Posts Tagged Total Immersion
Fancouver at the Winter Olympics
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Uncategorized on February 13th, 2010
Yahoo! and augmented reality leader Total Immersion have come up with some nifty ways to bring consumers into the action at the world’s largest winter sporting event. Yahoo!’s “Fancouver” exhibit enables passers-by to insert themselves into the festivities in a host of guises. Kicking off yesterday, Feb. 12, Fancouver features an entertaining and versatile digital out-of-home display, with dual windows that use augmented reality (AR) face tracking and tracking to a brochure, respectively, to give fans a distinctly different view of the proceedings.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Insights Into Augmented Reality from Total Immersion
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on February 4th, 2010
Total Immersion leads the augmented reality industry in total projects (around 125 last year and they’re expecting over 250 in 2010.) They’ve successfully created world-wide campaigns like Coke Zero and the Avatar i-Tag game line. So when they talk about augmented reality, I want to make sure I’m taking notes. Iriny Kuznetsova from 2Nova interviewed Nicolas Bapst about the company and their current activities. The interview was short, but had a few interesting insights.
Total Immersion has done work for the military in creating augmented reality solutions that put simulated objects on the battlefield. This is a much cheaper alternative to war-gaming with real equipment. Hopefully this encourages the military to fund more see-through AR HMDs.
Total Immersion expects that AR mobile marketing will be the new trend in the coming year and shows off a brief demonstration. They’re converting their PC software to mobile to take advantage of the smartphone growth. I found Nicolas’ observation about how augmented reality marketing applications give you direct access to your customers interesting. By moving people from static newspapers to the computer (and especially the smartphone), then they can find out exactly who is interested in their product and then leverage social media to spread the word. Nicolas explains they doubled time on websites by adding augmented reality content. I’m curious if this increase will sustain as the novelty of augmented reality wears off.
Nothing game breaking here, but worth a few minutes if you’re not familiar with the company.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Augmented Reality Year in Review – 2009
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, Industrial AR, augmented reality on December 27th, 2009
The year 2009 has been an important milestone in the development of augmented reality as an important future technology. While markers and marketing campaigns captured the early interest of the year, the bigger story was the porting of augmented reality to the various smartphones in the second half.
But those two generalities aren’t the only thing that happened in 2009 in regards to augmented reality. I’m going to take a look back at the year, month-by-month, to remember how the year unfolded, so we better understand the direction of the future.
January
Back at the dawn of 2009, all the augmented reality news you needed to know was in one place – Games Alfresco. Hope was high and all the pieces seemed to be clicking into place.
Biggest News of the Month – Metaio releases its Lego AR boxes
* By a long shot, Metaio’s release of the augmented reality Lego box was the biggest news of the month. When you can get Angela Merkel and the Govenator to pose with your product, you’re doing well.
Coolest App/Video – iPhone App Helps Solve Rubix Cube
* This app portents of things to come in the future as products like Google Goggles amp up the possibilities of reality-search. Using specific algorithms (agents) for specific tasks, there will be an app for everything you want to do in the future.
Best Article / Interview – UgoTrade Interview with Robert Rice
* Though Robert hasn’t delivered on his promise of a Neogence product by mid-year (though the Apple video API has stymied their progress), the rest of the interview is full of great quotes and nuggets about augmented reality.
* Notable quotes from Robert that show how much he understands the industry:
But yes, I’d say that the next 18 months are going to be very interesting with a lot of money being thrown around, new ventures, and plenty of content/applications. I expect most of this will be centered on single user AR experienced through a mobile device with a screen (iPhone, android, etc.). I expect that there will be a significant boost after Vuzix releases some of their wearable *transparent* displays, putting Microvision back into the “has potential but is too quiet” position.
Remember, one of the biggest risks that AR has, is being branded as “novelty”, which means “cool for five minutes but ultimately a waste of time.” I think we have a ways to go before something is truly useful, but as 2009 progresses we should start seeing some effort here. I’d guess 2010 before something really useful comes out…at least something practical.
Now, having said that, I should say that I expect entertainment and games to take the lead (as usual), although there are a few companies really trying to leverage AR and video/graphics compositing for marketing (brochures) and location based methods (kiosks, large screen projections, etc.)
Other notable things that happened in January – The Augmented Times is born and Rouli Nir begins a great year of chronicling the happenings of AR.
