Sensopia, creator of reality augmentation app MagicPlan, announced today a $1.2 million round of funding and the release of a development kit to embed its software in any application.

The funding will accelerate Sensopia’s growth and development to make the MagicPlan application easy and accessible to normal users. MagicPlan lets you take a photo of your environment and generate a floor plan in minutes. The application can automatically measure, draw, and publish a floor plan by taking a photo with your iOS device. MagicPlan was released earlier this year and uses augmented reality and reality capturing technology to create a floor plan.

With the increased funding, the founders are working on enabling three-dimensional room capture and making the application even simpler.

“We are confident that in the coming year, given the energy and attention we put into research, MagicPlan will take reality capture to an entirely new level of simplicity and intuitiveness,” CEO Pierre Gaubil said in a statement. “These are the keys to gaining mass usage.”

Company reps state the app already has 4 million downloads and sees 20,000 floor plans created each day. The company is releasing an Android version of the software this summer and will give even more users access across multiple platforms.

Sensopia’s Software Development Kit (SDK) released today allows MagicPlan’s core technology be integrated into other applications. It will be easier than ever for companies to access and leverage quick and easy floor plan creation technology, the company said.

This is the Montreal-based company’s first round of funding. The popular MagicPlan application has received several awards and has been Apple’s App of the Week in 93 countries.

Photo via Sensopia.com

Augmented reality and 3D printing, while very different technologies, circle around the same general concept: bridging the gap between the physical world and the digital world. 3D printing makes the digital physical, and augmented reality enhances the physical world with digital overlays.

So what happens when you combine them? This question was at the heart of a project created by Dutch new media artist Sander Veenhof and designer Joris van Tubergen, who fused the worlds of 3D printing and augmented reality in a really interesting way.

The concept, dubbed the “UltimARker”, allows 3D printer owners to get a real-time preview of their 3D designs as their devices create them. Along with the design overlay, the UltimARker (which is a play on the name of the Ultimaker 3D printer and “AR” or “augmented reality”) also displays information like how long the printer’s been at work, and, in theory, how long it will take a job to complete. You can see how this works in the video below.

While the project doesn’t seem to have all that many practical applications yet, it is a very interesting proof of concept of what happens when you combine two technologies that don’t seem to have very much in common. With the idea of augmented reality glasses and 3D printing both becoming increasingly popular, you can expect to see projects like this a lot more often.

Here’s a link to the project’s Thingiverse page.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

“Creepy” is a word that often gets thrown around when we’re talking about Google Glass, somewhat rightfully, and somewhat not. Creepy, however, is mostly an emotional appeal; like Justice Potter Stewart’s views on pornography, while it’s tough to describe what “creepy” is, most of  know it when we see it. And right now, Glass is pretty creepy (and, no, Robert Scoble isn’t helping.)

But does Glass have to be creepy? Judging from the basics of how Google is advertising it — as a camera that you have strapped to you face all day, recording everything and everyone — I’d say the creepiness is unavoidable. It’s going to be a long time before people don’t automatically flinch when someone wearing Glass looks their way. And that’s going to have major effects on how fast the technology is adopted and accepted.

But while Glass seems doomed to the world of the creepy, augmented reality glasses themselves don’t have to be. This is clear judging from devices like Epson’s Moverio BT-100, a pair of augmented reality glasses that’s targeting a very different audience than Google’s catch-all Glass experiment. While Epson actually announced the device years ago, the company is trying to get its specs back into the conversation now that Glass is getting big.

Eric Mizufuka, Moverio’s product head, sums it up the Glass situation well: “Glass has been around for over a year, but Google is still struggling to say what they want to do with it. Right now it’s just photos and video,” he said.

Moverio, on the other hand, was designed with its killer app in mind: workforce training. Because the specs function as true augmented reality displays, developers can create overlays for things like car repair and thermostat installation  – basically anything that would benefit from the use of a hands-free walkthrough.

Here’s another example: Say you are a hapless plumber trying and failing to repair someone’s toilet. Rather than give up — or, worse, do a crummy job — you flip on your augmented reality specs and someone sitting at a distant computer uses  overlays to take you through the repair process step by step. It sounds farfetched, but it’s the very sort of thing companies like Scope Technologies are working on. (It’s also completely opposite of the thing that Google seems to be concerned with.)

This video gives you a good idea of how such a system would look. It’s pretty  neat.

Of course the tough thing to ignore here is that Moverio is ugly, bulky, and not all the type of thing people would want to walk around with all day. These realities would be a kiss of death if  Moverio were a consumer device, but it’s not a consumer device. This, Mizufuka argues, gives the device a bit more wiggle room in the aesthetics department.

“For a lot of enterprise applications, if a technology provides a return-on-investment, style isn’t as important. I think that’s one of the real struggles with going real heavy after the consumer market,” he said.

