Tag: ar apps

Some predictions are saying that by the year 2018, AR technology applications will be worth investments of $2.5 billion.

According to a recent market forecast issued by ABI Research, by the year 2018, developers will be making investments of more than $2.5 billion in augmented reality apps, particularly in the marketing and retail spaces.

The researchers said that there would already be $670 million invested in that sector by the end of this year.

ABI explained that there are four primary drivers that will be defining to the augmented reality market over the next half decade. They include the combination of the technology with cloud computing, a direction toward a decrease in marker AR that is vision based, “sensor fusion” and the Internet of Everything, and smart eyewear product advances.

They identified the primary growth driver for augmented reality as being cloud computing.

According to the ABI report, cloud computing is “becoming more crucial, as well as immediate, than what has been concluded in earlier research.” ABI senior analyst, Aapo Markkanen, said that “The cloud is a natural fit for AR developers, considering how big benefits cloud-based content libraries present for image recognition technologies.”

At the moment, the biggest SDKs (software development kids) are from Metaio, based in Germany, and from Vuforia, of Qualcomm. Last year, both of these SDKs brought in cloud recognition. Moreover, the visual browser from HP called Aurasma has always had cloud at its heart. That last option – according to Markkanen – is building a considerable amount of traction as a third party app platform.

ABI explained that augmented reality will play an important role in the enabling of the Internet of Everything, particularly in the area of big data analytics; where AR and data visualizations are brought together through the use of wearable computing devices.

ABI practice director, Dan Shey, predicted that in augmented reality will “serve as a visualization medium that will make the sensor data situational, bridged to the real world surroundings,” in an environment where there will already be a tremendous number of structures and physical objects linked by sensors. He predicts that smart eyewear will be an important part of this.

Metaio makes a breakthrough in augmented reality

Metaio, a pioneer of augmented reality technology, has long held a focus on software for mobile devices. The company specializes in augmented reality and has produced many of the world’s most acclaimed AR applications, with an emphasis on showing off the capabilities of the technology. Metaio is now looking to expand into the realm of hardware as it works to ensure that mobile devices can live up to the demands of augmented reality.

AR Engine to expand the capabilities of interactive technology

Metaio has partnered with ST-Ericsson to develop a new hardware chipset called AR Engine. This is the first time Metaio has developed hardware for the purpose of augmented reality and the company believes that it will help expand the capabilities of the technology significantly. The AR Engine is designed to be implemented into a new generation of smartphones and tablets and the entirety of its processing power will be devoted to augmented reality. This means significant improvements in the speed and performance of the technology.

Large-scale augmented reality experiences possible through new chipset

The chipsets exclusive focus on augmented reality will make AR applications run more smoothly on mobile devices. It will also boost performance, allowing for large-scale augmented reality experience, which Metaio suggests could encompass an entire city. The AR Engine also includes improvements to power consumption for particular mobile devices, allowing for “all day” augmented reality capabilities. Metaio CTO Peter Meier suggests that the AR Engine will do for the technology what the GPU did for the game industry several years ago.

AR Engine help realize Augmented City concept

In 2011, Metaio introduced the concept of the Augmented City, the idea of an environment that is completely powered by augmented reality. The firm demonstrated this concept at conferences all over the world, showing how augmented reality could be used as more than just entertainment and navigation. With the AR Engine, Metaio believes that it could move one step closer to making the Augmented City concept a reality.