Agora Media Group Innovation Blog

The application Twitter 360 makes quickly use of the geotagging ability offered by the Twitter Geotagging API, which was released officially on the 19th of November.
If you want to enable the Geotagging setting for your tweets, you need to go to Settings and click Enable Geotagging.

Below you can view the video which will show the application Twitter 360:

Twitter 360 is an application which basically visualize and locate your Twitter friends by making use of GPS data through the iPhone camera.

The cool features of Twitter 360 can be summarized as following (visit the website of Twitter 360 to read indepth what the features are and the possibility to download the application) :
- Twitter 360 annotates your tweets with GPS location information.
- “Latest Tweets” mode. See the latest tweets of your friends (iPhone horizontal position), and the location from where they were posted (iPhone vertical position) using the Augmented Reality functionality.
- Touch the Star to add your best Twitter friends in your favourites.
- “Locate my Friends” mode. List of all your best friends. Twitter 360 lets you track geographic movements of your friends, you can now see where are located your nearby friends via Augmented Reality.
- When you launch Twitter 350, a small bird will localize your exact position and update the “location” field data on your Twitter account with the coordinates, only if you want.
- The application is fully compatible with Google Map.
- Switch off the geolocalization option in the setting to be in “invisible” mode.

I do wonder how useful this is on the long run, of course it’s a fun new way to experience Twitter, but ge0tagged tweets as deployed in Twitter 360 is only the first step and hopefully useful Location Based Services will be developed which will combine real-time and location into new tools which will enrich the mobile social experience.

Interesting vision and good to see an event is organized in an unconference style:

Taken from the AR DevCamp site, check de website for signing up and additional information:
The first Augmented Reality Development Camp (AR DevCamp) will be held in the SF Bay Area December 5, 2009.

After nearly 20 years in the research labs, Augmented Reality is taking shape as one of the next major waves of Internet innovation, overlaying and infusing the physical world with digital media, information and experiences. We believe AR must be fundamentally open, interoperable, extensible, and accessible to all, so that it can create the kinds of opportunities for expressiveness, communication, business and social good that we enjoy on the web and Internet today. As one step toward this goal of an Open AR web, we are organizing AR DevCamp 1.0, a full day of technical sessions and hacking opportunities in an open format, unconference style.

AR DevCamp: a gathering of the mobile AR, 3D graphics and geospatial web tribes; an unconference.
Among other topics, we’ll discuss are implications of how the various layers of an open augmented reality stack will fit together to support the following straw man requirements:

• support for both fundamental kinds of AR requiring semantic frameworks be harmonized: 1. Image Triggered and 2. Location Based. support for many image trigger types, and many coordinate systems.
• a description of what happens on the focal plane of the view, including user interface conventions, and rendering rules.
• a description of the properties of a specific object or place, including data type, decoding and rendering requirements and resources
• support for local media types produced by many applications domains including 2D Web, 3D web, web maps, GIS, CAD, BIM, 3D game and virtual worlds
• support for local rendering rules and coordinate systems for specific places and objects e.g. html, CAD objects and spaces, video, rendered graphics game objects, etc.
• harmonization and interoperable semantic framework with adjacent semantic domains within overlapping computing and media domains, e.g. web, CAD, mapping, games, virtual worlds, etc.
• support for secure transactions and data exchange
• support for sensors and sensor networks
• social network interoperability, managing groups, permissions, and privacy
• messaging, communication, and collaboration

Too many standards is disastrous for the adaption and extensibility, an Open AR Web can be the solution so that indeed, creation of business opportunities and social good can be enjoyed and deployed.
What do you think of their vision, an open all accessible Augmented Reality?

Augmented Reality 3.0 is a blog developed by Sean Lee, which created the conceptual framework AR3.0

Watch the video and read up the framework below:

read more

Next week the new Eligo platform by Seac02 will be released, and I definately am looking forward to it.

Eligo provides a painless Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technology in order to keep and stay focused on your vertical business instead of the underlying enabling technology. Eligo runs on Seac02′s own technology LinceoVR.
In a few clicks you’ll be able to develop custom Virtual and Augmented Reality vertical solutions: from web viral marketing, to stand-alone applications and from e-commerce to mobile applications.

