Augmented Planet » junaio

The world’s first mobile Augmented Reality Special Magazine Edition

lester — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:46:22 +0000

Within a few years it will be common to use a mobile phone to interact with magazines in order to gain access to exclusive content. To give us a glimpse on what the future holds, Metaio has been working hard with SZ Magazine to give their readers an augmented reality experience they’ll never forget.

Tomorrow, over 550,000 households in Germany will get the latest edition of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung`s supplement magazine, which when viewed with Metaio’s junaio browser (available free for Android and iPhone) will reveal special content. What makes this project unique is it’s not just the cover or a few pages, but the entire magazine has been devoted to augmented reality.

The cover of the magazine shows Sandra Maischberger, the well known TV personality, hiding behind her raised hands. When viewed through the smartphone`s camera, however, the popular TV host appears smiling cheerfully at the viewer. Inside is a photo “interview without words” with Lena Meyer-Landrut, who recently won the European Song Contest. When looked at through the smartphone little speech bubbles appear with jibes and comments she couldn`t help making during the shooting (see image 1 + 2) . The famous column of Axel Hacke triggers a fantastic 3D animation by the illustrator Dirk Schmidt. Finally the editors and journalists of the SZ Magazine reveal their favourite spots in Munich, Berlin and Hamburg in a virtual city guide. Readers in those cities, who hold up their smartphone will see the camera view augmented with indicators pointing out restaurants, bars, clubs, shops and hotels around them (see image 3), courtesy of SZ Magazine.

Dr. Dominik Wichmann, editor in chief of the SZ Magazine, comments about the AR special issue: “The SZ Magazine always tries to extend journalistic frontiers. We don`t just write about new cultural or technical developments, we practise them. Instead of just reporting on Augmented Reality (AR), we have developed with the help of metaio a magazine issue which for the first time allows our readers to actually experience this new technology within a journalistic format.”

Jan Schlink of metaio adds: “Our technology leads to new opportunities for combining and displaying information from different sources. With imagination and creative applications Augmented Reality can not only be fun, but become a real opportunity for news organisations to present interesting content in unusual ways.”

If you don’t live in Germany and want to try out some of the natural feature tracking technology (along with lots of other great functionality), then install the junaio browser from either the Android Marketplace or Apple AppStore and follow the link here for junaio glue.

See the magazine in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRceOYbrVzc

Try junaio GLUE – demo

lester — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:24:19 +0000

Sometimes when you blog it pays to read your email before you press the go live button. Trying to catch-up on my email I found the official press release from Metaio sitting in my inbox with the details on how you can test the new GLUE feature on your iPhone.

If you’re looking for your first demo of feature tracking for the iPhone (I’m pretty sure the feature is also there for junaio Android users) then make sure you have junaio installed, go to the featured channel and click the GLUE demo option. Once you have that, point your phone at the super hero character below. Tap the character to have him shoot.

(click the image for a high quality image you can print)

If you’re still stuck, watch the following video to see the steps.

junaio GLUE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojfZ_Aw_AaI

Metaio change the game with junaio glue

lester — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:46:36 +0000

Whenever I talk to someone about augmented reality, the first thing they say is, “have you seen the Smart Grid demo?” or “have you seen the Lego kiosk demo?”. The answer is always an emphatic yes, but it’s funny how it’s these two demos that stick in everyone’s mind. While out in San Francisco last month we managed to drop by the office of the guys at Metaio (who, incidentally were behind both the GE Smart Grid and Lego solutions), and find out what they were working on. One of the projects we saw first hand was junaio glue.

junaio started life as the first ever augmented reality social networking browser but has evolved into a world browser in the same vein as Wikitude and Layar. junaio has still kept its social networking roots with a strong emphasis on sharing, but like Wikitude and Layar, users are able to perform local search, or view channels to find information that matters nearby.