An auspicious quote from Rouli:
This blog is about Augmented Reality (AR). It is my firm belief that AR will be the next web revolution (the so called Web 3.0, and forget about that semantic web nonsense). In the next few years, stronger devices and better algorithms will enable us to merge the real world with cyberspace. Using your mobile phone (at first) or head up display (later on) every real object will be augmented and achieve a web presence. Tourism, shopping, advertisement, entertainment and education are only a few areas that will never be the same.
This blog mission is to document this revolution as it happens. We welcome you, and welcome our augmented future.
February
This month is relatively quiet due to it being handicapped by fewer days than the other months.
Biggest News of the Month – Augmented Reality in Flash Now Commercially Available.
* Making the nuts-and-bolts tools of AR available for commercial use is always a good thing, especially when its paired with flash.
Coolest App / Video – “Sixth Sense” MIT Device.
* Patty Maes unleashed this phenomenon on the web early last year and it still gets links and mentions today. While projection based AR is probably not medium that we’ll all eventually use, the video showed tangible use-cases that help the non-initiated understand the embryonic technology.
Best Article / Interview – This comic from the Abstruse Goose sums up a lot about the future of ubiquitous computing (via Augmented Blog.)
Other notable things that happened in February- I started the Future Digital Life blog, which upon reading my early posts, makes me cringe a little. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Also, Rouli starts the Weekly Linkfest, the best place to find the round up of AR news each week.
March
In like a lion, out like a lamb. Augmented reality starts to get rolling in March with lots of goodies and promises.
Biggest News of the Month – Metaio and Vuzix Team Up to Create AR Goggles.
* While the year has been mostly disappointing regarding HMDs, this was the one tangible piece of progress in the bunch. The video Ori captured at the GDC portends to greater things. While no companies have released products for the Vuzix+ARCam, we’ve recently seen an impressive project from Craig Kapp with his Whisper Deck.
Coolest App / Video – Blair MacIntryre’s GA Tech team – Zombie Attack and Pit Strategy.
* The videos showed what polished AR games can look like.
Best Article / Interview – I’m going for a two-fer on this one because its hard to choose between Ori’s talk at WARM09 and Robert’s Decade of Ubiquity post.
* If you haven’t watched Ori’s talk, I highly recommend it. Even though I’d seen the video, I made a point of hearing him live at ISMAR09 because I think its such a well thought-out call for human-based technology. Robert’s vision is a bit more expansive and covers the whole of augmented reality. I’ll leave you with another Robert quote:
We will break away from the desk, we will throw away our monitors, and our children will laugh at how large our IPhones are. They will struggle with how we ever managed to get work done with “windows” “webpages” and keyboards. They will be unable to fathom the concept of vinyl disks, typewriters, and landlines. But it all starts, and accelerates, during this next decade. Imagine everything that happened in the last decade, and multiply it. You haven’t seen anything yet. The next decade will make the last one pale in comparison.
Other notable things that happened in March – Topps released augmented baseball cards and ISMAR09 begins calling for papers.
April
Biggest News of the Month- Rouli and Ori team up on Games Alfresco to create the AR hub for all AR related news.
* The move allowed Ori to focus more on his company and gave Rouli the helm on the daily AR newscasting. Looking back at the great job that GA has done, I’d say it was a good move.
Coolest App / Video – Marco Tempest’s AR card trick video.
* The video hit the web in April and showed us how AR can change our perception of reality.
Best Article / Interview – Tim O’Reilly talks Web 2.0
* Augmented Times identified the best quote from the video:
RFID is an evolutionary dead-end … semantic web or RFID is things “wearing name-tags”, and web 2.0 is learning to recognize things … We’re getting to that kind of augmented reality, where our computers will have senses that are as good as ours or better … they are going to recognize faces, they are going to recognize objects, they gonna have immediate recall. If you ask me “what’s the UI in five years”, it’s a pair of glasses … I’m gonna have some kind of little heads up display because I’m gonna look at something, I’m gonna walk around at a meeting and it will go “that’s Joe, you met him three years ago”.
Other notable things that happened in April – Georgia Tech fear of heights video (another peak into the future of augmented reality as a perception changer), Rouli’s call for marketers to stop using AR to sell cars, Lester at the Augmented Planet gets his blog started, Nokia point and find is out and a couple of articles about brain-computer interfaces: Honda controls robot and the brain-twitter breakthrough.