The same goes for the creep factor: In the commercial marketplace, people are going to be less worried about being photographed or recorded and more concerned with getting their jobs done.

The takeaway here, again, is this: Augmented reality is more than just Google Glass, even though it’s Glass that’s dominating our current discussions — and fears — of what augmented reality can be. There’s a whole world outside of Glass, and more companies than just Google are looking at it.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

“The world around you is not what it seems,” says Ingress, the virtual game that uses the real world as its gamespace. And, perhaps, when Google’s semi-independent division Niantic Labs is finished with its mission, we humans won’t be, either.

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and usable. Note carefully that Google says nothing about the Internet in that statement.

In the last few eye-blinks of human history, we’ve created virtual worlds: cyberspace, virtual reality, the World Wide Web … places that exist in our devices, on our computers, in our servers, on the internet, and in our heads. But there’s also a space in which we live and walk and eat and breathe. Realspace. Meatspace. IRL. The real world, so we say, that we can touch and taste and smell.

Google’s trying to bring those world together, partly through the work of Niantic Labs.

Augmented reality is nothing new, of course, with marketing-focused companies like Layar building connections between physical and virtual reality and Ikea’s most-downloaded branded app of 2012 doing similar things. Other startups have explored AR capabilities as well, such as Caterina Fake’s Findery, which invites people to leave geo-tied notes that others can discover and read.

But when a company with the resources of a Google tackles the problem, and has a tool in Google Glass that seems destined for significant developer (and probably user) penetration that can actually create interconnections between the real and the virtual perhaps more efficiently than any other previous product, you’ve got something interesting. And potentially huge.

So a couple of weeks ago, I chatted with the man who’s leading that effort.

John Hanke: the missionary of mapping

John Hanke is vice president of product for Niantic Labs, the year-old Google-but-not-Google division of just a few dozen engineers that brought us Field Trip, the app to explore the world around us with a virtual docent. And, of course, the virtual/real game Ingress.

Source: LinkedIn

John Hanke

Before Niantic, Hanke ran Google Maps, Google Earth, and other geo areas, and before Google, he was the cofounder and CEO of Keyhole, the innovative geo-mapping and visualization company. Google bought Keyhole in 2004, which brought Hanke in the search engine’s fold to lead the its maps, earth, street view, and local divisions.

Now, he told me, rather than let him leave to scratch his entrepreneurial itch yet again and do another startup, Google gave him a semi-autonomous group to, as his LinkedIn profile suggests, experiment at the “intersection of mobility, real world, and the Internet.”

“We set up Niantic as a group that could explore new types of mobile apps with ubiquitous always-on features,” Hanke said. “And we’re set up to act like a start-up.”

Virtual + physical = field trip

Field Trip was one of Niantic’s first creations, and while on the surface it’s an app that helps you find cool stuff, ultimately it’s a tool to merge metadata and data and then present them together. While you’re in the physical world, Field Trip pulls data about that experience from digital sources, feeding you that information, and changing — deepening, enriching — your experience of place. Layering with with history, perhaps, or science, or culture.

Because, after all, one rock is very much like another rock, but if this is the precise rock where Geronimo attacked Mexican soldiers armed with only a knife and his courage, that changes our experience of this particular place. And the merging/melding/layering of virtual and physical makes it more real, in a sense — hyperreal.

Source: John Koetsier

Google’s Field Trip app helps you explore “reality.”

Enabling that, of course, requires extensive virtual enhancement of the what-you-see-is-what-you-get world.

“One of the things that we’re trying to evangelize is the concept of geo-tagging everything,” Hanke told me. “I would have expected eight years ago that it would be ubiquitous now, but it’s still not. But I think we’ll get there.”

Geotagging everything digital is a key intersection point between virtual and real. If this blog post is written here, and not there, that adds flavor and nuance to the information. And if a particular historical fact is geotagged to a specific mapped location, that adds depth and dimension to our experience of that place.

“We’re applying some of the same techniques we currently use in standard web search, and the same kind of discipline, to pull really interesting, really good places up from everything else,” Hanke says. “The model is that you’re walking through an unfamiliar neighborhood, but with a friend who is telling you the best things around you. You enjoy it just like before, but you’re a little more informed.”

AR + MMO + IRL

Depth and dimension are definitely core components of Ingress, another Niantic Labs app/experiment/game. Ingress is a — take a deep breath — augmented reality massively multiplayer online video game.

The real world is real, but it’s fought over virtually by two shadowy groups: the Enlightened and the Resistance. Niantic has filled the Earth with virtual portals, usually coincident with actual physical landmarks or monuments, that players need to capture in order to gain territory. Capture territory with large numbers of people (aka “mind units”) and your faction gets more powerful.