Since Wikitude and Layar already had a big head start in the world browser market, Metaio has had some catching up to do. But with Apple finally opening up access to the live camera data, Metaio is laying down the gauntlet to other augmented reality browsers by being the first to offer natural feature tracking functionality as part of their junio browser.

No doubt, you have also seen the Lego kiosk demo where holding up a Lego box to the kiosk in the store renders a 3D animation of what you can build by buying the product. This is exactly the kinds of solutions that junaio is enabling mobile developers to build using their new ‘junaio glue’. Better yet, developers taking advantage of this technology are able to either build their own channel for the junaio browser, or white label the solution.

junaio glue in action

In September 2009 Apple finally allowed developers to publish applications that used the camera to display content to the user, since then we have seen an average of 12 augmented reality browsers published each month to the Apple App Store. I firmly believe that while iOS3 represented the year of the augmented reality browser, iOS4 will become the year of the natural feature tracking application, and this time next year we’ll have natural feature tracking applications for all the following:

Point your camera at text and see an instant translation
Use your camera to view a product box/log and see that product come to life
View movie trailers just by looking at the poster with your phone
Viewing the actual food dishes at a restaurant by point the camera at the menu
Instructional videos for DIY. Point your camera at the object you are trying to build and see the next step
Car repair, point your phone at the flat tyre and see instruction how to replace the wheel

The future for natural feature tracking is only limited by developer’s imagination, so if you’re a developer, take a look at the junaio glue developer page to find out how you get started.

The junaio application is available for the iPhone and Android.

Augmented Reality Property Search With Junaio

lester — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:29:04 +0000

The Junaio browser started life as an augmented reality social networking application which enabled users to share pictures with friends and other users across the Juanio network. The difference with Junaio photos was the fact that user could embed 3D images into the pictures to make interesting scenes. Everything from placing Santa hats on a sleeping granny to a tyrannosaurs rex eating out your cats food bowl.

Today Junaio still has its social networking routes, though the emphasis is less on creating and sharing scenes as the focus has shifted towards becoming a fully fledged augmented reality browser with a social element.

Junaio has the usual mix of ‘channels’ to help find places to eat as provided by Qype and viewed in the camera view, but other users are able to create channels of their favourite places to eat as well so you’ll get to find out what other people like and recommend. The social networking aspect extends to all the channels groups, if you have ever been to a foreign city and wondered what nightlife there is, you can get the Qype view which shows every night club in town, or you can find out what other people are doing and what they recommend. If you have ever been the only person in a night club you’ll know why reviews from other people are so useful.

The Junaio browser comes with a variety of channels including a games channel which lets you play a 3D version of space invaders.

Today Metaio (the developers of Junaio) announced that their partners ROFO and HotPads are one of the first in the real estate industry to use augmented reality to visually show users all nearby properties in a several mile radius on their phone to take the hassle out of property search. HotPads shows users real estate while ROLF shows office space for rent. Both channels look as though they are US only (since RightMove appears to control 99% of the UK market and the app finds nothing near my location). But for Junaio users it’s another interesting way to hunt for local property listings and have them overlaid on top of the camera view.

Junaio is free and available in the iPhone appstore and in a developer beta for the Android. It’s worth installing even if you are not in the USA and browsing the channels to see what is around you.

Junaio’s new ROFO and HotPads Channel

ScavengAR and Junaio

lester — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:37:41 +0000

Over the years I have done more than my fair share of industry events. As an organizer one of the hardest things you’ll do is get the attendees to engage and take part in competitions. A top tip for you, always enter the competitions on stands. Most of the time exhibitors get so few entries that the odds of winning are pretty good. I won a signed F1 shirt competing against 2 other people in a business card draw. There are always exceptions of course but always worth a shot.

One of the challenges organisers face is how to get delegates to visit all the exhibition booths at an event. It’s your job as an organiser to ensure that everyone gets traffic or they won’t sponsor again. If the event is large and takes place over several buildings you have a bit of work to do to get delegate traffic flowing.