May
Biggest News of the Month – Metaio releases Unifeye design demo.
Coolest App / Video – Useful AR from the US Postal Service.
* Using FLARToolkit, the US postal service shows us that not all AR applications have to be novelity ones.
Best Article / Interview – Tish interviews Ori Inbar about mobile augmented reality.
Ori: Just like with every emerging technology in history, people never bought the technology, they bought the content, the apps, the benefits that came on top of the technology. Whether it was VHS winning over Beta Max, or BluRay winning over HD. It’s always because of more/better content. Look at the video game console war: Xbox, and Nintendo did better than Sony just because they had more and better games. Even Windows was a success thanks to its applications. People bought it for the applications not the OS. The content is the first to drive demand.
Other notable things that happened in May – My post about the Path to Augmented Vision, Programmer Joe talks AR at LOGIN, and 11 Industries to be Reinvented with Augmented Reality.
June
Biggest News of the Month – Layar is online.
* The biggest news of the month by far. Layar was the first big product release that got a buzz bump.
Coolest App / Video – Zugara Social Shopper.
* The video showcased the use of motion capture to help eliminate the burdensome need for keyboards and mouses when you’re using augmented reality. Zugara later put the technique into practice for their Cannonballz and Fashionista products.
Best Article / Interview – UgoTrade Interview with Blair MacIntyre
* No surprise here. Tish Shute continues to get great interviews with everyone important in the AR field.
The problem with the mobile phone as a AR device is that problem of awareness. If I have a head mount on and I walk down the street and there is bunch of probably-not-useful-but-potentially-useful information floating by me, that’s a good thing, because I may see something that is useful or makes me think of something else. But if I have to hold up my phone to see if something might be interesting nearby, I will never hold up my phone because at the time there is a high probability that there won’t be anything particularly important there. You might imagine you can get around this by using alerts or something like that, but then you overload whatever alert channel you use.
Other notable things that happened in June- Ori asks us all about our favorite AR games of all time, Noah breaks onto the scene with his Touchless Glove Interface, and Goggle presents their paper on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (which later becomes Goggles).
July
Biggest News of the Month – The AR Consortium Announced.
* While its still unknown if the consortium has accomplished anything through cooperation, the intention of cooperation is a start. Here’s to hoping we’ll see more fruit from this vine in 2010.
Coolest App / Video – AcrossAir Tube Finder.
* At the time it was released we weren’t sure if it was a real product, but eventually we learned the truth and for a time, AcrossAir became the top selling AR app on the iPhone appstore.
Best Article / Interview – UgoTrade Interview with Ori Inbar “Reality Reinvented”
Ori:You are so right. It’s multiple elements in the industry that have to come together. You have the technology companies like Imagination and Metaio, then you have content companies like what we’re trying to do; the hardware vendors and the large content providers. Those brands that we’re trying to go after and educate them about the potential of AR. All these pieces need to come together for this market to ignite.
Other notable things that happened in July – James Alliban’s business card goes viral and AR Avatar toys are released at Comic Con.
August
Biggest News of the Month – Yelp Introduces AR Monocle via Easter Egg
Coolest App / Video – Bruce Sterling’s Layar Keynote – At the Dawn of the AR Industry
* Bruce released an AR-infused novel Catyadids in 2009, so it was only natural that Layar asked him to speak about the fledgling industry. The speech is memorable with too many great lines to pick from for quoting here.
Best Article / Interview – Thomas Wrobel’s Proposal for an Open AR Network
* Easily Tish’s best interview because it turned into more than a reflection of past events or hopes for the future. Tish and Thomas have since rallied AR professionals and amateurs to join the AR Wave collaborative effort. They seek to use Wave as the platform for an open AR network and have recently been testing code.
Other notable things that happened in August – AR Strippers!
September
Biggest News of the Month – Vuzix 920Wrap Will Not be See-Through
* The biggest disappointment of the year was the news from Vuzix. Good see-through AR glasses are supposed to release us from the tyranny of the “magic lens”. Hoping 2010 brings better news, but I’m really waiting until 2011.
Coolest App / Video – Augmenting Aerial Maps with Dynamic Information
Best Article / Interview – Gene Becker’s Design Strategies for Magic Lens.
Other notable things that happened in September – No more Gamaray - Death of a Browser, Int13 and Total Immersion getting into bed, and the augmented reality reading list.
