision, no Geo-AR elements can be displayed in the same view. This functionality had been a possibility on their platform and it was, in my opinion, quite a big differentiator. Raimo van der Klein, CEO of Layar said on Twitter last night that "it was a hard decision".
Today, I caught up with Claire Boonstra, co-founder of Layar, who explained the thinking behind this:
"We don't see the use cases for combining the view, moving your device from looking down [at a magazine] to looking around you is a different experience."
She also said that, for the developers, the users' GPS location will still be available in Layar Vision meaning that an end-user in Rotterdam can be served with different AR content to an end-user in Amsterdam, albeit only Layar Vision content. If developers wanted to display Geo-AR content such as the locations of stores, or houses for sale, they would have to 'link' to the Geo-AR mode from Layar Vision mode.
This seems odd. Surely there are many potential use-cases for applications that utilise both Layar Vision and location in the same view. At least 1 member of the development community was creating a treasure hunt application, and there are probably a lot more ideas out there that may now need to be modified or scrapped.
Dirk Groten, CTO of Layar clarified that the features are not removed in v6.2, but will be in the future, and that Layar v6.2 will still support the current layers that use these features. The 'deprecation' serves as an advance notice.
He also said:
"It is still possible to create a user experience combining them, by opening a geo-layer from a vision layer (using an action) and vice-versa. This allows the layer developer to make it clear to the user in what 'mode' they are supposed to use the phone: pointing down at a printed image or holding up and looking around them. I don't see any reason a treasure hunt that combines both elements isn't possible."
Layar has had the locative-AR market sown-up from the beginning, with in-excess of 10 million downloads of their app. But it now seems that location is being shunned by Layar - or at least the combination of Layar Vision and location. This happens at a time that Layar's Computer Vision based competitors are desperately trying to build location into their platforms.
I’m sure that in the future we will see CV and Geo-AR combined to good effect. I was convinced Layar stood to take the competitive advantage here, sadly now, I'm not so sure.
- Howard Ogden
Founder, Mobilistar
Using NASA's free 3D models and audio download of the "wake up song of the day" we put this quick mobile augmented reality tribute together for STS-135, the final orbiter mission
In 1999, FHM magazine famously projected a 60ft nude picture of Gail Porter onto the Houses of Parliament. It was voted best guerrilla advertising campaign of the 20th Century by the BBC. Today, the concept is enjoying a stunning renaissance and it's called Projection Mapping.
Here's some of the best examples we've seen
We took an old masterpiece - The Beatles Abbey Road album - and retro-fitted it with some new tech...
Welcome to the mobilistar.com micro-blog. Here we post our favourite stuff about Augmented Reality, AR Software, mobile AR browsers, Computer Vision, Mobile technology, Apps, Platforms, OS's, Tablets, Location-Based Services, IoT, Robots, Singularity, Wearable Computing, Futurism, crazy cool Gadgets
