Articles Posted in Augmented Reality

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A weekly wrap up of interesting news about virtual worlds, virtual goods and other social media.

 

 

 

 

Epic Games to make government training games

Of all the companies you’d expect to announce a big government partnership, a major video game studio is probably not at the top of your list. Nevertheless, Epic Games announced Tuesday that it has entered into a “long-term, multi-platform” deal with a division of Applied Research Associates to license the Unreal game engine for government use.

Royal Canadian Mint unveils MintChip virtual currency

Having revealed plans to ditch the Canadian penny last week, the Mint is continuing its assault on physical cash with MintChip, which it describes as the “evolution”
of currency. The system brings all the benefits of cash into the digital age,
claims a dedicated Web site, providing users with instant, private and secure access to their money.

Social Gaming Key for Advertisers in 2012

Did you know Internet marketers will spend upward of $271 million on social gaming ads in 2012? In-game advertising is the next big trend in the industry,
with analysts expecting ad spend on social games to reach $900 million annually in less than three years. The stakes are higher than ever for brands as they budget ad spend on laptops, mobile devices, and consoles.

Gamification Platform BigDoor Raises $5 Million From Foundry Group

White label gamification platform BigDoor has raised $5 million in new funding led by existing investor Foundry Group,
bringing BigDoor’s total funding to $13 million. BigDoor’s gamification platform essentially allows online publishers to add game mechanics to web interactions and engagements. BigDoor helps companies build game-like mechanics and loyalty programs into their sites or apps by enabling points, badges,
levels, leaderboards, virtual currency and virtual goods.

Facebook,
NRDC, Opower, & 16 Utilities Team Up to Create Social Gaming App

“With an initial reach of 20 million households, the effort is one of the most significant to date, enabling people to take action and become more energy efficient,” NRDC said in a statement today. “Leveraging the Facebook platform, the app allows people to quickly and easily start benchmarking their home’s energy usage against similar homes, compare energy use with friends, enter energy-saving competitions, and share tips on how to become more energy efficient.”

Google Glasses Face Serious Hurdles, Augmented-Reality Experts Say

When Google officially unveiled
Project Glass — the company’s bid to develop Terminator-style augmented-reality glasses — we saw a provocative glimpse of the future. The video Google released yesterday showed us the point of view of someone wearing the glasses, with icons, maps and other graphical overlays appearing over the user’s complete field of vision.

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A weekly wrap up of interesting news about virtual worlds, virtual goods and other social media.

 

Gaming is a top priority for mobile-tech makers

“Gaming is now a ‘need to have’ category, not a ‘nice to have’ category for mobile devices, whether they be tablets or phones,” said PJ McNealy, videogame analyst at Digital World Research. “The days of a single-function mobile device are long gone.”

PixyKids raises $3M for a social media platform just for kids

PixyKids has raised $3 million to develop its social platform for kids ages six to 12. It is built on the idea that kids want to socialize, even though they’re too young for Facebook. Kids can join PixyKids under their parents’ supervision and can share experiences and pictures the way that adults do on Facebook. The company is betting that social networks, not virtual worlds or education sites, will resonate most with kids.

FanCake Debuts as First Live Social Gaming Experience for Sports Watching

Kwarter, a mobile application factory building apps that lie at the intersection of the social, mobile and TV spaces,
announced today the launch of its first app, FanCake. FanCake turns live televised sporting events into interactive and social games, connecting millions of sports fans, teams, broadcasters, brands and athletes to enhance the game watching experience.

LVFH Launches Real Vegas Casino on Facebook

Las Vegas From Home.com Entertainment Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of its social casino product, Real Vegas Casino,
on Facebook to the general public. It is expected LVFH will launch more games under the Real Vegas Casino brand shortly, coinciding with a specialized marketing campaign.

 French City Implements Virtual Currency to Avoid Financial Ruin

The French city of Nantes has plans to introduce its own virtual currency as a complement to the euro. By 2013,
participating local businesses will be able to pay, or be paid in virtual currency units called “Nanto.”

Olympic stars brought to life in world’s first ‘augmented reality hotel’

From today, guests at the Holiday Inn London Kensington Forum will be able to use their smartphones or tablets to see athletes in virtual action in the reception, corridors and bedrooms. When the devices are pointed at specific sites in the hotel, the athletes will appear on the screen. BMX World Champion Shanaze Reade can be seen performing tricks on her bike in the lobby, while Paralympic table tennis world number one Will Bayley hits table tennis balls behind reception.  Meanwhile, UK long-jump record holder Chris Tomlinson can be seen to jump in a corridor. And leading windsurfer Dempsey will – somewhat bizarrely – do his thing in the hotel’s bedrooms using a bed sheet.