October
Biggest News of the Month – News from ISMAR09, News from ISMAR09 #2 and UgoTrade ISMAR09 Coverage.
* I was lucky enough to attend and speak at ISMAR09. The energy of the participants was exceptional and I came away from it more jazzed about AR than I was going in. Hopefully the ISMAR committee will be releasing the videos from the event soon.
Coolest App / Video - 2D sketches become 3D reality.
Best Article / Interview – ISMAR09 HMD Review
* I think I summed up the current state of HMDs for AR pretty well. I’m hoping 2010 brings a suprise for AR HMDs.
Other notable things that happened in October – AR Wave discussion on UgoTrade, Wikitude for the iPhone first look and Giant Hand Torments City
November
Biggest News of the Month – Junaio hits the app store.
Coolest App / Video – Interactive Entertainment Using AR
* The videos about the Disney experiences were similar to what Mark Mine showed us at ISMAR. They really show us how technology can transcend our perceptions of reality.
Best Article / Interview – Augmented Planet’s Head-to-head browser test (and part 2)
* Lester broke down the various browsers in this excellent hands-on challenge. Read both parts to find out the winner.
Other notable things that happened in November – Business Week’s Article about: Getting Beyond the Hype and Robert Rice’s reply.
December
Biggest News of the Month – Goggle Googles is released.
* The giant has awoken. Goggles has many implications for Googles ideas on the AR market. This won’t be the last time we’ll hear from them about this technology.
Coolest App / Video – Layer 3.0.
* While Layar has since pulled the app from the app store and had to issue and apology, the version 3.0 still holds lots of promise.
Best Article / Interview – Augmented Reality in 2010: Predictions (10 part series)
* A wide swath of the AR blogosphere had the opportunity to participate in the predictions series from Games Alfresco run by Rouli Nir. More interesting, snarky, and possibly-true predictions that you can shake an augmented stick at.
Other notable things that happened in December – AR Wave FAQ on UgoTrade, Enkin acquired by Google, ARDevCamp, Wikitude Teams Up with Lonely Planet, 10 Worse Uses of AR in 2009, and Nexus One News and Implications of AR.
What It All Means
Whew. After reviewing hundreds of articles and videos, I’m sure I’ve missed a number of important happenings from the year 2009. If I have, please make sure to comment and I’ll add it if I have overlooked it.
What does it all mean? That is entirely up to you. The year has brought many advances to augmented reality and the ceiling is sky-high for 2010. There will be surprises, excuses, apologies, releases, re-releases and more. Money will be pumped in, not all where it should go, and progress will be made. We’ll laugh at the videos, smile at our favorite products and complain when it does work as expected. Either way, it will be a year more interesting than the last and I’ll be here to watch it all unfold.
Popularity: 87% [?]
Total Immersion – McDonald’s & Avatar Worldwide Promotion
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on December 17th, 2009
Press Release
WANT AN INTERGALACTIC EXPERIENCE WITH THOSE FRIES? MCDONALD’S ORDERS UP AUGMENTED REALITY FROM
TOTAL IMMERSION, IN GLOBAL PROMOTION FOR FOX’S ‘AVATAR’
AR Experiences Connect Film and Filmgoers Worldwide,
In Biggest Mass Deployment of Augmented Reality to Date
LOS ANGELES (Dec. 17, 2009) – You’ve seen the trailer — now grab a bite of augmented reality to accompany your Big Mac as you gear up for the Dec. 18 opening of
20th Century Fox’s “Avatar.”
Augmented reality pioneer Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com) today announced that it has teamed up with McDonald’s on a global promotion for the film at its restaurants in 40 markets around the world – the most extensive deployment of AR technology to date. The promotion kicked off earlier this month, on hundreds of millions of McDonald’s boxes — and, on Dec. 18, on the web, at www.mcdonalds.com/avatar.
During the month and into January, product packaging in the U.S. for Big Macs will feature an AR “Thrill Card” on the side of each box, delivering an up-close experience with the rich environments of Pandora, and revealing insights into the characters, fauna and flora from the movie. Displayed before a webcam, the perforated “Thrill Card” becomes a portal into three unique, immersive Pandora environments – the Pandoran Rainforest, the Hallelujah Mountains and the Tree of Souls.
