ZugSTAR Combines The Interactivity Of Augmented Reality With The Immediacy Of Live Video Conferencing
For all press inquiries, please contact: press(at)zugara(dot)com
February 4, 2010, Los Angeles – Today Zugara is introducing “ZugSTAR” (Zugara STreaming Augmented Reality), a technology that allows people in different locations to have shared Augmented Reality experiences from within their video feeds. Picture a web based video conferencing system similar to Skype*, but with the added functionality of being able to see one another’s “augmented” experience in real time. With ZugSTAR, Augmented Reality becomes a technology that facilitates collaboration, and physical distance becomes less of a barrier.
As a proof of concept, Zugara has already integrated this prototype within their Webcam Social Shopper to create a more engaging, and social, online retail experience. Whether its two lifelong friends attending different Universities, or a mother in NY who wants some quality time with her daughter in Dallas, online shopping can now be a more emotionally satisfying experience. And with the effectiveness of traditional forms of advertising in steep decline, what brand wouldn’t want to facilitate that type of branded experience for their consumers?
The video below demonstrates both the Webcam Social Shopper integration, and a few potential use cases that are currently in development:
“While integrating ZugSTAR into the Webcam Social Shopper is a natural extension of the tech, it’s certainly not the full extent of our vision.” said Matt Szymczyk, CEO, Zugara. “Gartner predicts that by 2015 200 million people will be paying for desktop video conferencing. Now, I don’t want to sound hyperbolic, but this tech has the potential to impact virtually every single industry. Anywhere distance is a barrier to real-time collaboration, ZugSTAR has the potential to provide a tremendous amount of value.”
To illustrate Matt’s point, here are a few potential use cases for ZugSTAR:
EDUCATION (DISTANCE LEARNING): A science teacher can field questions and twist and turn a DNA helix as he/she explains their answers.
MEDICINE: 3D models of an fMRI will allow a Dr. to either consult with other Dr.’s, or explain the test’s results directly to a patient.
PUBLISHING: Augmented Reality Pop-Up Books can enable a parent that’s on the road to help their child to learn how to read.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: A 3D model (e.g. of a shoe or a building being developed) can be shared, and discussed, with colleagues, clients, vendors, and partners.
CASUAL GAMING: Augmented Reality based casual games can now be multiplayer.
So, what do you think? What other industries can this technology impact? We’d love to get your thoughts in the comments below.
About Zugara’s Proprietary Augmented Reality Technologies
The Webcam Social Shopper
For more information on the Webcam Social Shopper, click here.
Cannonballz, A Casual Game Using ZugMO Motion Capture Technology
Zugara, a member of the Augmented Reality Industry guiding “AR Consortium”, is an interactive marketing company focused on emerging media and technology. Zugara’s main areas of expertise include interactive video, social media, mobile marketing and website / application development. In addition to the strategic marketing based services we provide for our clients, Zugara also creates proprietary Augmented Reality technologies and products, including The Webcam Social Shopper, and a web based motion capture interface, ZugMO. Founded in 2001, and based in Los Angeles, Zugara is currently in the process of expanding and opening a second office in New York.
www.zugara.com
www.zugarastudios.com
Copyright 2010 ZugSTAR Technology
Copyright 2009 ZugMO Technology
Copyright 2009 Zugara Inc.
Patent Pending
*Skype is not affiliated in any way with ZugSTAR, and was just used to give readers a frame of reference.
You can find all of this week’s Augmented Reality news on the Facebook page we manage (http://www.facebook.com/augmentedreality). Normally we post the top three most popular stories of the week, but there is a tie, so this week, we are posting the top four:
As a self-described Steve Jobs hater, it’s going to sting a little to say this, but here goes:
Steve Jobs is right, and the haters are wrong. iPad is amazingly great and will be a tremendous hit. He is right to go with the iPhone OS and not OSX or some other multitasking capable OS. He is right to eliminate built-in expansion ports like SD, HDMI or USB. It doesn’t do Flash, which supports many of the Web’s most popular and heralded Rich Internet Applications – and that’s okay. It’s just a big iPod Touch. And that’s what it needs to be, for now.