 

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A weekly wrap up of interesting news about virtual worlds, virtual goods and other social media.

Piracy battle goes to CES, Wikipedia may join SOPA protest, Google social search faces privacy concerns

A contentious battle over Internet anti-piracy legislation shifted from Washington to the Consumer Electronics Show, The Washington Post reported. The Consumer Electronics Association, which is behind the show, has been a vocal opponent of the two bills circulating in Congress that would help Hollywood titans, record labels and pharmaceutical firms enforce copyright infringement laws online.

Mobile virtual currency market to hit $4.8bn by 2016

In fact, a study released yesterday from Juniper Research predicts that the amount of money being spent on virtual currency in mobile apps is going to more than double in the next four years, going from $2.1bn last year to $4.8bn by 2016.

Bethesda Buys Interplay’s ‘Fallout’ Rights, Ends IP Suit

Interplay Entertainment Corp., original developer of the “Fallout” line of video games, on Monday forfeited its rights to continue work on the series — resolving a trademark dispute with former business partner Bethesda Softworks LLC.

Domino’s Pizza uses augmented reality offers to boost food sales

Domino’s Pizza, which has already been testing the waters of mobile marketing for some time now, has started a new campaign that includes the use of augmented reality, to add a whole new dimension to its latest 555 pizza offer.

CES: Better augmented reality with high-tech contact lenses

Augmented reality has made progress on smartphones, with apps letting people layer information and graphics over a view of the real world. A startup from the Seattle region is looking to take the next step toward an AR future with special contact lenses that make it possible to view objects projected onto glasses a short distance away from the eye.

Banks start playing games with your money

A new video game has gotten its hooks into Brian Kealer, a 26-year-old San Francisco software engineer. He’s not killing birds or using his vocabulary to impress his friends. No, Kealer is after real prizes, like the iPad2 he just scored. And he’s playing with his bank account. 

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Our Virtual Worlds & Social Media team is leading the way in understanding and addressing legal issues for a number of cutting-edge interactive and immersive technologies, including augmented reality. Some of our team members recently outlined IP, privacy and liability issues in a Q&A on Augmented Planet, a popular news site for the developer industry. However, the technology’s legal issues are increasingly relevant to all companies.

Augmented reality technology blurs the line between what is real and what is computer-generated by enhancing a real world view with text, images, graphics or other media. Many businesses are already using augmented reality to market services and goods. Use of this technology will exponentially increase in the very near future.

Our team engages with both augmented reality technology developers and brands and businesses using the technology. We advise the developers at an early stage, advising on business model and technology design issues for a service or application before too much time and financial resources is spent on programming and development. We advise businesses using the technology on an array of legal issues to help protect their brands and minimize liability.

The Augmented Planet Q&A is here.

 

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Augmented reality (sometimes referred to as Mixed Reality) will likely get a boost from Canon’s vision for the future of imaging. The following is an excerpt from an announcement about Canon’s upcoming EXPO in NY.

 

Canon EXPO 2010 New York will feature the “Imaging for Tomorrow” exhibit
showcasing new technologies that will enhance people’s lives and offers a
preview of Canon’s vision for the future of imaging. Capitalizing on the
significant developments in display technology and cameras, the exhibit will
include Canon’s mixed-reality initiative, which uses computers to combine the
real and virtual worlds in real-time, creating a visual experience in which
users can not only “see” images in a visual space, but also control and create
them. Canon’s Mixed Reality system utilizes a head-mounted display with built-in
cameras and a computer that processes video to blend real and virtual realities.

 

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Augmented Planet Ltd. indicates that as of the end of June 2010, a search of the App Store revealed nearly 400 applications found by searching “augmented reality” and nearly 100 more that were augmented reality apps but didn’t use those words. In comparison, prior to September 2009, there were less than 100.

This is one more indicator of rapid growth of augmented reality.

This data confirms the the sense of optimism that our team members experienced while we attended the Augmented Reality Event conference in early June this year.

Of course with the rapidly expanding business opportunities in this space come legal issues of which companies should be aware. Our team has prepared a Legal Issues with Augmented Reality fact sheet which highlights some of the common issues faced in this space.