Players control their AR experiences by moving and tilting the “Thrill Cards” through the world of Pandora. They are invited to “Touch the Mysterious Anemonids” where they watch the Pandoran Rainforest light up as they touch the bioluminescent Anemonids. Players are then beckoned to “Navigate Across Ancient Vine Bridges,” where they can show their balancing skills by crossing the shaky vines to reach the Hallelujah Mountains. In the third scenario, “Find Mystical Woodsprites,” players explore the willow tree in search of the mystical Woodsprites, and watch them come to life.
“The McDonald’s/Avatar promotion delivers augmented reality on an unprecedented global scale,” said Bruno Uzzan, CEO, Total Immersion. “It’s by far the widest use of AR we’ve ever seen, potentially touching hundreds of millions worldwide. At the same time, it signals the arrival of digital experiences, to complement durable goods in the marketplace – a trend we expect will accelerate in the months and years ahead.
“Augmented reality does more than engage customers – it enlightens and entertains as well,” he said. “We’re as excited about the upcoming release of ‘Avatar’ as moviegoers worldwide, and this promotion with McDonald’s extends both the trailer and the energy building around the film. We’re absolutely thrilled to be part of this, and to offer a technology that conveys to consumers the magic of the movie.”
Links: Linkedin Facebook Twitter Blog
About Total Immersion
Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com) is the global leader in augmented reality. Through its patented D’Fusion technology, Total Immersion blurs the line between the virtual world and the real world by integrating real time interactive 3D graphics into a live video stream. Leading the augmented reality category since 1999, the company maintains offices in Europe (France and the UK), Asia and the U.S., and supports a network of more than 50 partners worldwide. Find the latest news concerning Total Immersion projects at: http://augmented-reality-news.com.
Media Contact for TI:
Ken Greenberg
Edge Communications, Inc.
818/990-5001
Popularity: 28% [?]
Total Immersion’s Ghost Hunting Experience
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on December 16th, 2009
Mark Pine, the keynote speaker from Disney Imagineering at ISMAR09, gave the audience compelling reasons why truly interactive experiences are the future of entertainment and the one I remember most was: “It’s about connecting with the user.”
Total Immersion has recently partnered with Hanwa Co. (Japan) to create a live action augmented reality video game that connects with the user in much the same way that Mark from Disney had displayed. Unlike the projection based AR system that Disney used, Total Immersion have their guests wear a backpack and wield a video gun to hunt ghosts in the fully explorable house earning points as they capture them.
“We’re demonstrating the magical ability of augmented reality to capture visitors’ attention and imagination,” said Bruno Uzzan, CEO, Total Immersion. “Guests experience real time interaction with augmented reality content — and are pulled into real life videogame, dynamically.”
More pictures can be seen on Total Immersion’s blog about AR and they recently uploaded this video to YouTube.
Total Immersion reports a high revisit rate with teens and gamers which bodes well for AR driven entertainment. Their AR entertainment experience makes me realize that the first real augmented reality HMDs won’t be bought by consumers, but instead will be used in malls and other family entertainment centers to create immersive gaming experiences like this ghost hunt.
As the technology becomes more robust with occlusion, better graphics, and faster tracking; the complexity of the games will grow. It’s not hard to imagine AR games like the one’s described in Larry Niven’s Dream Park taking over the laser tag centers in your local mall. We just won’t tell the kids that they’re really LARPing.
Popularity: 14% [?]
The Augmented Reality Pop Quiz
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on November 2nd, 2009
Think you know everything there is to know about augmented reality? Well, prove it and take the augmented reality pop quiz.
If you’re proud of your score, post the results on twitter with the hashtag #arpopquiz or in the comment section if you don’t use Twitter. Thanks to Rouli who helped me with some of the questions. The answers are further down the page, so you’ll have to scroll down to see them. No peaking! And if you quibble with the answer, just give yourself the points because this quiz is on the honor system.
One point per correct answer.
The AR Pop Quiz
1) Who coined the term augmented reality?
2) Name three “reality browsers”?
3) Name four companies in the AR consortium.
4) What three components does AR need to function?
5) Within how many meters is GPS accurate on an iPhone?
6) Who created the ARToolKit?
7) Who’s augmented reality magic trick created tons of buzz?
8 ) What was the first iPhone AR app to be available on the app store with OS3.1?
9) What types of companies have used AR in marketing the most?
10) What is the yearly AR conference?
11) How many years has it been happening under its current name?
12) Where will it be next year?
13) Name a fictional book that used AR?
14) What article of clothing should you wear when making an AR video?
