Augmented reality is closer than it seems
Today, no one will be surprised by the presence of GPS in a mobile device. The Berg Insight September survey (in English) speaks of 90 million personal navigators and about 28 million mobile phones with an integrated GPS receiver that are already in the hands of users. According to researchers, by 2015 the number of active users of navigation applications around the world will be 88 million people.
The main trend of 2009 was the transition of existing local applications (the well-known TomTom Navigator) to cloud computing technology, in other words, the transformation of applications into services. In addition, over the past 9-12 months, many services have appeared, combining mobility, geo-positioning, local content, as well as user-generated content, which make full use of the computing capabilities of the server, combining them with mobility use.
The most spectacular phenomenon of recent months can be called augmented reality applications (extended or augmented reality) that appear like mushrooms after rain.
')
This topic has repeatedly raised the habr, for example,
Such applications use a GPS module and an electronic compass. Now it is implemented in the iPhone and devices on the Android platform. Owners of other devices still lack this pleasure.
But is “extended reality” limited to the applications mentioned above?
In fact, almost any service that allows you to receive information superimposed on objects of the real world can already be called "extended reality".
In particular, geo-tied tourist guides - why not “extended reality”?
We also could not stand aside, but decided to offer our approach to the world :-)
But first, a small overview of what already exists.
I will not touch the traditional mp3 audio guides - their time is running out. In fact, it is necessary to download tracks, print a map with numbers printed on it, and then walk around and follow the map all the time in time to turn on the track in the player. There are more advanced among them when you need to install an application, download a tour, and then the GPS will do its job. But even such guides are not interactive, and not much better than regular guides.
It is much more interesting when you can not only read (watch, listen) the guide, but also participate in its creation. Often, user comments are more useful than pre-written text. And if you really want to share your impressions? Or do you think you know more or can you tell more interesting?
http://www.wikitude.org
WIKITUDE World Browser is the older brother of the WIKITUDE Drive application, already mentioned in the Habré. The application runs on Android and iPhone platforms. In real time, the information from the camera is superimposed on the information layer on the object caught in the camera lens. The data is created by the users themselves on the special site www.wikitude.me . This may include museum opening hours, restaurant or cafe impressions, or discount information.
The service always looks great on two-minute videos, but will anyone actually walk around and constantly keep their iPhone in front of their faces aimed at houses, streets and other objects?
http://www.locago.com
The service for mobile devices Locago allows you to connect an unlimited number of information layers and receive data from them related to your location, such as weather, wikipedia, photos from flickr, traffic situation and much more.
Some layers are global, like weather or flickr photos, and are available everywhere. Some of them contain only local information, for example, a layer with road video cameras on the roads of the Czech Republic is obviously useless in Russia.
I must say that initially the developers have focused on transferring maps in vectors and rendering them on a mobile phone, justifying this by reducing traffic. However, adding layers makes this benefit ghostly.
http://woices.com/
woices - an attempt to create a so-called echosphere, consisting of audio notes or echoes, each of which is an audio file recorded by the user and tied to a card. These can be single notes or tours. woices also offers companies to organize special geo-tours for their respective audiences.
There is no special mobile application, access to audio files only through a browser on a mobile device, which is somewhat inconvenient.
http://foursquare.com/
Foursquare is essentially a geo-positional game for mobile users. Explore your city, look for map-related points, earn points and rewards.
I would love to try it, but unfortunately, for now it only works in a dozen cities in the States and London.
http://www.tourspot.mobi/
TourSpot - service for mobile tourists. Interactive travel maps combine information about objects, local facts, and user-generated content. In general, google maps in miniature.
http://brightkite.com/
Brightkite is a service from the “what's happening around me” series. Users can share information about nearby restaurants, bars, concerts, events and chat. The service is free for users, the project exists due to targeted advertising.
http://www.ontheroad.to/
OnTheRoad is a personalized travel log. You can post photos, videos on the map right during the trip and share your impressions with friends. The application works on iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile. Very similar to Twitter (or Tumblr) only with geo-referencing posts + trip planner.
And what do we offer?
http://www.toozla.com/ru
The Toozla service is a mobile audio guide, and the information comes to the user directly at the moment when the user is in this place. These guides are interactive, that is, the user can, on the spot, leave his audio message, which will immediately “hang” at this point and immediately become available to all who later find themselves in this place.
What distinguishes Toozla from the considered services? We focus on audio content, which allows the user to not look at the screen, but simply - to listen. In fact - this is an analogue of the radio, which tells only what is related to the current location. You can interpret it as a radio, in which there are as many channels as there are interesting tourist sites. In some ways this is similar to a quest - the user approaches the next hero (in our case, the monument), and the hero begins to speak.
We want to change the approach to individual tourism. Now it’s not the tourists who crowd the guides, but the personal guide follows the tourist.
Of course, like all start-up projects, we have our own difficulties. Far from ideal mobile application, while a small number of partners. But we do not stand still. A completely redesigned J2ME client is about to be released, next to the iPhone and Android. There are new partners and customers.
I want to conclude by saying more about this.
In November, the World Travel Market conference and exhibition is held in London - the largest event of the tourism industry in Europe. This year, as part of WTM, GetFundedShow is being held - in a format well known to you for startups.
We are going to this event! We were selected for it among 240 startups who submitted applications.
A popular vote began on Twitter for the projects submitted to GetFundedShow.
I urge you to support the domestic producer :) and vote for Toozla!
How to vote.
1. Read the list of applicants .
2. Login to Twitter (create an account there, if you don’t have one yet) - 3. Follow @GetFundedShow
4. Tweet him with the name of the participant to whom you want to vote (I hope it will be Toozla :)
For example, @GetFundedShow I vote for Toozla!
