We Are Organized Chaos

The New Zugara – Augmented Reality Software Developer

Since we were founded in 2001, Zugara has always focused on emerging media and technology in the Interactive Marketing and Advertising industries.  Throughout those years, we continually developed initiatives and innovations in some of our core areas of expertise – social media, web, interactive video and mobile.  However, in 2008, it became apparent that the digital ecosystem was continuing to fragment and that it was getting increasingly difficult to try and be a “Jack of All Trades, Master of None”.  We firmly believe that as these 4 core areas (mobile, web, video and social) continue to fragment at an ever increasing speed, it’s best to focus on one core area – and that area for us is Augmented Reality.

It was not easy getting here and I want to personally thank all past and present employees of Zugara for helping to make this happen.  We still have a long way to go but without the help from just about everybody involved in Zugara’s world throughout the years, we would not have made it this far.  It’s hard enough running a business in good times, but restructuring and ‘rebooting’ during a recession has been probably the most formidable task Zugara has taken on in it’s past 9 years.

But now we look towards the future – and that future is Augmented Reality.  AR became the first technology I’ve ever seen resonate deeply with our entire group and for the last 2 years we’ve focused almost entirely on creating innovative software, executions and concepts in this field to help show others how we see AR as an integral part of everybody’s future.

With all that said, I hope you take a moment to check out our new site.  The new site has a much clearer focus on what our new goal as a company is and what we now offer – Augmented Reality Software.  Our flagship product continues to be The Webcam Social Shopper – Augmented Reality E-Commerce Software – that will continue to evolve the e-commerce experience for the consumer.  We are also launching quite a few ZugMO Motion Capture based games and kiosk-based AR executions over the next few months, so please check the site (or our blog) to see how these areas in particular will continue to grow as people become more accustomed to the NUI (Natural User Interface and gestural interaction).

In final, I want to thank again everybody for their support of Zugara over the last few years and look forward to an exciting (and augmented) future!

- Matt

Will Microsoft Ever Open Up Kinect To All Developers?

So here’s my biggest (work related) wish this holiday season: Microsoft opens up their Kinect platform for all developers.

Recently I posted my favorite hack (so far) for the Microsoft Kinect and it got me thinking. There’s a ton of amazing hacks being circulated right now, but here’s the problem: they’re hacks. You and I can’t actually play with any of the stuff. Think about what could be done if Microsoft opened up their platform and created a marketplace for all developers. A marketplace that would allow smaller developers to create amazing applications and profit from them accordingly… Similar to what Apple has done with the iPhone app store, and what’s starting to take place in the connected T.V. market.

Selfishly, having access to Kinect ‘s hardware/software would be a touch of a game changer for an Augmented Reality Software developer such as ourselves (as that camera is not “your average webcam”) and we’d love the opportunity to see what we could do with it.  Finally, the benefits to Microsoft seem pretty clear:

• Significant differentiator in the marketplace
• Additional revenue stream(s)
• Additional content
• Increased “stickiness” for Xbox owners

So what do you think? Will it ever happen?

As always, I’d love to hear your thoutghts below, or you can find me on Twitter.

“You want me to open up the Kinect Platform?!?! No Soup For You!!”