15) Who developed the first AR interface?
16) What well known anime show features AR?
17) Who owns the patent on AR?
18) Which company did the AR consortium write an open letter to?
19) Name three HMD companies?
20) What’s the name of the AR game from Georgia Tech?
The AR Pop Quiz Answers
1) Tom Caudell
2) Wikitude, Layar, Juniao
3) Int13, Metaio, Mobilizy, Neogence Enterprises, Ogmento, SPRX Mobile, Tonchidot, Total Immersion, YDreams, and Zugura.
4) Sensor, overlay and tracker
5) 3m
6) Hirokazu Kato
7) Marco Tempest
8 ) Yelp / Monocle
9) Car companies
10) ISMAR
11) Eight
12) South Korea
13) Rainbows’ End, Halting State, (see this post for more)
14) Pink Hoodie
15) Sutherland
16) Denno Coil
17) No one (trick question!)
18) Apple
19) Vuzix, Microvision, Lumus
20) Arhrrrr
Popularity: 21% [?]
Total Immersion’s Augmented Reality 3D Puzzle
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, augmented reality on October 30th, 2009
An augmented reality flying car this game is not.
While this AR game made by Total Immersion at the Arizona Center isn’t layered with complexity, it really couldn’t be done any other way. While you could use a controller or mouse to move the boxes around, allowing for natural movement with a square of cardboard makes the game more intuitive. And the video boxes couldn’t done except within a digital medium.
Currently, most of the AR games being created are recreations of standard ideas – shooters, real-time strategy, zombies, etc. Augmented reality is a completely new medium that allows for a rethinking of game mechanics. If you’re a game designer, don’t get stuck in the past, show us something audacious and we’ll shower you in our hard earned cash.
Popularity: 28% [?]
Augmented Reality Demos from Total Immersion
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, augmented reality on October 15th, 2009
I’m busy with last second preperations for ISMAR09, but wanted to pass along this video from the IDXA event on Tuesday. The video shows a variety of augmented reality demonstrations from Bruno Uzzan the CEO at Total Immersion.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Topps and Total Immersion Huddle Up: NFL QBs Come to Life Via Augmented Reality
Posted by Tom Carpenter in AR Games, augmented reality on September 23rd, 2009
For Immediate Release
TOPPS AND TOTAL IMMERSION HUDDLE UP,
UNVEIL ‘3D LIVE’ FOOTBALL CARDS: NFL QUARTERBACKS ON
VIRTUAL GRIDIRON COME TO LIFE VIA AUGMENTED REALITY
Cards Build on Game-Changing Introduction of 3D Live Baseball Cards,
Enable Kids and Collectors to Play Ball with the Pros at ToppsTown.com
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK (September 23, 2009) – If the prospect of being a Monday morning quarterback every day of the week grabs you, you can now get in the game, thanks to the Topps Company, Total Immersion and the magic of augmented reality.
The two companies today introduced “Topps 3D Live” football trading cards featuring star National Football League quarterbacks who come to play, at www.toppstown.com, Topps’ virtual sports community.
Building on the success of its groundbreaking 3D Live baseball cards for Topps, Total Immersion, the global leader in augmented reality, is bringing Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady, Eli and Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb and other star quarterbacks to life in 3D, for the 2009 NFL season.
Topps, the leading creator and marketer of sports and related cards, is delivering a new level of interactive gameplay via the new football cards, introducing a highly engaging experience where virtual components are merged into a live video stream in real time.
The new Topps 3D Live football cards feature quarterbacks who pop up from specially designated cards to fire passes to virtual receivers, all the while seeking to keep away from defensive obstacles.
Every pack of Topps 2009 Football contains one interactive code card. Fans log on to www.toppstown.com, enter the Topps 3D Live section and select the player on the code card. Once the player is selected and the program is initialized, it’s time for the snap from center. When the card is held under a webcam, the quarterback springs to life, onscreen. Fans control the action with a few keystrokes.
“With 3D Live NFL cards, Topps is continuing to innovate, bringing greater interactivity to game play for fans and collectors alike,” said Steve Grimes, Chief Digital Officer, Topps. “We’re fans of augmented reality, and the quarterback game we’ve developed with Total Immersion is simple, engaging and fun.”
