Reality Redefined: Virtual Technology at Your Fingertips

By David Leggett

While cool new features like better video recording, more storage space, faster processing and better gaming might be some of the reasons that you cannot avoid buying an iPhone 3GS this summer, consider this. Imagine a browser in which you view the real world through a camera lens on your iPhone, while a heads-up display picks out interesting points and features amid the cityscape. This type of technology 20 years ago sounded like something out of “Back to The Future,” but today we call it Augmented Reality.

Debuting later this month for Android phones, and planned later this year for the iPhone 3GS ,“The Magnetometer,” could be the beginning of something big. Imagine the ability to point your phone at the stars to find out what constellation you’re looking at, or telling what building you’re looking at and its history by pointing your iPhone at it. Imagine what a tour of New York or Paris would be like, all with your cell phone as your tour guide. Sounds more like science fiction but this is only the beginning on what we can expect from Augmented Reality.

Wikipedia defines Augmented Reality as a field of computer research that deals with the combination of real world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time. The only problem is that this is no longer a field based on only research but now is an actual fact and one of the newest innovations in the electronics industry. It superimposes graphics, audio and other sense enhancements from computer screens onto real environments. It superimposes graphics for every perspective and it adjusts to every movement of the user’s head, neck and eyes. Although this is not a new science, the true development of these capabilities is still underway and it is forecasted that it won’t be till the end of the decade before a true augmented reality system really hits the market. But the buzz has already started and it’s picking up steam.

So now you’re obviously wondering how can Augmented Reality help improve my business? Well the answer to that lies in what you want Augmented Reality to do for you. Augmented Reality allows you to see, in real time, data about your surroundings, without actually having to look anything up, or to know anything about it. It’s just there, like another dimension, ready to wow and amaze your customers at any moment of your choosing. Take a look at what some companies are doing now to take advantage of this new technology.

A Dutch company, SPRXmobile, just last week, introduced the first ever Augmented Reality browser platform for the smartphone. The software uses basic features already found on the smart phone, like the compass and GPS system, and conveniently directs you to the nearest ATM, or shoe store or five-star restaurant. Now just think about what this technology can do for your company in the way of marketing technology.

Take for example what the folks at LEGO are doing to implement this technology into their overall marketing strategy. LEGO created a special packaging that, when held in front of special in-store kiosks, shows the shopper what the fully assembled toy will look like. Or take a look at what the people at Total Immersions are doing using Augmented Reality to promote movies using this new technology. http://www.t-immersion.com/

Last month, the FMCG giant Unilever, kicked off a trial system that let consumers redeem certain coupons by scanning their cell phones. This is a mobile marketer’s wildest dream and this is only the beginning. Priority Mail has come up with a virtual program where you can virtually package the item you’re looking to ship, so that you know it will be the right size and shape you need. This program takes care of the whole process for you while you’re in complete control.

To think of all the applications that you can use Augmented Reality for are limitless. Since this is a new and developing technology we have only began to scratch the surface of what this technology can do for the world around us and your business. Think about being able to pass out flyers that can project a 3-D story almost like a high-tech commercial. Think about being able to lay a foundation for a building with Augmented technology so that all the builders have to do is build over the Augmented Reality like a virtual blueprint resulting in a better and more precise structure. Augmented Reality is being used in the baseball card industry, auto industry for helping to build more precise cars and even in the medical profession.

However, with the recent advancements of mobile phone technology, the cell phone seems to be the biggest force driving this push to bring Augmented technology to the mainstream public. Taking into account the spiking popularity of mobile phones coupled with increasing demand and better technology, the rise of Augmented Reality technology is only at the limit of the developer’s imagination.

To think of a world fully intermingled with Augmented Reality is truly something that we could only dream of 30 years ago. What will be the future of this new technology, what are its limitations? These are things that we can only speculate right now, but what we do know is that Augmented Reality is here and it’s at our fingertips.

Streaming Media East 2009: Promoting Ease-of-Use Tools

By Ron Shulkin

Streaming Media East 2009 was an exciting show with more than 3,400 participants and more than 50 vendors represented on the exhibit floor. There were several recurring themes this year, all of them trending toward providing easier-to-use products for content creation, content management and content distribution.