I have tried various things over the years, collect limited edition badges, collect stamps from each booth to win a phone and such like. The problem is you get a few dedicated people that do it but a lot of people abandon it thinking it’s either to much effort or they are not going to win anyway so why bother. I think however Metaio and Porter Novelli at SXSW 2010 have nailed it.

At SXSW Metaio have actually made travelling around and taking part in an activity fun, there a $1k prize but who cares when the competition is enjoyable.

So what was this cool competition and what does it have to do with augmented reality? The new Junaio browser has the ability to recognise markers, so at SXSW delegates had the opportunity to take part in a scavenger hunt at the show. This involved installing Junaio and then hunting down people in the special tee-shirts that have markers or finding carefully hidden markers around the event.

Once you find a marker and take the picture using the Junaio application you’ll see a special 3D animation and get points. The more points the better the chance of winning the $1k.

The concept was not only a great example of augmented reality; it’s also a great example of building engaging content.

For more info on the ScavengerAR app, take a look here: www.scavengar.com

Of course SXSW is over now but there is still plenty to do with the Junaio browser. Take a look here for more info.

Junaio 2.0 Now An Augmented Reality Browser

lester — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:06:19 +0000

The new, all singing, all dancing Junaio application appeared on my iPhone a few days back. I was expecting more of the same but with more 3D images to chose from, what I got was a pleasant surprise.

Junaio is no longer just an augmented reality 3D photo/social networking tool, thanks to new functionality Junaio is now an augmented reality browser similar to the likes of Wikitude, Layar, or WhereMark. With the new channels feature you can browsers for nearby services like Shopping, Games, Nightlife, nearby tweets etc. Live view, the augmented reality view of the world now gives you a wikipedia view so you’ll be able to see where the nearest tube station is located as well as any pictures that have been uploaded by other users. In Junaio 2.0 everything revolves around the notion of channels, as a user you get your own channel that you can share with friends, or you can subscribe to their channels and overlay and view their content.

It’s such a big step forward that I was surprised that Metaio didn’t make more fuss about the release. Normally Metaio release a cool video and send over a copy of the press announcement, but I was unable to find anything. The website doesn’t reflect the new branding or reference the 2.0 release and the general lack of fanfare makes me feel like 2.0 escaped in to the appstore rather than being released, I raised an eyebrow for sure when I first loaded it and saw Junaio 2.0 Alpha on the splash screen. I searched through the twittersphere and found nothing other than a few users complaining about the new UI, which I have to say I like. The concept of channels is a little confusing at first but it doesn’t take long to figure it out and everything is easily accessible from the home screen.

I’m not sure about backwards compatibility as the pictures I added with the first version seem to have disappeared, but I am using a new account and think they might be in a channel somewhere. Incidentally you can now work with pictures in your phones gallery rather than having to take new pictures. Great if you have the perfect picture and are feeling creative.

On the home screen there is now an option to take pictures of augmented reality markers, in the screenshot you’ll see an AR marker with the trademark Junaio dragon flying above it. We’ll just have to see what that feature is for once we get a bit more news.

Like all good applications, Junaio have an open SDK for developers who want to build content and extend the platform. If you are looking to build content then take a look here:

Android users relax, Junaio is comming soon
iPhone users download from here:

Augmented Planet Event Wrap Up

lester — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:37:09 +0000

Good morning, firstly thanks to everyone who attended the Augmented Planet meet-up yesterday. I hope you had a good time and it was worth while. There was around 75 people who made the event so lots of interest in the technology. Feedback from everyone I spoke with was extremely positive, it’s something that you’d like us to do again. A few people offered to donate a venue for next time which will be fantastic, we’ll try to get a beer sponsor as well. The good news is we are looking at planning another event for April so we hope to see you again.

Thanks of course to Nitin Samani, John Wyer for helping out and of course our guest speakers Myles Peyton, James Alliban and Chris O’Shea. You’ll never know the stress me and Nitin went through until John turned up with his laptop.

