Zugara are the leaders in augmented reality ecommerece, we take the time to catch-up with them and quiz them about their Webcam Social Shopper application and the future of AR shopping on the internet.

Some years back I went to the first ARE event in San Mateo I had the pleasure of meeting with the guys from Zugara and seeing a live demo of their Webcam Social Shopper application. …

This morning a colleague of mine attended a talk about NFC (near field communications). The talk was aimed at how NFC is set to become the technology of the decade and the impact it will …

Most of you probably know that late last year I decided it would be a good idea to write a book about augmented reality. I found a publisher and pitched the idea of a guide …

While 2011 is being billed by industry experts as the year of the tablet I am going to make the early claim that 2012 will be the year of face recognition. Ever since seeing early demos of Augmented ID by Swedish company TAT which used the face recognition SDK by Polar Rose, it’s just been a matter of time before we have face recognition power in our smartphones.

A must read if you are building augmented reality applications. What are your legal obligations, what happens if you fail to meet them and who will know? We talk to the Pillsbury Virtual World & Video Game attorneys Sean F. Kane and John L. Nicholson to get the inside scoop on what every developer needs to know about the law.

When people ask me the ‘how far away’ question, they are asking about standalone augmented reality glasses that will enable us to interact with our surroundings and get real-time contextual information. i.e the Iron Man HUD view of the world.

Since developers don’t necessary make the best marketers, today I thought I would offer up some quick start marketing tips for developers who have created their augmented reality application and want a head start with the marketing

Nokia entered the augmented reality gaming market with a game called ‘Conspiracy For Good’. The game developed in conjunction with Tim Kring (the director of Heroes), sees players pit their wits against a corrupt company, using their Nokia device players can take on assignments in their city to help bring the company down.

The whole ambush marketing thing is interesting, what happens if I go to the World Cup and use a product like TagDis and leave a graffiti tag to say ‘Drink Pepsi’ rather than Coke. The tag is left in virtual space but who controls that, who would even know? In the future will we see teams of branding police patrolling venues with mobile devices looking for virtual tags and advertising? Perhaps they already are.

What has surprised me more than anything has been the lack of activity around augmented reality from the adult entertainment industries. Augmented reality would appear to be the ideal next generation technology that enables users to control their own movies but there is a distinct lack of content. So to answer the question, why is the adult entertainment industry not on the augmented reality bandwagon, we decide to ask the question to Quentin at Pink Visual, one of the leading mobile erotica companies around.

Our research showed that there were 338 applications listed as ‘augmented reality applications’, plus we found a further 42 applications that were not listed as augmented reality applications but we included in our data. The total applications included in the data is 380 applications.

I have been meaning to write about Microsoft Tags for a while, and since yesterday I was on a rant about QR Codes now is as a good a time as ever. Microsoft Tags and QR Codes are like peas in a pod. Both offer you dynamic links so you can update where the code points and both can give you rich stats enabling you to the monitor the efficiency of your campaign and well as track the geographic location of your visitors. So what’s so different about Microsoft Tags?

Apparently Facebook are trying to resurrect QR Codes. Isn’t it time this technology be confined to history and the world moves on and embraces the future. A future where Markers give us the opportunity to interact with 3D and not simple redirection to a website?

Just what the hell is mobile augmented reality anyway. Is it any application that uses the camera or is there a level of augmentedness that the application must include?

A lot of people will argue that the camera view serves no purpose. If you put your finger over the lenses the application doesn’t notice and carries on plotting the POIs regardless. Very true, but the usefulness depends on the data you are viewing and how you want to use it.

With augmented reality companies are looking at how they can build targeted campaigns to get the best return on their investment, and this means understanding their customer. The technology already exists where digital signage is able to recognise if the person passing is a male or female, young or old, happy or sad and then choose what advertisement it should display.

Sometime back I wrote about the Rovio which is a remote controlled robot with a webcam. The developers had produced an API that allowed the webcam to recognise markers, making a mobile gaming platform with a difference. There is only one thing that is more fun than a remote controlled robot with a webcam and that’s a flying remote controlled helicopter with 2 webcams and built specifically for augmented reality gaming.

If you have ever used an augmented reality location browser application to find interesting points in your local area, you’ll have no doubt noted that it’s not 100% accurate with positioning and points of interest never appear exactly on top of the target. Have you ever wondered why the accuracy is never correct?

Augmented reality is here, but what services will we be using in the next 10+ years, how will augmented reality change our lives?
Imagine the future where augmented reality interacts with your surroundings to give you contextual information and services. Think about multiplayer games were you are able to compete with players in different countries or even personal navigation systems that will help find you way anywhere.
We take a look at the future.

Layar was pulled from the appstore a month or so back but makes it’s return with version 3.0. An update with new 3D layers. Has it been worth the wait? Layar fans may want to skip today’s blog and get themselves a cup of coffee.

Today’s augmented reality games are a fun affair, shoot a few aliens, blow up a few planes, or put out a few fires all from the comfort for your own home. The only danger is banging your knee on a table as you turn around. But as technology gets more sophisticated and graphics get better, what are the implications of augmented reality games, will the technology make them to hot to handle?