Agora Media Group Innovation Blog

It might be an unsettling reality, or hard to grasp, or too different from current settings, but as Matsuda explains:

The latter half of the 20th century saw the built environment merged with media space, and architecture taking on new roles related to branding, image and consumerism. Augmented reality may recontextualise the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change in the way in which we operate within it.

This view offers a look into a more cyborg-like society, where technology and the human being are intertwined heavily. Not a bodily intertwining, but more an informational and intelligent enhancement.
If our daily lives are being ‘controlled’ by step-by-step executions, how does that impact the quality of it?

This film is produced to finalize his Masters in Architecture, which is part of a larger project about the social and architectural consequences of new media and augmented reality.
It’s wise to contemplate about consequences of technologies, even if they are exaggerated, to understand and keep understanding its role in society and effects on the environments.

Your opinion?

As stated on the Deloitte’s Fast50 webpage:

Deloitte yearly forecasts the major trends expected to impact the Technology Media & Telecom (TMT) business in the year ahead. In 2010 the Deloitte TMT Predictions will be launched on March 2 during the Predictions event (Almere).
Deloitte Fast50 challenges TMT entrepreneurs to launch an own Prediction. What will be the major trend expected to impact your business in the year ahead and how many persons agree with you?

Agora Media has entered the contest with two predictions:

By Richard Kastelein:

Media Convergence and Social TV

If we all thought the Facebook and Twitter social media growth phenomena were extraordinary, wait until social TV hits your screens. And it is not as far away as you think – not only with the logical IPTV market, but also terrestrial TV. Social media fused with TV is …the future and the implication of reach that will touch billions not millions.
As Facebook revolutionized the way advertisers can niche-target their online demographics, social TV will profoundly change the ad agencies and marketing departments will offer their wares in the television realm. It’s called tCommerce and watch out – TV widgets and recommendation engines are not far away.
Neilsen ratings seem vague, less targetable and will likely become obsolete in TV 2.0. See http://agoramedia.co.uk/blog/?s=kastelein&x=0&y=0 for articles I have written on Convergent Media and Social TV.
Contest link

By Gianluigi Cuccureddu

The Synaptic Web, Ubiquity and Augmented Reality
The Synaptic Web, where relationships between nodes are more meaningful than the nodes (alone), is a new way of looking at the evolution of the Web (in comparison to the Semantic Web). Augmented Reality perfectly fits within the Synaptic Web, enabling users to create meaningful relations between all sorts of content/data (nodes) and enhance their reality. Mobility and media/content consumption are two important subjects which will transform by the Synaptic Web and Augmented Reality.
The hyperconnective society wants to consume whatever content, wherever they are, when they want. Ubiquity as an aspect will move further up to the core of marketing strategies by means of mobile devices.
A key word within ubiquity is of course real-time. Mobile devices suffice this need and (will) challenge businesses in the near future to be omnipresent with the brand at all touch points of their target groups.
Contest link

Both the predictions approach the same future outlook: a convergent socializing digital world which is available anywhere at any time on any screen with more meaningful and relevant content.
Do add your comments on our predictions’ pages if you think these are the outlooks we can expect in the near future?!

Proximity Marketing as described by Wikipedia is “the localized wireless distribution of advertising content associated with a particular place.”
The commercialization of location will get a boost by the power and opportunities offered by Mobile Augmented Reality applications.

Have a look at the first real-time Augmented Reality proximity marketing platform by Insqribe:

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WOW!

I can’t simply express it differently, these are the next steps in the Augmented Reality evolution and diffusion.

First of all, Sketch Recognition is a development which will make QR Codes / markers redundant on the long run and will create a more natural/organic augmented reality.
View below the video which shows how the technology interacts with the augmentated content! This goes beyond the abilities of current browsers and technologies which do not understand the augmented data, but merely shows it based on markers or GPS data.

The next video will really blow your mind because the technology enables recognition upon natural shapes.

When you combine the two new developments, the extra opportunities -enabled by them- are vast.
Not only will it be more organic and user generated, but based upon the initial augmentated reality, the meta-data can undergo interaction with the user and thus altering the intelligence extracted by the superimposing!

The good news for developers is the following, quoted from the GamesAlfresco blog:

For the first time ever, the core code necessary for real augmented reality “(real” here means precise alignment of graphics overlaid on real life objects) on iPhone 3.0 is available to the public.
To get access to the source code – send us an email ( comogard@gmail.com ).

The precise alignment of graphics on real life object will be an improvement compared to the current abilities to align.
I do wonder what new applications will be developed and how industries will benefit from this.

What do you foresee?

The interest in Augmented Reality is growing which brings along hype and by that, irrelevant applications which misuse the Augmented Reality technology or just hype along concerning the term. When relating this to Gartner’s Hype Cycle, it’s a phase which every technology has to overcome before it diffuses in markets and consumers.

