Objects spring to life on smartphones and tablets in ‘visual browser.’
What if your phone could see the world the same way people do? Imagine a future in which your smartphone could recognize images and objects and then access knowledge, experiences and ideas about them in the way that your brain does.
"You no longer have to search for things. You no longer have to find things. You no longer have to work hard to get the information that you want," said Matt Mills, global head of innovation and partnerships for Aurasma.
“Traditionally, that was seen as science fiction, but now we’ve moved to a world where this is actually possible,” said Matt Mills of augmented reality start-up Aurasma.
Mills demonstrated the technology at a recent TED Global event by pointing his smartphone at a still image of Scottish poet Robert Burns who then came to life and began reciting his own verse. Similar augmented reality actions, or “auras,” devised by the UK-based company were used for 3-D explorations of London’s Olympic Park at the Summer Games.
A spinoff of Autonomy Corporation, an HP subsidiary, Aurasma is seeking to become a platform for sharing augmented reality-type content through smartphones and tablets. Mills, who heads innovation and partnerships, recently discussed different uses of the augmented reality technology and how it can inspire people in content creation.
What’s the opportunity you see for Aurasma’s technology?
Aurasma is a whole new way to see information in the world. It’s about this fundamental shift in the way that we see and interact with the world around us, with the objects, with buildings, with money, with literally anything, and what we do at Aurasma is bring digital content in with video, MPGs, websites and 3-D models, putting it on the real world and create really amazing ways to find that data better.
How will consumers benefit?
The great thing is you no longer have to search for things. You no longer have to find things. You no longer have to work hard to get the information that you want. We can link explicit information to the real world, so if you want information on a shop or a coupon for a restaurant, you can just point at it and immediately get that information. Click, do some action, and then move away. It’s an incredibly powerful way to get data from day to day.
How has the technology advanced since you launched?
When we first started working [in 2010], we could do three or four frames per second on a phone, we could do a little bit of translation, we could do very small 3-D models. [Now] we can now work with cinema-quality 3-D worlds at 40 frames per second in a scene. Two years, 3 years down the line, it’s going to be amazing. We’ll be able to do multiple objects in a scene, we’re going to be able to do real interaction, gesture interaction. You’re going to be able to understand what’s going on in a scene as well as if it has trigger images, and then just really amazing moments and experiences.
What industries can benefit from your technology?
The first and most obvious one is the cinema industry. Working with the film companies, we’ve had some really, really, really amazing kinds of big, big, big steps. In fact, the first company ever to use Aurasma was Paramount Pictures, and what they love about it is they can take any poster, any print ad, anything that’s related to their film and can bring it to life. What’s going to be really cool is the next step, so if I’m seeing a poster for say, a film set in London, why don’t I walk around London and experience that film? With Aurasma, you can, because we can actually use the buildings and the geo-location of users to augment content. You can experience the trailer for [the] film [by] actually walking around London and following the character on their journey.
There are lots of other applications as well, so in education, of the 4 million or so user-generated orders that we’ve had in the last 6 months, a large percentage of those have come from teachers. It’s a new way to bring things like textbooks to life, but also to bring the educational process to life. You could experience how big a T-Rex was by pointing at a wand in your classroom and seeing a T-Rex bark or shout or scream or roar at the teacher.
How does the platform support content creation as well as accessing rich data?
You can do that [on] an augmented reality platform. If I’m to be interested in, let’s say, Ford Mustangs, I can lift up the hood of my old Ford Mustang and I could [make] a video guide on how to change the battery or how to [install] a motor. We’re really finding that users are just getting involved. It’s perfectly normal, and they contribute to the Internet to make it better.
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Augmented Reality Goes Mobile
Objects spring to life on smartphones and tablets in ‘visual browser.’
What if your phone could see the world the same way people do? Imagine a future in which your smartphone could recognize images and objects and then access knowledge, experiences and ideas about them in the way that your brain does.
"You no longer have to search for things. You no longer have to find things. You no longer have to work hard to get the information that you want," said Matt Mills, global head of innovation and partnerships for Aurasma.
“Traditionally, that was seen as science fiction, but now we’ve moved to a world where this is actually possible,” said Matt Mills of augmented reality start-up Aurasma.
Mills demonstrated the technology at a recent TED Global event by pointing his smartphone at a still image of Scottish poet Robert Burns who then came to life and began reciting his own verse. Similar augmented reality actions, or “auras,” devised by the UK-based company were used for 3-D explorations of London’s Olympic Park at the Summer Games.
A spinoff of Autonomy Corporation, an HP subsidiary, Aurasma is seeking to become a platform for sharing augmented reality-type content through smartphones and tablets. Mills, who heads innovation and partnerships, recently discussed different uses of the augmented reality technology and how it can inspire people in content creation.
What’s the opportunity you see for Aurasma’s technology?
Aurasma is a whole new way to see information in the world. It’s about this fundamental shift in the way that we see and interact with the world around us, with the objects, with buildings, with money, with literally anything, and what we do at Aurasma is bring digital content in with video, MPGs, websites and 3-D models, putting it on the real world and create really amazing ways to find that data better.
How will consumers benefit?
The great thing is you no longer have to search for things. You no longer have to find things. You no longer have to work hard to get the information that you want. We can link explicit information to the real world, so if you want information on a shop or a coupon for a restaurant, you can just point at it and immediately get that information. Click, do some action, and then move away. It’s an incredibly powerful way to get data from day to day.
How has the technology advanced since you launched?
When we first started working [in 2010], we could do three or four frames per second on a phone, we could do a little bit of translation, we could do very small 3-D models. [Now] we can now work with cinema-quality 3-D worlds at 40 frames per second in a scene. Two years, 3 years down the line, it’s going to be amazing. We’ll be able to do multiple objects in a scene, we’re going to be able to do real interaction, gesture interaction. You’re going to be able to understand what’s going on in a scene as well as if it has trigger images, and then just really amazing moments and experiences.
What industries can benefit from your technology?
The first and most obvious one is the cinema industry. Working with the film companies, we’ve had some really, really, really amazing kinds of big, big, big steps. In fact, the first company ever to use Aurasma was Paramount Pictures, and what they love about it is they can take any poster, any print ad, anything that’s related to their film and can bring it to life. What’s going to be really cool is the next step, so if I’m seeing a poster for say, a film set in London, why don’t I walk around London and experience that film? With Aurasma, you can, because we can actually use the buildings and the geo-location of users to augment content. You can experience the trailer for [the] film [by] actually walking around London and following the character on their journey.
There are lots of other applications as well, so in education, of the 4 million or so user-generated orders that we’ve had in the last 6 months, a large percentage of those have come from teachers. It’s a new way to bring things like textbooks to life, but also to bring the educational process to life. You could experience how big a T-Rex was by pointing at a wand in your classroom and seeing a T-Rex bark or shout or scream or roar at the teacher.
How does the platform support content creation as well as accessing rich data?
You can do that [on] an augmented reality platform. If I’m to be interested in, let’s say, Ford Mustangs, I can lift up the hood of my old Ford Mustang and I could [make] a video guide on how to change the battery or how to [install] a motor. We’re really finding that users are just getting involved. It’s perfectly normal, and they contribute to the Internet to make it better.
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