If you didn’t manage to write down all the demos that I showed this is the list with links to a YouTube demo.

Hyperlinking demos
RedLaser (barcode scanner)
Bableshot (language translator)
SnapTell (product recognition)
CubeCheater (solve the Rubix Cube)
GetFugal (logo recognition)

Marker demos (links to try the demos)
Lost Valentinos (the band demo)
Twitter business cards
GE SmartGrid

Mobile demos
Layar
Wikitude
Junaio

Markerless demos
I couldn’t install the codex for this one, but this is the mobile face recognition demo I was planning on showing.
TAT
Links to speakers websites
James Alliban
Myles Peyton
Chris O’Shea

Both Nitin and John where taking photos, once they send them over I’ll put them in to Flickr and send out the link.

Next up for me, I am attending the Vodafone AppStar event tomorrow. If you are a developer and building Widgets then they have a few places left at this free event. You can find out more and register here appstaruk.eventbrite.com.

Junaio Hits The iPhone

lester — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:13:40 +0000

Exciting day today, not just because today is the first Augmented Planet meet-up in London at 6pm but Junaio has finally hit the iPhone store. I have been waiting for Junaio for a while, refreshing the store every few hours in the hope that it appears, finally the wait is over. Junaio is different to the other augmented reality browsers applications in the store as rather than tell you where the nearest whatever is located, Junaio is focused on social networking, 3D and fun.

The applications history lies in a product from Metaio called iLiving. The idea is you have a space you want to fill with furniture, you take a picture of the space and then select from a list of stock items like tables, chairs, plants etc and place them in the photo to see how they would look. Junaio takes that concept a lot further, now you can take picture of anywhere, chose from an exhaustive list of animated 3D images to add to your photo and share your creations.

To create your scene just snap the background and then add and position the 3D characters you want to include, you’re not limited to just images as you can also link a twitter account and see the latest twitter message displayed in real-time. Once you have created your master piece you can publish it to Facebook, save it as a photo or publish it to Junaio.

Publishing to Junaio is where you’ll have the most fun. Posting your master piece and then swapping to ‘Live’ turns on the augmented reality browser functionality and shows you what other users have published in the same area so you’ll be able to compare creations. I’m sure over the next few weeks we are going to be seeing a fair number of dinosaurs around Big Ben or flying over London.

It’s good to see something different to the usual local search browsers and Junaio is certainly different bring in a real fun viral element, it’s pretty addictive and you’ll soon find yourself walking around snapping away looking to create new scenes.

Here is a couple of images I took this morning.

Download Junaio here : itunes.apple.com/us/app/junaio/id337415615
Visit the website: www.junaio.com
Watch the video: www.youtube.com/user/metaioAR#p/a/u/2/2_fYcdH2nMY
Get updates on the junaio community: junaio.wordpress.com/

If you are at the Augmented Planet event tonight we’ll do a demo of Junio and test out creating a scene linked to twitter. Tickets for the event have all gone with around 100 augmented reality enthusiasts dropping by.

PS the Chumby competition is coming, I’m having email problems preventing me making the competition live but hopefully that will be sorted today.

Layar and Junaio News Catch-up

lester — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:19:23 +0000

Sorry for the silence, I have been ill for the last few days with a touch of flu.

Augmented Planet turned 6 months old this week. Initially when I started the blog the first few days we had a readership of around 5 people. I remember the day traffic went through the roof and reached 10, I thought wow 10 readers. We have come a long way since then and are only just a tad short of 10,000 readers a month which just goes to show how much the excitement around augmented reality has grown. Speaking of growing, all the tickets for the Augmented Planet event on the 11th November (London) have almost gone. I need to speak to the venue to see if they are happy for us to have more people in the space but best register now if you are interested.

During the week I managed to get to the Symbian Exchange and Exposition event, or SEE09 as it’s now called. At the show the augmented reality browser heavy weight Layar announced that they plan to release their browser on the Symbian platform next year, March if I remember correctly.

