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Google Zeitgeist Europe 2010

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It does exist, we have been there! Google’s Zeitgeist event was this year hosted at The Grove Country Club in Hertfordshire, UK.  The attendee list read like a whos-who in business, all 300 were C-level. Speakers included Boris Johnson, Desmond Tutu, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Eric Schmidt and Larry Page and Layars’ own Maarten Lens Fitzgerald. AugmentReality were asked by Google UK to develop a special layer for the event and I was invited along to demo it for the 2 days.

Highlights included:

Demo-ing to Larry Page – his comment: “That’s cool”

Trying out a pair of AR glasses Maaten Lens Fitzgerald had brought along (demo-ing them was not so fun!)

Trying out Google Earth hooked up to 8 flat-screen TVs and a control stick.

Hooking up Layar to our big screen in the event demo area… must remember next time not to demo with an iPhone with a broken compass!

Seeing a robot solve a Rubiks Cube!!

Here’s a few shots from the event:

The Grove

Forum

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Maarten with the AR Glasses

Maarten with the AR Glasses

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Zlate Stranky Layar Launches in Czech Republic

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FINGER-64x64We are proud to announce the launch of the first of several Layars we have created for European Directories went live on Thursday for Zlate Stranky in the Czech Republic.

A press conference at 9am officially marked the launch with a number of Prague’s jounalists in attendence. The app has been positively received and covered in several online reviews. Here’s a great video demonstration (in Czech) by mobilmania.cz with a feature testing the application “in the wild”:

European Directories Group VP of Mobile, Carey Bunks, said the following:

AugmentReality developed several layers for European Directories, and I am very pleased with the quality of the work delivered, as well as impressed by their very professional level of customer service. I can highly recommend AugmentReality to any company considering the development of a Layar layer.


MMX… the year of AR?

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As we approach the year 2010 AugmentReality clearly hopes this will be the year of AR.  Much promise is heralded from this technology – the platform is there – as content creators we now have to deliver captivating, fun and useful applications.

Here at AugmentReality we have a few apps up our sleeves that will create much interest in the technology. Our new partnership with a top-class 3D lab in Palo Alto ensures that we are able to create stunning 3D graphics for Layar – keep an eye out soon for an updated Beatles model – It’s gonna knock your socks off!

We wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous MMX!

newyearCheers!

It’s only been 12 weeks

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Since we launched our first Layar but even so we thought we’d do an annual review from an AugmentReality perspective…  starting in June with:

June 2009: Layar is launched in the Netherlands only.

July 1st: Layar is a featured app in the Android Markletplace (in Holland)

Sometime in August: Started to hear the buzz about Layar – coming from an online travel background instantly grasped the potential and the ideas started flowing.

August 19th 2009: Layar Global Launch on Android.

August 22nd: The day we got our API key. The hard work commences!

September 17th-23rd: AugmentReality launches 4 Layars in quick succession: London Tubes, UK Hotels, London Theatres and Food and Drink UK .

October 1st: Buys domain names augmentreality.co.uk, augment-reality.com and augment-reality.co.uk. How come they were still available?!

October 5th-9th: Another big launch week with Food and Drink Australia and Canada and Golf UK & USA Layars.

October 9th: www.augmentreality.co.uk is launched.

October 14th: Layar hits the iPhone app store – download stats go wild!

October 28th: Over 50’000 downloads of our apps to date.

October 29th: Invited to be one of 30 beta testers for Layar 3.0

November 10th: AugmentReality is contracted to develop Layars for European Directories (Yellow Pages) for Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

November 11th: AugmentReality is featured in the developer catalog on the Layar.com website.

November 12th: In-N-Out Burger Layar launches.

November 19th: Attends CaT Event in London with Claire Boonstra (Layar co-founder and VP of Content and Community)

November 20th: Secures deal to develop Layars for a second major company: MTS (Russian telecoms firm with 91m subscribers)

December 1st: Layar 3.0 Launches - 5 showcases including our very own Beatles Layar. Twitter goes mad for it, must’ve nearly trended for “Beatles in 3d”.

December 6th: Launch of Dubai Metro Locator – the U.A.E’s first Layar.

December 14th: Delivers European Directory Layars on time and on budget. They’re scheduled for launch at the beginning of January.

December 15th: Downloads of our apps surpass the 100’000 mark.

December 20th: Buys domain name AUGMENTAL.ORG – that’s gonna be good for something – not sure what yet!

It’s been an exciting rollercoaster of a journey so far and we can’;t wait to see developments in the next 12 weeks – let alone 12 months :)

AugmentReality.co.uk featured in Layar Developers Catalog

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Today Layar officially recognised Augmentreality.co.uk as a developer partner and included us in their developers catalog.

Our listing highlights some of our developed layars along with our specialities and contact details.

AugmentReality.co.uk featured in Layar Developers catalog

AugmentReality.co.uk featured in Layar Developers catalog

Layar Project Delivery

Planning a Layar that will meet the future needs of your business.
Consultation: We’re happy to consult with technical or non-technical partners on project delivery without using impenetrable jargon.
Peace of mind: We are recommended by Layar themselves.
Layar Design – we can customise your Layar to seamlessly tie-in with your brand.

Planning a Layar that will meet the future needs of your business.

Consultation: We’re happy to consult with technical or non-technical partners on project delivery without using impenetrable jargon.

Peace of mind: We are recommended by Layar themselves.

Layar Design – we can customise your Layar to seamlessly tie-in with your brand.

Layar Hosting

We offer a hosted Layar service with a management interface.

Our dedicated servers are located in Telehouse in Docklands, London (UK).

Use our tried and tested framework to rapidly deliver your Layar project

Layar Management

Coming soon: A management application for your Layar.


Layar Advertising

Want to get your Layar App featured? We can help with that.

We will soon be offering in-app advertising (augmented reality billboards) for our existing Layars.

Contact us now with your project requirements.

Latest news and a few thoughts

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Blogs are not my forté, so instead of writing one,  here’s a few thoughts, list-stylee.

  1. I suggest if you’re the head of a large company without an augmented reality presence in 12-18 months time, you will have to play catchup (remember when the Internet started?)
  2. Handset augmented reality is definitely going to be the first type of AR to enjoy commercial success. The ubiquitous nature of camera-enabled smartphones ensures that.
  3. AugmentReality is now taking orders for Layar development.
  4. Our Layar web-service has been updated and improved to serve up error-free, and fast, layars.
  5. We are exploring further the merging of the social Internet and AR.
  6. We have new and exciting ‘viral’ Layars in production.
  7. Layar 3D is going to be AWESOME!