The trend toward ease of use supports a democratization of technology, enabling anyone to create and distribute multimedia content and making it easier for large organizations to support infrastructures. This is in sync with Web 2.0 philosophies of putting “the social” in social networking and provisioning user generated content.

Digital media, including streaming video, has been the traditional purview of audio/video technical specialists. In the past, producers of content needed to be able to encode the video, combine video and audio with other content (like PowerPoint, polls, pdfs, etc.) and provide distribution to content delivery networks. This required a variety of skill sets not available to the average person. If experts wanted to produce a multi-media message to share their insights with an audience, they required the help of an expert in technology.

The vendors at SME all spoke to the introduction of easy-to-use creation software tools. This enables user generated content in a way not available in the past. And the timing is perfect because there is a strong demand for good content.

For example, Interactive Video Technologies offers their Studio product. This is a self service content creation tool. It has been enabled recently with the latest versions of Flash from Adobe. The new revisions of Flash don’t require encoding and are enable with PowerPoint. Greg Pulier, the CTO at IVT, sees the future of webcasting including “unified platforms for employees to create, share and consume rich media, making it trivial to record with PowerPoint and share with selected groups.”

Qumu, another vendor of content creation tools, typically has its products installed behind the firewall in enterprise deployments at big companies. They too have just introduced a desktop tool, Qumu Kodiak; however they rely on the Windows Media format. Not a surprise as Qumu has a product suite that is tightly integrated with Microsoft’s Silverlight.

Other content creation vendors are leaning toward the use of appliances. Sonic Foundry’s MediaSite, widely installed at educational institution classrooms and corporate boardrooms, uses a simple automation device that enables content to be created that is ready for distribution without the need for pre- or post-production.

Along with the ease of use for content creation comes the requirement from the marketplace for easier access to media. If you think about it for a moment, once you have an ever increasing number of videos to watch, you need a way to search through them to find the one you want. This is addressed in several ways; with portals or catalogs, with searchable meta data and with more user friendly playing environments.

The delivery models are also changing. Verizon presented a new program tying the Internet’s media content as presented on television. Joe Ambeault, Verizon’s director of product development and management, video services, told an audience of about 200 at his keynote address that there are some inherent challenges to this new delivery. Viewers want to be able to operate the Internet content like they manage television, with options for TV guide-like search and the ability to change channels. The most striking attribute of this Verizon test was the full involvement of the Verizon team and the full solicitation of feedback from the viewing community. This was a project thoroughly influenced by enlightened social networking participants.

Lastly, along with content creation and delivery, is content management. This area is also being enhanced with ease of use. Publishers are looking for controls and easier-to-use tools. Corporations don’t want their employees to offer messaging without any company controls. During the SME show, I heard about one large company who put into place two full-time employees to search out videos on YouTube and delete them. If there is a company message, they want to control what it is.

Many of the vendors look for automatic integration with their proprietary products or third-party environments like Microsoft’s Silverlight. Certain reliability is the goal so that media infrastructures can be treated like any other system within the information technology department. This means good reports providing measurable and actionable information about usage and availability.

Most of the new technology at Streaming Media East is provided as a Software as a Service rather than enterprise (behind the firewall) deployments. This means the software company can more easily maintain and upgrade its technology remotely.

AT&T Services brings a customer service-oriented vision. The technology is typically integrated with the publisher’s Customer Management System and Learning Management System as well as being highly available, scalable and offering embedded players. Their managed service comes with multiple outputs (digital signage, SharePoint or Websphere) making it easier for the publisher to pay attention to their customer rather than babysitting the technology.

Streaming Media East brought content creation technology vendors face to face with streaming video users. Responding to new demands for User Generated Content, and taking advantage of improvements in the available technology, these vendors are enabling content creators with easy to use, friendly tools. Most streaming media shows have two audiences, publishers (which are mostly media and entertainment companies) and corporate (using rich media for internal training and external marketing). This year their interests overlap in the pursuit of technologies to produce content in streamlined fashions.

*EXTRA*

To get a crasher’s perspective on the show, view Air America’s BreakRoomLive.com video where co-host Sam Seder searches for a danish and coffee at Streaming Media East 2009.