Clearly, the massive integration of Google mapping technology with a sophisticated gaming engine is required. And the result is another intersection between the real and the virtual.

“Ingress is a massively multiplayer online game designed for mobile, with real location-based connections,” Hanke told me.

You play with everyone in your faction, and you might meet up with other players in real life, or you may just know them virtually as team members in another area. Along the way, Google learns an awful lot about how you use your mobile devices, about mapping physical locations, and about overlaying cyberspace on meatspace.

Source: Google

Ingress’ field of play is the world, layered with virtual data.

All of that knowledge is going to come in very handy with Google Glass.

Endgame: Google Glass?

Hanke is cautious when speaking about Google Glass, as is the PR handler who is copiloting our conversation. Even already public information is a question mark as we chat: Google is definitely being Apple-like in the control and distribution of Glass and its future.

But something tantalizing tidbits do come out.

“We definitely kinda had Google Glass in mind when we started work on apps at Niantic,” Hanke says. “We need mobile devices that are less intrusive than the phone is.”

Source: Google

A model demonstrates Google’s new Project Glass technology.

And we need devices with different input/output modalities, he says. After all, it’s not easy to play Ingress running around holding an expensive and fragile device in front of you like a window ripped from its frame. And yet you need that portal from the physical to the virtual. For instance, while Field Trip is great to open the doors on human context for the world around us, it threatens to detract from our experience of the world by redirecting our eyes from the ultimate big screen of reality to the small screen of our mobile device.

Google Glass, on the other hand, sits unobtrusively on our foreheads, leaving our hands free and providing data as an overlay on top of the physical world rather than an alternative to the physical world. That model of layering, mixing, and intersecting is top-of-mind for Hanke.

“It just can’t be the case that people are walking around heads down tapping on a screen,” he says. “That just can’t be the future of the human race.”

Cyborg me now

Which, of course, is exactly what’s at issue: the future of the human race. Or, at least how we ingest, consume, and reconstitute digital data. And analog data. And meld the two into one harmonious whole of knowing.

That’s perhaps a little metaphysical for a small division of Google that focuses on maps and games and apps.

But the web has rewired our brains in a decade or so of virtually ubiquitous Internet access, and the smartphone has rewired our behavior in five years, taking us from creatures who look up to to see others to beings that look down at any opportunity to see small bits of plastic and glass and metal in our hands.

So is it really too much to expect from a transformation that brings us from clear divisions between what is real and what is virtual to an elegant blend of the two?

“This is not psychosis or some cognitive break, but an actual takeover of the mind,” Google’s introductory video for the Ingress game says ominously.

Art imitates life, I suppose, and life, in turn, imitates art.

It’s hardly a ringing endorsement for the most exciting new Google product in perhaps … ever.

Of course, he is 57 years old, was born in the 1950s, and was the CEO of a boring enterprise software company, Novell, before joining the much more au courant Google.

But it’s not just that he’s an old fuddy-duddy. He’s right.

A Google Glass future in which we all have smart devices perched on our noses, in which we’re all viewing digital streams of content while simultaneously navigating the physical world, then touching our eyewear and speaking to it, is very, very odd.

An alternative, of course, is gesture control, and Leap Motion, which was recently integrated into Google Earth, and has announced its intentions of bringing embedded gesture control not just to PCs but also to “watches, smartphones, and glasses.” But while waving and motioning to your headgear may be less disruptive in social settings — and more realistic in busy, noisy environments — it’s also going to make for fairly odd behavior.

In the future, we’ll all have Tourrette’s syndrome.

That’s something Schmidt is recognizing, saying that there are clearly places where Google Glass would be inappropriate. The locker room, for example, and other places where there’s an expectation of privacy.

But it does mean that our current cultural go-to move in unfamiliar social settings — head down, checking your smartphone — will need some updating for a future in which everyone carries smart video cameras on their heads that are always connected to the Internet.

Another problem with the augmented-reality devices?

“If you like eye contact, I’m sorry, you lost,” Schmidt said.

Sounds like a paradise for geeks. For others, I’m not so sure. Perhaps talking to an iWatch will be less weird. At least, thanks to Dick Tracy, we have some cultural precedent for that.

Photo credit: Jolie O’Dell/Flickr, Chris Chabot/Google

Google Glass, a tech that no one has, could one day be used to control smart fridges and , another tech that no one has.

According to a patent filed by Google (and discovered by Engadget) Google is working on functionality that would allow Glass owners to virtually interact with the smart devices around them. Using a combination of infrared, Bluetooth, radio frequency IDs, and plain old visual identification via Glass’s external camera, Google’s specs would act as a central control hub for developing Internet of Things you’ve been hearing so much about.