VentureBeat have an interesting write up about Layar for Symbian which you can read here.

Layar’s van der Klein said that moving to Nokia-Symbian was one of the toughest decisions his company has yet to make. There are still questions about whether Nokia users are accessing applications to the extent they are on other smart phones. Android and the iPhone are like two full-speed trains, he said, while Symbian’s train is still stalled “in a gutter.” (source VentureBeat)

I’d say that’s a bit harsh since Symbian are not responsible for the appstores or lack thereof on Symbian OS. The OEMs and Operator need to take a slice of that blame.

Metaio are launching their new augmented reality browser for the iPhone imminently. It was due Tuesday next week but the website now says coming soon so one wonders if it’s caught in that famous iTunes publishing queue.

Random Junaio screen shots

I have to admit I’m looking forward to Junaio. I didn’t like the first Junaio video that Metaio released, it was too arty for my liking, but they have since released a real teaser video that gives us a good look at the product. I must say it looks intriguing. What’s caught my attention is the ability to put animation into the picture. Take a look at the dinosaur at the Golden Gate Bridge, it’s definitely different. It has similar features to their iLiving product currently in the iPhone store and is an augmented reality browser to boot.

The new Junaio teaser

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_fYcdH2nMY

Finally I sent my brother-in-law who is a London Taxi driver, out on a field trip to test Wikitude and Layar around London to see what gets the best verdict from average Joe. Let’s say his results are interesting but we’ll leave that till next week when we’ll also launch the first Augmented Planet competition to win a Chumby. More on that very soon.

Win me!

Coming soon to an iPhone near you

lester — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:14:18 +0000

Metaio announced on Friday that they are launching an augmented reality application called Junaio for the iPhone.

Scheduled for release on the 2nd November, Junaio will enable users to access and share information on their surroundings.

Junaio

Metaio -- press release

Junaio will change the way we create, access and share information. By combining innovative online and mobile technologies, junaio will allow users to see location-based content through the display of a mobile device. Users can leave traces, messages or objects and visually interact with their friends or anyone else in the world. Already existing web services can be enhanced and completely new ways of interaction can be created. Whether it is social networks, multimedia content or game concepts – virtually anything can be embedded in the real world and connected to a certain place. “The possibilities are endless, we are taking the Internet outside to the real world,” says Thomas Alt, Chief Executive Officer of metaio.

Seeing location-based multimedia content through the display of your mobile device is only one part of the story. “Mobile augmented reality is all about the user´s orientation. But to deliver a really useful and robust application, you have to be user oriented,” says Peter Meier, Chief Technology Officer. metaio is defining a new dimension in mobile augmented reality through incorporation of features that will allow better usability and social interaction. junaio is the result of more than six years application development in augmented reality and months of research and usability tests for mobile applications. So get ready for the ultimate Outernet experience!

The press release is a typical press release and doesn’t give a lot away. It sounds like the application has a heavy social aspect to it and you can tag any content in the real world. Useful if you’re out with friends and move locations. Instead of sending latecomers an SMS you can just tag the bar and tell them where you have gone. When they arrive and are looking for you they can use Junaio to view the tag and find you. Or if you travel, when on holiday you’ll be able to tag landmarks. I’d like to be able to tag all the places I’ve been with ‘Lester woz ere’ so when my friends and family travel they’d know they are treading in my footsteps.

Junaio will also be released soon after on Android and Symbian so no worries about your buddies with other devices not being able to find you.

Metaio have released a teaser video for Junaio but I think we’ll have to wait a few weeks before we get any more than a teaser.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT2Xhe4pKfQ

Tomorrow we should have some exciting news from Mobilizy (the guys behind Wikitude). This was their latest tweet.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Mobilizy is sending out a Press Release today which will impact and potentially change the mobile AR industry

Interesting… thoughts? new product annoucement, partnership, or something else? We’ll have the news tomorrow.

I am off to London see a man about a venue for the augmented planet event. -- details coming soon I promise.