“Marrying football with augmented reality was a natural after the game-changing success of Topps 3D Live baseball cards,” said Bruno Uzzan, CEO and co-founder, Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com). “These cards put fans in the huddle with their favorite NFL quarterback, and demonstrate yet again how augmented reality gets the consumer into the action like nothing else. That’s the kind of engagement that AR delivers consistently.”
3D Live augmented reality football cards are the newest attraction at Topps Town, an online sports community. The site was unveiled in June 2008 as part of the iconic company’s plans to expand into the digital space. Topps was recently named the exclusive card supplier to Major League Baseball.
About The Topps Company, Inc.
Founded in 1938, Topps (www.topps.com) is a leading creator and marketer of sports and related cards, entertainment products, and distinctive confectionery. Topps entertainment products include Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA, and other trading cards, sticker album collections, and collectible games. The company’s confectionary brands include “Bazooka” bubble gum, “Ring Pop,” “Push Pop,” “Baby Bottle Pop,” and “Juicy Drop Pop” lollipops. In June 2008, Topps unveiled ToppsTown (www.toppstown.com), the first online sports community for kids, bringing the popularity of trading cards with the exploding world of web-based social networking.
About Total Immersion
Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com) is the global leader in augmented reality. Through its patented D’Fusion™ technology, Total Immersion blurs the line between the virtual world and the real world by integrating real time interactive 3D graphics into a live video stream. Leading the augmented reality category since 1999, the company maintains a presence in Europe and the U.S., and supports a network of partners worldwide.
Media Contact for Topps:
Adam Schiff/Matthew Altman
Dan Klores Communications
212/685-4300
Media Contact for Total Immersion:
Ken Greenberg
Edge Communications, Inc.
818/990-5001
Popularity: 14% [?]
Brining Its Augmented Reality to Mobile Applications, Total Immersion Partners with Smartphone App Provider Int13
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on September 14th, 2009
BRINGING ITS AUGMENTED REALITY TO MOBILE APPLICATIONS,
TOTAL IMMERSION PARTNERS WITH SMARTPHONE APP PROVIDER INT13
Embedded Mobile AR Solution to be Available on Variety of Platforms
LOS ANGELES and PARIS (September 14, 2009) — Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com), the world leader in augmented reality, today announced that it has signed an exclusive distribution partnership with int13 (www.int13.net), a French software firm that specializes in next-gen smartphone applications.
Total Immersion and int13 will integrate their respective technologies to market embedded augmented reality applications through Total Immersion’s D’Fusion Mobile® platform. Compatible with the majority of next-generation mobile phones, the initial application will operate seamlessly on Symbian and Windows Mobile devices, with iPhone and Android support following thereafter. The application will be released early in Q4.
Total Immersion’s patented D’Fusion® augmented reality technology integrates real time interactive 3-D graphics into a live video stream. The partnership between Total Immersion and int13 expands the D’Fusion platform to mobile devices. D’Fusion Mobile complements Total Immersion’s D’Fusion Professional, D’Fusion@Home and D’Fusion Web browser implementations.
“At int13, we recognize the value of augmented reality as an engaging new way to interact with consumers,” said Stéphane Cocquereaumont, Managing Director of int13. ”Our aim is to develop games and augmented reality applications that make the most of what smartphones have to offer. With this distribution partnership, we look to benefit from Total Immersion’s premier market position as the company brings our combined technology to a global audience.”
”This is a win-win for both companies, and for consumers,” said Bruno Uzzan, CEO, Total Immersion. “int13 has developed one of the most dynamic augmented reality libraries for mobile phones. With this agreement, Total Immersion enters the booming smartphone application space, marketing a compelling augmented reality experience on mobile devices.”
About Total Immersion
Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com) is the global leader in augmented reality. Through its patented D’Fusion™ technology, Total Immersion blurs the line between the virtual world and the real world by integrating real time interactive 3D graphics into a live video stream. Leading the augmented reality category since 1999, the company maintains a presence in Europe and the U.S., and supports a network of partners worldwide.
About int13
int13 (www.int13.net) is a mobile game studio that creates original and innovative content for all mobile platforms. int13 develops its own cross-platform middleware and own mobile augmented reality technology to power its games.
Media contacts:
For Total Immersion:
Ken Greenberg
Edge Communications, Inc.
818/990-5001
Franck Tupinier
MyNtic-PR Agency
06 74 68 37 93
For int13:
Stéphane Cocquereaumont
01 60 76 69 73
** This has been posted many other locations, but since they were nice enough to send me the press release, I figured I’d post it. **
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