Everything surrounding Google Glass already sounds like science fiction, and this latest development is no exception to that. The world has been promised smart fridges and the like for a while now, but the devices are still at the fringes of mainstream adoption. (In that sense, they’re actually a bit further on than Glass itself.)

It’s tough not to geek out about the whole thing, but it’s even tougher to ignore the fact that all of this is going to be, really, really expensive. With the $1,500 price tag attached to Glass and the $4000 price of the relatively rudimentary smart fridges of today, the functionality  described in Google’s patent is going to be well beyond the reach of most people for a long, long time.

Photo: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

Sergey Brin is listed as one of the inventors of a binocular Google Glass device that the Mountain View company recently patented. It doubles the amount of virtual vision space that it can overlay in an augmented reality display and uses laser-positioning beams to fine-tune image alignment on what in most cases will be a curved and sometimes flexing surface: the inside of the glasses’ lens.

Unfortunately, it could also be much less cool than the Geordi LaForge-style one-lens Google Glass that we’ve all seen:

Source: USPTO

Google Glass(es)

The key challenge that this invention for binocular head-mounted displays is designed to overcome? Not making users dizzy and potentially sick.

As the patent application states:

One technological hurdle to overcome to further encourage marketplace adoption of HMD technology is identifying and compensating for binocular HMD deformation. Deformation of a binocular HMD can lead to deleterious misalignment between the left and right image displays of the binocular HMD. These misalignments can result in a blurred or otherwise compromised image as perceived by the user, which ultimately leads to a poor user experience (disorientation, dizziness, etc.). Deformation can occur due to a variety of reasons including misuse, poor user fit, nonsymmetrical facial features, harsh environmental factors (e.g., thermal warping), or otherwise.

Essentially, if the glasses change shape for any reason, the image will warp, and this will compromise your user experience. It’s yet another example of how the most amazing inventions — full-scale augmented reality in a pair of glasses — can have issues with the simplest of problems: Our heads are not all the same shape or size.

But Google is sweating the details in a very Apple-like way to ensure Glass will have a great user experience whether you use one eye or two.

For more images from the patent application, scroll through this gallery:

Those who are waiting for the hotly anticipated Google Glass, the wearable computing gadget from Google, should start saving money for it now.

Google is planning to release a “fully polished” version of the smart eyeglasses for consumers before the end of the year, according to The Verge’s Josh Topolsky, who was able to extensively test out the gadget recently. Google also indicated that it would cost less than the $1,500 price tag that developers and creative types can spend to get an advanced version and that its pricing would be more in line with a new top-model smartphone.

Google Glass does many of the same things you do with your smartphone, such as snapping pictures, recording video, displaying augmented reality user interfaces (such as driving directions) and communicating with others. Also, the device can connect with your smartphone’s (iPhone or Android) cellular data network via Bluetooth, so you can stay connected anywhere. (Previously, some speculated that Google Glass would only work with smartphones running Google’s native operating system, Android, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. At least according to The Verge’s report.)

The tentative consumer release time frame for Google Glass is sooner than the 2014 general product launch timeline stated by Google cofounder Sergey Brin last summer. Obviously, Google is aggressively pursuing its goal of being the first major manufacturer to get into the wearable computing gadget market, especially since rivals Microsoft and Apple are also rumored to be working on a product of their own.

 Photo via Google

The latest marketing video for Project Glass, Google’s ambitious wearable display, finally shows off its awesome potential. Now Glass doesn’t just look like a casual device for annoying hipsters, it looks like something essential for sharing intimate and exciting moments in your life.

Google is also opening up pre-orders for Project Glass in the form of a contest: Post a note to Twitter or Google+ with the #ifihadglass hashtag in 50 words or less detailing what you’d do with a Glass headset. You can also include up to five photos and a 15-second video. Unfortunately, the contest is only open to adults in the U.S. (And yes, you’ll still need to pay $1,500 for the Project Glass unit.)

At Google I/O last June, the company showed off how versatile Project Glass can be by having people livestream their experience jumping out of a plane, rappelling down the side of a skyscraper, and riding a bike onto the main stage. That was also where Google initially kicked off Glass pre-orders for attendees. Glass also made an appearance at Fashion Week in New York City last September.

The latest video appears to be a mix of actual footage taken from Project Glass units and some footage produced to mimic its on-screen experience. It shows how Glass can be used to capture moments traditional technology could miss — though I don’t suspect many early owners will be as carefree with their units, given the initial high cost.

It looks like Project Glass will need a solid (perhaps lifetime) warranty when it finally starts shipping.

Two groups met, one in New York, and one in San Francisco, and built “over 80 new ways to use Glass” over the course of the two-day session. They worked next to Google engineers, provided feedback on the platform, and saw the still-confidential Google Glass API, which developers and hardware manufacturers will use to build technologies and software that integrate with Google Glass.

