Christine Perey, of Perey Research introduced the subject by explaining that with the installed base of camera phones, voice/SMS are more the only. Some application examples include :
- Mobile phone to capture meta-data around images.
- Mobile augmented reality (AR) which is the world plus what you want to know about it.
- MIT Media Lab SixthSense wearable projection computer project
One example is 3D vision of Helsinki. Nokia Image Space allows users to upload Geo-tagged photos with a strong community aspect. The technology consists of a mobile client for photo capture/upload and a browser to review experience. Nokia Image Space is one demonstration of tagged photos with a strong community aspect.
Another mobile augmented reality based on image recognition. For example a tourist can get information on public building by taking a picture. It can also help land mark navigation - the same way human use to say : "turn left after the church".
Daniel Wagner from Graz University of Technology showed numerous demos of how a mobile phone can provide a virtual view on the real world. Numerous augmented reality projects have been developed in software on ARM chips and can now be implemented with accelerators on mobile phones. The industry is entering the commercial phase and there is investment for that. The future looks good he says. Some of their demos show the tracking of objects with feature recognition (these include “Invisible Train” and “Virtuoso” projects).
Herbert Bay, CEO of Kooaba
Kooaba helps connect the real world (for example a picture of the ETH building) with the web (a list of landmarks or information sources). The mobile service is available live now with a database of a few million objects (Media covers, cinema posters, landmark buildings, magazine pages are well recognized). Snapping a picture of an object is enough to learn all about it. The system recognizes objects in still pictures and links the user directly to web content or other digital services. Some of the challenges are scalability and implementation on cloud computing resources. Herbert also demonstrated recognition of moving pictures.Roger Fischer,CEO and co-founder of Kaywa
Roger explained how the initial 2D codes success in Japan (since 2003) is progressing to Europe. In Japan QR codes are pervasive from food to entertainment, transport applications. However, there is still a large fragmentation of code standards, QR codes, Data matrix, Aztec Code, Datamatrix, EZcode, QR Code, Semacode, MaxiCode, Optaretc..Kaywa is providing solutions and services for campaigns with codes for major brands in Switzerland and across Europe. “DokoDare: Places, People, Me,” is a location-based mobile service based on QR Codes.
Roger gave some examples of adoption of the technologies :
Handset Manufacturers
- Nokia : Datamatrix, QR Code
- Japanese Handsets/Asus (Taiwan): QR Code
- Google Android: QR Code, EAN
- IATA: QR Code, Datamatrix, Aztec
- GS1: EAN, Datamatrix, QR Code
- OMA: Datamatrix, QR Code
Mindaugas Stonys, Convision
He gave an insight on development and production launch of mobile products based on BeeTagg honeycomb technology. Here's my own beetag logo on the left. Connvision developed a real-time reader for QR-Codes, BeeTaggs and Datamatrix. He showed applications in the media industry : Aftonbladet is Sweden's largest newspaper, 120'000 Swedish users downloaded the BeeTagg reader in 6 months and 2.8 million know about it). Mindaugas indicated prerequisites for monetization of 2D-code applications :- multi-platform
- flexible pricing
- branding
For further pointers on mobile AR, check Florian Michahelles blog and video playlist.
