Tag: augmented reality app

Augmented reality search technology launched by Disney in new app

| April 6, 2013

Augmented Reality Disney SearchThe UTV Stars application will apply AR for enhancing the user experience in a high tech way.

Disney UTV Digital has just announced the release of its UTV Stars application for both Apple iOS and Google Android based devices, and that it will feature an augmented reality search option.

This new app has a strong entertainment focus and provides a broad range of different content, says Disney UTV.

The company has revealed that the new application includes content such as live TV streaming, movies, gossip, and Bollywood news. However, the tech and mobile commerce news headlines are being made as a result of the augmented reality feature which allows smartphone and tablet users to snap a movie poster picture from any medium – from print to screen, etc – and gain access to a considerable amount of information about that film.

The augmented reality search feature provides access to everything from text to video and social media.

When the device user applies the augmented reality search feature to a poster, he or she can learn more about the movie through behind the scenes videos, movie trailers, images, Tweets, and other forms of relevant content.

The augmented reality feature itself is called Snap Search. It is powered by Ocutag Technology by Ricoh Innovations. The app is designed to provide a great deal of information, including the very latest in a section that it has labeled “Just In”. This is made up of celebrity tweets from a number of different participants. There is also a “spotted” feed which provides both gossip and news from UTV Stars, including videos from that channel as well as pictures from paparazzi.

The augmented reality feature isn’t the only mobile commerce element to the app, as it also focuses on marketing via social media. It allows its users to share the updates that it sees by way of their own social network accounts at Twitter and Facebook, as well as through email. Moreover, they can save images as favorites so that they can be easily seen later in their personal lists. Should this app become popular, the social element could potentially help it to spread much more quickly and gain more users.

Augmented reality and Big Bird work together to help preschoolers read

| January 11, 2013

augmented reality app for childrenSesame Street has just unveiled the first of multiple apps that will be released for children.

Today’s toddlers are using smartphones even before they know how to read, but Big Bird and the Sesame Street gang are now working together with augmented reality technology to help to close that gap with a fun and fascinating mobile experience for kids.

Preschoolers will be able to use the devices to help to recognize the sounds of written words.

This augmented reality innovation is a joint effort between the Sesame Workshop and Qualcom. Their “Big Bird’s Words” app was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show, where the beloved yellow character took center stage.

The augmented reality app is designed for children to use on their parents’ smartphones.

It allows kids to use augmented reality technology in order to discover words in the real world so that Big Bird can help to sound them out. When the child aims the device at the word, he or she can then listen as the Sesame Street character gives them a hint by providing the sound of the first letter and the sound of the word as a whole. For instance, when a child points at the word “Milk”, Big Bird would help out by saying “You found the word Milk! It starts with the letter M.”

The Big Bird’s Words app is expected to become available to the public in mid 2013. Though the augmented reality application won’t be available for a few months, it will be the first of at least two releases by Sesame Street, aimed at preschoolers. Another app that can be expected following the initial release will be “Abby’s Fairy Rock”, which will feature that far newer, but highly beloved character.

According to the Dave Glauber, form the Content Lab at the Sesame Workshop, during his keynote, “We know that kids are entering kindergarten with a vocabulary gap.” It was during this speech that the augmented reality smartphone app was first presented by Qualcomm. Glauber proceeded to explain that “With this app we can introduce kids to words wherever they are and give them an understanding of what those words mean.”