Participants were basically sworn to secrecy about the API and any other details of the events, but Ryan Warner, an Android developer who was there, did give some feedback on the Google Developers post:

“Glass foundry was awesome!!” he commented.

Typically, the comments then devolved into an ad hominem discussion on the relative merits of MacBooks for development (small selection: “over-price pieces of trash,” and “the best laptop hardware you can get”). Kids will be kids.

Some photos:

The next chance for non-Google engineers and augmented reality enthusiasts to learn a bit more about Google Glass? The South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas:

If you’d like to know more about developing for Glass and you’ll be at SXSW this year, we recommend you attend Building New Experiences with Glass (http://goo.gl/pLoUu) with +Timothy Jordan  on Monday, March 11th at 5pm in Ballroom A of the Austin Convention Center.

Zerkin, who spends his days creating experimental and creative integrations between technology, happened to see the Google co-founder on the subway in New York, wearing one of his innovative new projects, the Google Glass augmented reality glasses:

Yeeeah... I just had a brief conversation with the most powerful man in the world. On the downtown 3 train. Nice guy. http://t.co/cx93BXKY

—
Noah Zerkin (@noazark) January 21, 2013

I’m not sure about the “most powerful man in the world,” but Brin is a billionaire perhaps 18 times over, is number 24 on Forbes’ list of the richest people in the world, and owns a Boeing 767 jet. And yet, he  apparently rides the subway just like any other commuter in New York, wearing a beanie cap and a track jacket.

One thing he’s wearing that most other commuters can’t, however, is Google Glass.

Project Glass, which hasn’t updated its Google Plus page in about two months, made the list of Time’s best inventions of the year for 2012 but won’t be available for widespread purchase and use until perhaps 2014. Which means that the rest of us can’t videochat, check maps, see appointments, and benefit from a cyber-assisted memory without actually looking down at our smartphones. How lame.

In any case, it sounds like Brin is a pleasant enough multi-billionaire to run into in public. Zerkin says he was a “nice guy.”

photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

When I think of innovation, one of the last places I think of is the United States Postal Service. So color me surprised when USPS debuted a new app this week at the Consumer Electronics Show that works well and could increase a company’s interest in sending mail again.

USPS has had a lot of trouble over the past decade, with email eating away at snail mail usage and UPS and FedEx taking customers from USPS’s package delivery services. But with this new app, the organization might be showing at least some signs of life.

The app, developed with Aurasma, scans a piece of mail and uses augmented reality to make the paper an interactive ad. Ideally, companies that want to engage with potential customers could do so with a new kind of advertising — one that merges digital and physical ads.

“We worked on this to show companies that hard copy mail can be a part of their editorial content,” Chris Karpenko, head of USPS outreach, told me on the CES show floor. “It’s all about the customer experience. And there is a measurable ROI on click-throughs.”

Karpenko said the app will likely be released “before the end of 2013.”

Check out video of the app below.

Top photo via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

An Intel-funded startup wants to bring augmented reality to your television screen. Telibrahma‘s Point uses image recognition technology to turn your smartphone into a tool for a “second screen experience.”

Using the Point app, you point your smartphone at an image on the TV screen, and it starts an interactive sequence. If you point it at a product in a video, movie, commercial, or TV show, the Point technology recognizes what’s in the image and gives you a visual overlay that further describes the product or helps you figure out how to buy it. The technology can recognize moving images as well as still ones and will work with 3D games.

“Point provides a Shazam-like experience for consumers that takes them to the next level of engagement, and we’re thrilled to offer this exciting technology to users,” said Suresh Narasimha, chief executive and founder of Telibrahma, in a statement.

The company is unveiling the tool for consumer engagement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today.

Point also works with print ads, editorial content, brand logos, newspapers, magazines, and websites to create “real world” experiences for consumers on their mobile devices. The technology tries to outdo QR codes in that respect, as it can recognize more than just bar codes or scan diagrams.

Telibrahma is working with brands such as Dove, Nokia, Nike, and Toyota. The company was founded in 2008 and has offices in New York and India. It works with iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, and Windows.

---

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

The House of Mouse’s next big splash into video games could be in producing its own home console, according to a patent application filed by Disney.

The patent application, which was filed over a year ago but only recently flagged by the USPTO, describes a device that would allow people to presumably play augmented reality games while wearing a set of 3D glasses. Theoretically, the device could finally transform inanimate objects lying around your house into animated characters with facial features and such. Or in other words, you could create your own Beauty and the Beast, complete with talking clocks, candle holders, and tea pots.