Now let me try to explain how I came to this excruciating conclusion. First, I will start with a fictional story to put you in the right frame of mind. Imagine that after months of rumors and speculation, Apple came out and said, “Look, we have just developed the best video game of all time.” Enthusiasts drool and the Press pants with anticipation. Finally, MacWorld arrives and they dramatically unveil… Bejeweled. “But it doesn’t have 3D graphics OR multiplayer, this game sucks! It isn’t even as good as the original Wolfenstein. I’ve lost my faith in Steve Jobs,” the fan boys howl. “It isn’t really designed for an XBOX controller,” the pundits muse. And Steve Jobs smugly grins as over the coming years Bejeweled emerges as the standard bearer for the multibillion dollar casual gaming industry.
In order to appreciate why the iPad is going to be so successful, you’re going to have to relinquish your “Me First” attitude. Just because it doesn’t do what you want it to do, doesn’t make it a bad device. It just makes it inappropriate for you, personally. Most people don’t try to leverage the maximum power out of their laptops and netbooks – they use them as tools for accomplishing specific tasks. Under normal circumstances, there’s a correlation between general system power and complexity of usage. But more complexity doesn’t necessarily mean something is better; for most people, when complexity exceeds what is needed to perform the task at hand, it leads to an inferior user experience. Most people prefer managed experiences based on forcing functions to the open ended sandboxes that Tech Professionals like us demand. Instead of figuring out how a power-user would make best use of it, think of another type of user. Imagine a usage profile that focuses on personal email, Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, online shopping, listening to a little music and casual gaming. The iPad excels in this scenario. And this scenario, while not pertinent to the fan boys and pixel pushers, represents a much larger swath of the population. For them, support for “Push” notifications is all the multitasking they want or need. For them, external ports are rarely used, if ever – who wants little holes getting gummed up with grime and food? For them, not doing Flash is no big deal (especially with HTML5 around the corner, although they are unconcerned with such nuances). For them, it’s just a big iPod Touch. And that’s what it needs to be.
So to all the techno-geeks that feel let down, don’t. This device isn’t for you and it never was. Stop worrying about it and get on with your lives.
I haven’t seen anything hyped this much only be such a disappointment on release since Crystal Pepsi. That’s what the iPad is, the Crystal Pepsi of computing (no John Scully jokes, I promise).
We were all hoping for something to lead us into the next generation of mobile computing, but what we got was a giant iPhone with a couple new features – the kind of features that should be in iPhone OS 4.0 anyway. Steve Jobs opened up the media event by saying, “…netbooks aren’t better at anything,” but I can’t help but be glad that I bought a netbook and put Ubuntu Linux on it last month instead of saving up for the iPad, and here’s why:
My netbook has a faster processor
Most netbooks run on a 1.6Ghz Intel Atom processor, while iPad runs an A4 1Ghz processor. To put that into perspective, the iPhone 3GS runs an 833Mhz processor, so this is not anywhere near a huge jump up in processing for a device four times the size of its predecessor. The A4 processor gives the iPad about 10 hours of battery life, which is impressive, but you’re not going to be able to do the level of processing available in most netbooks.
My netbook has a camera
This is a WTF non-feature for me. Apple had a chance to make the iPad the premier Augmented Reality device of 2010, but instead they’ve left every AR developer scratching their head. It’s not as if there isn’t enough room to put two cameras, one facing each way, in the device. How many more iPads would Apple sell if you could use Skype with it?
My netbook runs Flash
Apple’s continued cognitive dissonance when it comes to Flash on their mobile devices is getting rather annoying to me, and not just because I develop on the platform. Flash pretty much runs the interactive web nowadays, and it’s exclusion makes the iPad a “web-lite” device, unable to run Vimeo, Hulu, and any media embeds on social networking sites and blogs other than YouTube.
Apple has a good reason for not allowing Flash, which, believe it or not, is actually ready for the device – it will hurt AppStore profits significantly. Yet, when 90% of apps in the store are complete crap, who cares if their developers move to Flash. The real moneymaking apps will still be iPad and iPhone native.
My netbook runs a full OS
I have full install of Ubuntu 9.10 running on my Acer Aspire 1, giving my netbook the full functionality of a normal laptop. I can multitask on multiple, switchable workspaces, using fully functional applications, and I can engineer and compile new applications. I can browse through folders and files. I can do full network administration on a device that is taller than the iPad, but smaller in width and height.