I’ll refer to two kinds of misuses of Augmented Reality, one is with regard to the technology itself, the other is from the utility point of view. Both are equally important as they sustain each other. If one is off, than there’s not symbiotic benefit.
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Due to increasing interest in Augmented Reality, the creative question rises where Augmented Reality can benefit the user?
Theoretically, all is ‘reality’ and all can be augmented with meta-data, but what are the fields that will benefit most?
If one reads the articles and watches the videos on Youtube, one cannot deny the futurisic and science fictional touch that Augmented Reality brings along and fires up creativity and innovativity.

In this article we set out a list of Augmented Reality applications which in some cases are already prototyped, investigated or in use.
This list is probably far from complete, please do complement!

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The concept Augmented ID by TAT is presented last July to the public.
What it basically does is visualizing digital entitities which you encounter in real life. The facial recognition software is developed by Polar Rose and in combination with a mobile, you’ll be able to get information on people around you.
There’s a catch though, people who want to be discovered by Augmented ID, have to set up an account and create their profiles personalized per social network and content.

It isn’t that difficult to take this kind of application to the next level and be able to recognize faces (and objects) based upon the many images stored online.
This might sound futuristic, but most-probably not extremely difficult to develop when technologies are ready for it.

This brings us to the following, should we question privacy concerns when it applies humans?
In the current concept, a person needs to sign up, giving permission to be found.
What implications will come forth from real-time facial recognition?

The possible applications of real-time object recognition are endless, what about being able to shop for an object which passes along, sufficing impulse and desire?

That is what Parrot has done with the AR.Drone.
It’s the first quadricopter that can be controlled by the iPhone and iPod touch.
Integrating the iPhone as a piloting console is once again a good device application, enriching the abilities of the iPhone as a central device.

In my previous post Augmented Reality Semantics , the analysis showed that most Augmented Reality games are not really augmented or even contextually relevant. Parrot has certainly overcome these two critiques by enabling an augmented and new kind of experience.

Another interesting aspect of the AR.Drone is the fact it offers an SDK / Open API platform for third-party developers to create new games for the quadricopter. Opening up the platform will increase collaborative efforts, creation of new games, loyalty and core-enthausiasts.

Have a look at the following videos:
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The Telegraph has predicted several technology trends for 2010.

They foresee the following tech trends:

* Rise of the tablet computer (led by Apple)
* Future of on-demand TV
* Make or break for real-time stuff
* 3D TV
* Augmented reality in information and games

Most of these trend predictions are familiar to us, IPTV, real-time and Augmented Reality have been widely covered the last couple of months.
The ones I don’t foresee to rise are the tablet computer and the 3D TV.

While Apple is able to disrupt industries or technologies with their products, I’m not sure if the tablet will penetrate the market as heavily as the iPhone for instance or at least will have an impact.
Ebook readers, better and bigger smartphones are all challenges that needs to be overcome (or complement) by a device like the tablet. The device arsenal of users is growing, from notebook to smartphone and in some cases the ebook reader. At one point an all-in-one device could be wanted. Another scenario could be the adaptive nature of users which slowly shift towards devices like the ebook reader, tablet and increasingly advanced smartphones.

Looking forward to see if the 3D television will have its revolution next year, personally I think it has the same path as Social TV. There are initial developments and content providers, but the market is not ready for it yet, besides the innovators and early adaptors of course.

Augmented Reality and real-time will go hand in hand, enhancing each other’s assets:
* Real-time enhancement of reality, connecting the “offline” world with the “online” world.
* Real-time creation of a more integrated experience between those two worlds.
* Real-time enriching our surroundings with meta-data through our mobile devices.

Augmented Reality does exist already for a decade -but not before the rise of the GPS and compass enabled smartphone- this technology had a widespread attraction amongst users. Both for the Android as the iPhone, applications and browsers are being developed.
Right now, Augmented Reality is being hyped, many me-too applications which essentialy do the same. AR games which are not really AR or are not capable of delivering the expected unique experience.
This being said, Augmented Reality will diffuse the coming year, both amongst users and amongst businesses who are looking to enhance their marketing strategy or portfolio.

What are other technologies which will emerge in 2010?

Brightkite is deploying this kind of advertising in the US where Insqribe deploys it in Australia, read a previous post on the added value of Augmented Reality to Proximity Marketing.

It’s not only possible to see what friends around you are doing, but with the new app, advertising through Augmented Reality is displayed on your mobile screen.
The collaborative kind of Augmented Reality which is offered by Brightkite enhances the advertisements, because of the recommendations/comments by friends add a new real-time dimension to it.

This kind of advertising can be relevant and targeted, the challenge will be to enable the users to create simple filters of what kind of advertisements will be shown and which ones won’t.
These developments are next steps increasing the importance and opportunities of Location Based Services and Proximity Marketing.

You can download the Layar App from the app store here.

How do you think the amount of advertising can be regulated by the user in a easy way?
By checking boxes which specify certain verticals, or by filters, or by collaborative filtering?