Here’s the official summary of what the device will do from the application itself:

“Techniques for displaying content using an augmented reality device are described. Embodiments provide a visual scene for display, the visual scene captured using one or more camera devices of the augmented reality device. Embodiments adjust physical display geometry characteristics of the visual scene to correct for optimal projection. Additionally, illumination characteristics of the visual scene are modified based on environmental illumination data to improve realism of the visual scene when it is displayed. Embodiments further adjust display characteristics of the visual scene to improve tone mapping output. The adjusted visual scene is then output for display on the augmented reality device.”

From the images included in the application (shown to the right), the device would have to main components: a handheld console that looks quite similar to Nintendo’s DS or 3DS and a set of 3D glasses that would communicate with the device.

But before you start saving money for a mouse ear-shaped next-generation gaming console, it’s worth noting that the device may never actually get made. Back in October, Disney said it planned to focus on mobile and social games rather than high-end consoles and PC releases. Also, Disney filed this patent application in June 2011. At that time Disney may have had a stronger interest in console gaming.

Still, Disney is obviously up to something interesting.

Via Cnet

---

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

As the year draws to an end, Silicon Valley investors are looking for the next wave of technology after social networking.

VentureBeat spoke to a slew of the top players at well-known West Coast institutions — the founding team at Stanford University’s technology accelerator, StartX, partners at some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms, and others — to help illuminate what the big trends will be in the coming year.

For VCs, it’s not enough to build an addictive mobile app or game: Investors expect to see more, something worth building a venture-funded company around. So in 2013, get ready for mind-blowing, nerdgasmic tech, whether it’s augmented reality, 3D printing, self-driving cars, or space travel.

For later-stage startups, 2013 will be the year all hell breaks loose. The IPO pipeline is already brimming with contenders: Venture-funded companies like Twitter, Box, and Square are ready for Wall Street. With heated competition for customers and users, there may also be some mammoth failures when some venture-backed companies that have received hundreds of millions of dollars simply buckle.

Most of the investors we spoke to agreed confidence in the tech industry is sky-high and 2013 is a year to take bigger risks. This time last year, we predicted entrepreneurship would be an engine to drive jobs creation and stimulate economic growth. With the global economy beginning to stabilize, we’re ready to take more risks and push technology into new verticals, like education, government, financial services, and health care.

Financial firms will finally embrace innovation

David Blumberg, managing partner, Blumberg Capital 

“The financial services sector should be highly attractive to IT entrepreneurs and investors for its size, growth, high margins, and dramatic need for greater innovation and efficiency. At more than 8.5 percent of the global GDP, the industry is measured in trillions of dollars.

“Despite rapid growth, the financial industry is burdened by outmoded IT systems and legacy software, extensive and increasingly punitive regulations, and taxes as well as a negative public image as being too expensive, inflexible, and inefficient. It is an industry consumers and politicians love to hate — hence it’s ripe for innovation to improve outcomes for all.

“And fortunately, startups are leading the way forward. Go for innovation in financial services, young entrepreneur — it’s where the money is!”

Ones to watch: Square, Credorax, Lenddo, LendUp, SoFi, Addepar, Zanbato

 Computers will get smarter and more autonomous

Mike Maples, founding partner, Floodgate Capital

“I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the next big tech cycle after social networking. One of the things we did right as a firm is to see that trend early [Editor's note: Maples is an early investor in Twitter and Reputation.com]. We use the term ‘hypernet’ to describe this notion that technology will no longer be characterized by one world wide web or one search engine.

“Computers will exist in billions of nodes and millions of clouds. In 2013, people will expect to be hyperconnected on the hyperweb: They will want to manage content on any device. We will see user experiences that are no longer assumed to be windows on a computer screen or a smart phone. Some of my favorite examples are Google’s self-driving car or Nest‘s thermostat, which learns the temperature you like and turns it down when you’re away.”

Ones to watch: Nest, Google’s self-driving car, IFFFT, Grok, Genwi

‘Big data’ won’t be a buzzword; it will be part of life

Ross Fubini, venture partner, Canaan Partners

“‘Big data’ is the buzzword of the year, but 2013 will be the year that big data will be a reality across many application areas.

“Big data allows the user to experience magic. Anyone can ask questions of the data, and soon we’ll be using these technologies for everyday decision-making, whether it’s pricing, hiring, or managing our finances. These new applications are going to require more than an open-source computing framework like Hadoop. The shift to ‘big data’ will herald an entirely new set of infrastructures to store and process all that data.

“Data has been a big deal and a big market for years — SQL, hello!. But ‘big data’ is a big deal because of the sheer volume of trackable data and because it’s cheaper than ever before to build an application to make that data valuable. By the end of the year, we will see some big winners emerge leading up to some splashy 2014 and 2015 IPOs.”