Some of the interesting features of Eligo are the following:
read more

Junaio, the 3D Mobile Augmented Reality platform by Metaio will be launched next week!
Eager to see its capabilities by my own, for now check out their video:

As a user you will be able to augment your world around you with 3D objects. When altered reality the way you desire you can share this information with your friends across social networks, these sort of technologies will ensure that Augmented Reality will be adopted by more and more users.
It’s a playful way to get acquainted with the technology and its possibilities. Aside the 3D capabilities, junaio also offers the ‘standard’ Augmented Reality browsing tools to scan and learn your surroundings.

Will junaio be real competition to Layar’s 3D platform? I do hope so, competition is good for creativeness, let’s see what both companies will bring forth in the near future.

More news during the coming week when junaio will be launched!

I came across this announcement by Esquire, november the 9th they will be featuring an Augmented Reality page which can be viewed by webcam.

The announcement and the frontcover:

It’s good to see that Esquire, GE and others are experimenting with the AR technology in order to bridge offline and online content, in order to create cross-channel campaigns which will trigger people to consume both offline print and online -complementary- content which put together creates an integral package of information.

Cross-channeling through QR codes happens already extensively in Asia, where people can access information with a QR code which is being displayed on billboards, print media, cards and so on.

Not only is Augmented Reality ‘science fictional’ and innovative, it can also attract people to stay longer and explore other content on a particular website, where offline/print-media was the initiator of the act.
As long as Augmented Reality is not mass adopted, companies should experiment with (mobile) Augmented Reality and QR codes and learn how they can benefit in the long run from it, when it’s widely used, the short term advantages would be that a company will be perceived as creative and willing to entertain their customer base in a different way.
More and more Augmented Reality platforms are being developed which means in time prices will decrease, when Augmented Reality could be relevant to your business, start you research today.

What other applications do you see for Augmented Reality in relation to print media?

That is the clear way ABI Research announces its press release on her Augmented Reality research.
Interesting to read the predictions and have confirmation from a company such as ABI Research which forecasts emerging trends in global connectivity.

Besides the growth of Augmented Reality, attention must be given to the cause of this: smartphones.
Again the mobile device has influence and an important role on how a technology can go mainstream very fast, before the adoption of smartphones (in particular iPhone and Android-enabled mobiles) the awareness on Augmented Reality technology was limited. The technology does exist already for 15 years.
read more

Excellent example of a Dutch educational Augmented Reality initiative. It shows perfectly how Augmented Reality can attract attention amongst the public -including Generation Z, being our future generation- to inform about climate change and make an educational effort interesting and fun. ( Both the booklet and website are in Dutch. )

Selexyz developed this initiative to support the HIER climate-campaign.
A massive 1,3 million copies are being spread through channels, plus the booklet is available at Selexyz stores.
Last Monday (12 October) Ruud Lubbers presented the first copy in The Hague, as a Worldconnector he’s involved in this initiative.

Mr. Annan plays an important role as well, he explains the impact of the climate change on the DAARbenik site.
The booklet tells the story of an Ethiopian 12 year old girl, named Halima and how her life is impacted by climate change. 
The booklet has four markers which each tell an aspect of Halima’s life.

If you want to have a glance on how the initiative made use of Augmented Reality, visit the DAARbenik site and download or print the PDF (Print Afbeelding or Hier is het Boekje). You can also watch a video on the website which shows the first marker (Bekijk Video).

I refered explicitely to the Generation Z because this generation is a tech-savvy generation and growing up with technology as a daily part of life, technologies like Augmented Reality will be welcomed and undergone as something ‘usual’ but highly attractive.
Generation Z is also of course the generation which will be impacted and living with changes and it must be nurtured with this sort of awareness.

What other campaigns like these do you know? Do list them in your comment.

I discovered another interesting application of Augmented Reality today.
This is Cisco’s future of shopping:

Augmented Reality can add value to cross-channels campaigns and attract people to stores.
Will these sort of technologies put emphasis on offline business (again) ?

The usage of Augmented Reality is getting accepted more and more in the mainstream for Marketing purposes.

Citroën has applied Augmented Reality to promote her DS3 car.
The first part of the video is what we are getting used to in relation to Augmented Reality.
The second part though is the creative application of Augmented Reality, in the case of Citroën, they applied Augmented Reality in a game simulative manner. Absolutely great!

Check out the video:

Visit the official site of the Citroën DS3 to download the paper and get in action!
How will Augmented Reality influence the console industry?