The project with the most tweets in its support is the winner!
The main trend of 2009 was the transition of existing local applications (the well-known TomTom Navigator) to cloud computing technology, in other words, the transformation of applications into services. In addition, over the past 9-12 months, many services have appeared, combining mobility, geo-positioning, local content, as well as user-generated content, which make full use of the computing capabilities of the server, combining them with mobility use.
The most spectacular phenomenon of recent months can be called augmented reality applications (extended or augmented reality) that appear like mushrooms after rain.
')
This topic has repeatedly raised the habr, for example,
- Augmented Reality Experimental Interfaces
- Top 5 Web Trends 2009: No.4 Mobile Internet and Augmented Reality
Such applications use a GPS module and an electronic compass. Now it is implemented in the iPhone and devices on the Android platform. Owners of other devices still lack this pleasure.
But is “extended reality” limited to the applications mentioned above?
In fact, almost any service that allows you to receive information superimposed on objects of the real world can already be called "extended reality".
In particular, geo-tied tourist guides - why not “extended reality”?
We also could not stand aside, but decided to offer our approach to the world :-)
But first, a small overview of what already exists.
I will not touch the traditional mp3 audio guides - their time is running out. In fact, it is necessary to download tracks, print a map with numbers printed on it, and then walk around and follow the map all the time in time to turn on the track in the player. There are more advanced among them when you need to install an application, download a tour, and then the GPS will do its job. But even such guides are not interactive, and not much better than regular guides.
It is much more interesting when you can not only read (watch, listen) the guide, but also participate in its creation. Often, user comments are more useful than pre-written text. And if you really want to share your impressions? Or do you think you know more or can you tell more interesting?
http://www.wikitude.org
WIKITUDE World Browser is the older brother of the WIKITUDE Drive application, already mentioned in the Habré. The application runs on Android and iPhone platforms. In real time, the information from the camera is superimposed on the information layer on the object caught in the camera lens. The data is created by the users themselves on the special site www.wikitude.me . This may include museum opening hours, restaurant or cafe impressions, or discount information.
The service always looks great on two-minute videos, but will anyone actually walk around and constantly keep their iPhone in front of their faces aimed at houses, streets and other objects?
http://www.locago.com
The service for mobile devices Locago allows you to connect an unlimited number of information layers and receive data from them related to your location, such as weather, wikipedia, photos from flickr, traffic situation and much more.
Some layers are global, like weather or flickr photos, and are available everywhere. Some of them contain only local information, for example, a layer with road video cameras on the roads of the Czech Republic is obviously useless in Russia.
I must say that initially the developers have focused on transferring maps in vectors and rendering them on a mobile phone, justifying this by reducing traffic. However, adding layers makes this benefit ghostly.
http://woices.com/
woices - an attempt to create a so-called echosphere, consisting of audio notes or echoes, each of which is an audio file recorded by the user and tied to a card. These can be single notes or tours. woices also offers companies to organize special geo-tours for their respective audiences.
There is no special mobile application, access to audio files only through a browser on a mobile device, which is somewhat inconvenient.
http://foursquare.com/
Foursquare is essentially a geo-positional game for mobile users. Explore your city, look for map-related points, earn points and rewards.
I would love to try it, but unfortunately, for now it only works in a dozen cities in the States and London.
http://www.tourspot.mobi/
TourSpot - service for mobile tourists. Interactive travel maps combine information about objects, local facts, and user-generated content. In general, google maps in miniature.
http://brightkite.com/
Brightkite is a service from the “what's happening around me” series. Users can share information about nearby restaurants, bars, concerts, events and chat. The service is free for users, the project exists due to targeted advertising.
http://www.ontheroad.to/
OnTheRoad is a personalized travel log. You can post photos, videos on the map right during the trip and share your impressions with friends. The application works on iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile. Very similar to Twitter (or Tumblr) only with geo-referencing posts + trip planner.
And what do we offer?
http://www.toozla.com/ru
The Toozla service is a mobile audio guide, and the information comes to the user directly at the moment when the user is in this place. These guides are interactive, that is, the user can, on the spot, leave his audio message, which will immediately “hang” at this point and immediately become available to all who later find themselves in this place.
What distinguishes Toozla from the considered services? We focus on audio content, which allows the user to not look at the screen, but simply - to listen. In fact - this is an analogue of the radio, which tells only what is related to the current location. You can interpret it as a radio, in which there are as many channels as there are interesting tourist sites. In some ways this is similar to a quest - the user approaches the next hero (in our case, the monument), and the hero begins to speak.
We want to change the approach to individual tourism. Now it’s not the tourists who crowd the guides, but the personal guide follows the tourist.
Of course, like all start-up projects, we have our own difficulties. Far from ideal mobile application, while a small number of partners. But we do not stand still. A completely redesigned J2ME client is about to be released, next to the iPhone and Android. There are new partners and customers.
I want to conclude by saying more about this.
In November, the World Travel Market conference and exhibition is held in London - the largest event of the tourism industry in Europe. This year, as part of WTM, GetFundedShow is being held - in a format well known to you for startups.
We are going to this event! We were selected for it among 240 startups who submitted applications.
A popular vote began on Twitter for the projects submitted to GetFundedShow.
I urge you to support the domestic producer :) and vote for Toozla!
How to vote.
1. Read the list of applicants .
2. Login to Twitter (create an account there, if you don’t have one yet) - 3. Follow @GetFundedShow
4. Tweet him with the name of the participant to whom you want to vote (I hope it will be Toozla :)
For example, @GetFundedShow I vote for Toozla!
The project with the most tweets in its support is the winner!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/72778/
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