Ones to watch: Kaggle, Splunk, Platfora, Grok, Intuit, Quid, LendUp, GNS Healthcare

Storage will get even sexier

Bipul Sinha, investor, Lightspeed Venture Partners

“The enterprise storage market is experiencing a tectonic shift led primarily by virtualization and storage media disruptions. The incumbents are slow to respond, and the startup activity is at an all-time high. The new year will witness two significant trends: an acceleration of storage and compute hyper-convergence and a bifurcation of performance and capacity tiers for shared enterprise storage.

“These trends will eventually commoditize the storage layer of the enterprise information technology stack and essentially propel the emergence of software defined, agile enterprise datacenter.”

Ones to watch: SimpliVity, Nutanix, Zadara, Exablox, Bitcasa

The developer ecosystem will go mainstream

Peter Levine, partner, Andreessen Horowitz

“The shift from the web to an app-based computing architecture is reinventing the entire developer ecosystem. Until recently, Microsoft and Java controlled all software development and services because developers could only write for those APIs. With 2013 on the horizon, we believe those days will soon be over.

“The old way of computing has been eroded by and replaced with special-purpose, easy-to-integrate backend services. These best-of-breed services also innovate at a breakneck pace, which means applications can take advantage of many additional services, thus paving the way for a new developer ecosystem.”

Ones to watch: GitHub, Mixpanel, Pixelapse, Okta, Parse, Bizness Apps, Urban Airship

Hardware companies will raise larger rounds

Naval Ravikant, founder, AngelList

“The declining cost of building tech startups has finally reached hardware. We’re seeing accelerators like Lemnos Labs turning out very interesting seed-stage hardware companies.

“Some of the coolest I’ve seen this year include Momentum Machines, which builds burger-flipping robots; UnmannedInnovation, which builds an operating system for UAVs; NanoSatisfi, a Kickstarter-funded project to launch and rents CubeSats; and Nomiku, which makes sous vide [machines] affordable.

“It used to be that for a hardware company, you’d have to raise lots of money from the get-go. But now you can start small with a seed, as AngelList alum Leap Motion did, and then go on to raise significant rounds from large investors later.”

Ones to watch: Maykah, Goldiebox, OpenRov, Momentum Machines, Unmanned Innovation

Indoor location will be the next billion-dollar market

Don Dodge, developer advocate, Google; advisor, Google Ventures

“Indoor location will be bigger than GPS, which only works outdoors. We spend 90 percent of our time indoors, whether it’s in shopping malls, offices, schools, restaurants, and so on, where GPS doesn’t work or is inaccurate. In 2013, you’ll use your smartphone to find the exact store aisle location for every item on your shopping list.

“With indoor location, you can find people, products, or services plotted exactly on a floor plan with walking directions to get there. You could receive coupons, advertisements, or free offers for products based on where you are in a store. Imagine playing indoor location games like capture the flag, tower defense, or other games based on real-life indoor locations. There are thousands of applications in many different market segments that will be built using accurate indoor positioning technology.”

Related: Read VentureBeat’s roundup of indoor location technologies.

Ones to watch: WifiSLAM, ByteLight, Neuaer, IndoorAtlas

Health care will begin to feel personal

Cameron Teitelman, John Melas-Kyriazi, and Divya Nag (pictured, left), StartX leadership team

“In the medical space, advances in bioinformatics, genomics, regenerative medicine, and proteomics [the large-scale study of proteins] have propelled us into an era of truly personalized medicine. Many med-tech startups are harnessing innovation in these fields to prevent diseases, increase health outcomes, and tailor medical engagement on an individual level.

“With a rising number of med-tech companies launching personalized medicine platforms, we are going to see a greater demand for individual treatment options around the world as these options become increasingly accessible.”

Ones to watch:Morpheus Medical, Ubiome, Wellness FX, GenapSys, Numedii, The Chordoma Foundation

A.I. and human-computer interaction

Brian Singerman, partner, Founders Fund

“We are always highly suspicious of trends. The best investments are often in companies and industries that others do not consider hot or trendy. Therefore, a theme for 2013 will be to not invest in trends, but rather long-lasting value. Trends come and go, but the best companies will be the ones that buck the trends and don’t look like all the others, companies that don’t appear to have much competition.

“To that end, we think 2013 will see some major technological breakthroughs through new ways of interacting with machines. Interface breakthrough Leap Motion will change the way we think about and operate computers of all types. Google will make huge strides in self-driving cars. We will even see the beginnings of a sophisticated A.I. The new year will be a true revenge of the nerds year, with product giving ground to actual technological innovation.”

Ones to watch: Leap Motion, Metaio, Ouya, Deep Learning technologies, Google Glass, self-driving cars, anything involving space travel

Top image courtesy of Smileus, Shutterstock

---

Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

---

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

This is a guest post by Trak Lord 

Augmented reality (AR) may seem like a futuristic concept, but it will be a reality of our digital lives in 2013. AR is a new technology that blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer generated by enhancing what we hear, see and feel. Next year, I predict that it will be everywhere. Here are my five reasons why:

The glasses are coming, the glasses are coming!

