Let's meet by the eye...
I recently spoke on a panel at the SEE2009 (Symbian Exchange & Exposition) conference in London about the current state and future direction of mobile augmented reality. The panel title was, “Augmented Reality – This is Only The Beginning”, and we had a lot to talk about including an interesting mix of hardware, frameworks, software, user experience, and marketing perspectives.
We’re currently at that moment in time where mobile processors, touch, screen resolution and size, sensors, cameras and mobile operating systems are enabling us to generate some amazing user experiences. We can derive a persons location context and “add” or augment that context to create an informative, engaging experience. It’s walking down a street in New York and seeing Apartments for rent with pricing, etc. overlaid on your mobile as you walk. Think Google street view with layers of details pointed out to you as you walk. Most mobile experiences today are based on GPS, a compass and accelerometer to map objects as an overlay to live video. Some experiences in are able to recognize images (markers or simple shapes), but processing power and memory requirements have been limiting these until recently. Look for more of these types of experiences in the near future.
We explored some of the possibilities in this relatively new (to mobile devices) platform that mixes your physical and digital lives in a seem-less experience. As mobile processing power and head-mounted displays become mainstream, the possibilities are grandiose. Imagine phone, email, SMS, MMS, Second Life, social media, navigation, public service information, and more all available overlaying in real-time in your regular glasses with as much or little information as you want. Throw in some neurotransmitters and you’ll be controlling the works truly hands-free!
Symbian is the recently open sourced mobile operating system from Nokia. The Symbian operating system currently accounts for just over half (52%) of all smartphone sales in the world. The list continues with RIM (Blackberry), iPhone, Microsoft, and Google Android, respectively.
According to the “Media Advertising Forecast” from MAGNA, projections show mobile advertising revenues growing 36% to $229 million in 2009, and to $409 million in 2011. Not to mention the explosion of “app stores” on each mobile platform.
Moderator Matt Marshall, who is the editor and CEO of VentureBeat; has posted comments specifically on the augmented reality browser called Layar. Other speakers include: Mr David Caabeiro (Co-Founder, Sequence Point Software), Mr Simon Daniel (CEO, Moixa Design & Moixa Energy), and Mr Raimo van der Klein (CEO, Layar).
Mr. Caabeiro is working on an augmented reality framework called, ARound, for Symbian that is in beta. Mr Daniel designs innovative products (like the USBCell battery) and collaborates with the likes of NASA to further ideas like having the next generation personal safety features in mobile devices that would have emergency exit AR always available. And Mr. van der Klein heads one of a handful of companies creating augmented reality browsers for mobile devices. Their solution is called Layar, and has been released on Andriod and iPhone, with an announcement on the panel that they are targeting March 2010 for release on the Nokia-Symbian platform.