I can do everything on my netbook that is capable with the iPad and then some, minus the slick user interface. To be fair, one of my favorite things about Apple products are the interfaces, but my MacBook and iMac back up the beautiful interface with tons of under the hood functionality. The iPad offers less than I can already do between my MacBook and iPhone.
My netbook cost half the price of the cheapest iPad
I bought my netbook at Fry’s Electronics for $250. It has a 160Gb hard drive, while the most expensive iPad model only has 64Gb for $829. The cheapest iPad only has 16Gb, or half of the storage of my iPhone 3GS, and costs $499. This is unacceptable for a ten inch device when you can get a 16Gb Micro SD card on Amazon for less than $50. Also, my netbook has two SD card slots on it, allowing me to expand it’s storage capabilities.
What Improvements would get me to buy the iPad
I have hope for future generations of the iPad if Apple integrates the following:
Front and back facing cameras
An OS that is less like the iPhone and more like OSX
Allow Flash 10.1 on the device
Make a slightly thicker version with a full hard drive and USB and SD ports
Swap out the A4 processor with an Intel chip
Stop hyping the current model like its something more than a big iPhone
I don’t expect these changes anytime soon, making this the biggest opportunity for Microsoft and Google to outdo Apple in years. A Windows, Android, or other Linux kernel iPad clone that has all the features serious computer people are looking for would deal a huge blow to the folks in Cupertino.
iSites Will Let Publishers Build Apps For iPhone And Android….we have tried the service and already have a live app in the store. Look for full review sometime in the next week..
Funeral Webcasting? Not sure how I feel about this but given interactive live video is the future, it is inevitable. Soon to be followed by Live Birth Webcasting. Oh wait, we already have that…
YouTube Continues Push Into Livestreaming Event…it’s only Cricket for now but don’t be surprised if YouTube starts bidding against major networks for online rights to major league events in the near future..
About a month ago, I wrote an op-ed for Adweek entitled “2010: The Year of Augmented Reality“. What I was trying to convey in the op-ed is that while Mobile will be the key component of AR in the future, right now there are many different advertising and marketing channels that can actually utilize AR in creative and innovative ways. Though I won’t republish the article here (you can read it on Adweek’s site), I did want to include embedded video examples below of how channels such as Interactive Storefront Displays, Digital Billboards, Event Marketing and Point Of Purchase are currently using AR. Web, Mobile and Print get all the press but these examples show how brands should think of AR as being adaptable to pretty much any marketing or advertising channel. If interested in even more examples than below, check out the Facebook Augmented Reality Page which has just about every recent AR example out there. So, without further adieu…
POINT OF PURCHASE
POP might be the most advantageous channel for AR given that a well-planned and executed AR initiative can easily turn consumer purchase interest to intent in a matter of seconds. Kiosk format provides little to no barrier of entry for consumer.
Developed by Metaio
INTERACTIVE DIGITAL BILLBOARDS
Numerous brands could leverage the unique participatory interaction of an interactive billboard.
Developed by Chris O’Shea
EVENT MARKETING
Event Marketing, like point of purchase, is also a great channel for AR, given most consumers will likely already have interest in your brand. Though most of these executions are gimmicks, this channel is maturing.
Developed by Total Immersion
Developed by Metaio
INTERACTIVE STOREFRONT DISPLAYS
AR-based storefront displays can be used in myriad ways to help drive consumers into your store.
Developed by Simon & John
Developed by Jim George & Karolina Sobecka
MUSEUM / PUBLIC WORKS
The binoculars or viewing mechanism mimic how optical AR can function in the future. For now though, AR helps museums become interactive by making history come alive.
Similar to how traditional advertising people love to interchange “Digital”, “Interactive” and “Online” to mean, well basically anything Interactive..I’ve also noticed lately that Point of Purchase (POP) and Point of Sale (POS) seem to be used interchangeably as well. However, is it just me or do younger generation (X and Y), interactive people seem to favor POP while the older traditional people seem to still favor POS? I have a feeling there’s an aversion to calling it POS from the younger generation as like most 3 letter acronyms, it has quite a different meaning socially than what it might be intended for professionally…
You can find all of this week’s Augmented Reality news on the Facebook page we manage (http://www.facebook.com/augmentedreality), but to follow are the three most popular stories of the week:
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
