Technology leader introduces only commercially available platform-independent AR software with SLAM and Continuous Visual Search
MUNICH & SAN FRANCISCO, 18 October, 2012 - After observing a year of remarkable growth in the amount of Augmented Reality (AR) users, developers and business applications, Metaio announced at its annual InsideAR technology conference to over 500 attendees that it will introduce scalable and sustainable AR production methods in order to empower AR on every smartphone, including a unified, platform-independent solution and software development kit, a new and improved desktop publishing tool, and integration of camera technologies like continuous visual search and SLAM, effectively enabling AR on anything, anywhere. Metaio also unveiled the results of extensive R&D: Live outdoor augmented reality on downtown Munich, real-time object recognition and tracking flying at 1,000 feet; Recognizing and augmenting every image of a 100-page magazine with a mobile device; and instant, do-it-yourself augmented reality for entire environments.
Metaio introduced a single platform-independent approach for the streamlined and sustainable creation of Augmented Reality experiences to accommodate the exponentially-growing number of developers (+30k), users (+20M), brands (+2k) and OEMs (+15) actively engaging and interested in Augmented Reality.
"We're bringing the vision of the Augmented City to reality," said Thomas Alt, CEO and Co-Founder of Metaio. "We want to connect every real-world object to the internet through our technology, and we can do it."
Powered by the brand-new and revolutionary Augmented Reality Experience Language (AREL), developers, designers and publishers will be able to create a single experience with the new Metaio Augmented Reality SDK and deploy it to Android, iOS or even PC. Metaio additionally introduced a brand new version of its Metaio Creator, a simplified desktop publishing tool which will allow non-programmers to create and run AR experiences quickly and without a single line of code.
"Augmented Reality is a horizontal technology- you can do anything with it," said Peter Meier "Our unified SDK has over 500 possible technology combinations in a single, scalable SDK so that developers will be able to do anything with AR."
Metaio integrated two chief camera technologies into its software platform: Continuous Visual Search (CVS) and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). With CVS, users need only point the camera of their smartphone at a given image, surface, or even object to discover AR content. SLAM will allow developers to augment nearly any real-world environment, instantly and in real-time - a huge benefit to AR gaming and interactive experiences. Metaio has also improved the precision, accuracy, and speed of its award-winning tracking technology, assuring the most robust augmented reality in the industry.
"We've created multiplatform tools that nearly anyone can use to create and maintain augmented reality projects," said Michael Kuhn, Metaio Director of Product Development. "More than ever, we are providing the major building blocks for creating sustainable, scalable AR experiences."
For 2012 InsideAR, Metaio unveiled the first-ever outdoor visualization fusing GPS and 3-D tracking to overlay a real-time demo of the famous Glockenspiel on the Marienplatz in Munich. In addition, Metaio adapted the GPS information for central Munich to visualize line-of-sight information, unlike any GPS experience before.
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The worldwide leader in Augmented Reality (AR) research and technology, Metaio develops software products for visually interactive solutions between the real and the virtual world. Based on the Metaio Augmented Reality platform, digital and 3-D content can be integrated seamlessly into the user’s camera view looking upon the real world. Powering over 1,000 apps for enterprise, marketing, retail, publishing and industrial cases, over 30 Million consumers use Metaio’s AR software. Learn more at www.metaio.com
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This video demonstrates the latest client based visual search technology by Metaio available with the new Metaio SDK, Metaio Creator 2.0 and the junaio mobile Augmented Reality Browser for iOS and Android.
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With Metaio's research algorithms, the models "snap" into place instantly and intuitively using our "snapping" algorithm, where it will stay, anchored by the original GPS coordinates and our unique real-world (3-D) object tracking algorithms.
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Using the live camera feed from from a remotely-operated Drone, Metaio tested out its brand new SLAM camera technology to see how well it would track the landscape and buildings- which it did, incredibly... from 1000 feet!
Trak Lord
PR & Marketing Manager
metaio, Inc.
trak.lord(at)metaio.com
Phone: +1 415 814 3594
Anett Gläsel-Maslov
Manager PR & Social Media
metaio GmbH
anett.glaesel-maslov(at)metaio.com
+49 (0)89/5480-198-40