Whether it’s Google’s Project Glass or concept videos along the lines of “Sight”, the Internet can’t get enough of Terminator Vision. A few companies have however made some pretty impressive technological leaps this year: this fall, Vuzix debuted their monocular AR prototype for industrial use at the annual InsideAR conference; Innovega showcased their Augmented Reality contact lens prototype at the 2012 Consumer Electronic show, for which they’re currently seeking FDA approval; and researchers at the University of Washington successfully displayed a single pixel on an eye (albeit, that of a rabbit).

In the meantime, retails brands like Oakley and game favorite Valve were just as quick to throw their hats in the ring alongside patent applications from tech giants Apple and Microsoft. But don’t bother Santa with your letters – widely available (and affordable) wearable augmented reality devices probably won’t hit shelves until 2014.

Smartphones will be AR-equipped

We might not get Paul Smith AR goggles anytime soon, but expect OEMs, handset manufacturers and carriers to integrate optimized augmented reality, visual display and camera performance into the next generation of smartphones, because it’s basically already happening.

Premier-to-punchline-to-rising-star Nokia recently launched the City Lens app, exclusive to its Lumia suite of devices. UK-based chip designer ARM has had its eye on AR for a while, powering and optimizing experiences for its architecture found in the Samsung Galaxy SII, SIII and Note devices. And let us not forget Telefonica and their mad dash to serve mobile augmented reality advertisements to the entirety of their O2 network, alongside mobile coupons and location-based services.

Location, Location, Location

GPS and geodata were responsible early on for bringing augmented reality to the forefront. Applications like Junaio and Layar made a splash in the tech world, offering location-based navigational “channels” and “layers” where UFO-like billboards bobbed on the horizon, displaying information about your surroundings. In 2013 expect to see the next generation of those GPS-based experiences, incorporating not only data from on-board sensors like the gyroscope and camera, but other niche mobile technologies that rely on proximity such as NFC.

Companies like Hover are already deeply embedded in generating and augmenting 3-D maps of urban areas, and my company (AR firm Metaio) has successfully developed “snapping algorithms” that pull this kind of data from the cloud and tightly align it to the real world. Expect your city to get a lot more augmented in 2013.

The death of the gimmicky app

Disclaimer: there will always be marketers that abuse useful technology for their own nefarious, poorly designed purposes(re: QR codes), but expect to see brands move to better, faster and stronger apps that give their audience clear incentives for regular use. 3-D bunnies smiling at you from conference marketing material may have seemed novel at the time, but creating a new app for each one-off experience is neither scalable nor tolerable from a user’s perspective.

The 2013 IKEA Catalog app featured an augmented reality viewer that visualized furniture in 3-D and served related video and digital content to readers – and was the most downloaded branded app of 2012, even after launching in July. With that kind of success as a benchmark, expect other companies to start managing entire product lifecycles with augmented reality solutions- not unlike Mitsubishi Electric with their enterprise MeViewAR app that visualizes heating and cooling units in the real world. Mitsubishi Electric has already moved to the next phase for 2013, intending to visualize 3-D maintenance instructions for service technicians.

The birth of the elusive killer app

It doesn’t exist, and it probably won’t. Augmented Reality is a horizontal technology, which means that the nigh-limitless applications make it a challenging endeavor to develop the Evernote-YouTube-Wordpress-Instagram of Augmented Reality. We did however see the AR Angry Birds, and even if it isn’t official it’s still a pretty clear indication that a successful AR game could lead the way for massive adoption. There are already some good examples out there, like the new JengAR game that inserts the 3-D content into the environment itself rather than needing a printed image.

Expect more games to take this approach in 2013 as we move toward experiences that engage users in their actual surroundings. But the most amazing app for which the industry could possibly hope is only peripherally related to augmented reality. 3-D content is tough- it’s difficult and expensive and time-consuming to create, and may present the biggest barrier to producing augmented reality experiences. Augmented reality needs an app that easily generates 3-D content and exports it in major supported formats. Think “Draw Something” meets iMovie, in 3-D.

That would be something.

Trak Lord is the head of US Marketing for Metaio, the leader in augmented reality research and applications. Before joining with Metaio, Trak attended Dartmouth, where he first started working with augmented reality technology, only to relocate to Silicon Valley and consult for social media and augmented reality startups.

Since joining Metaio, Trak has traveled all over the world evangelizing augmented reality and Metaio’s research. He also manages Augmented Reality Blog, the most widely read source in the industry.  

When he’s not at Metaio, Trak enjoys vintage motorcycles, 19th Century French novels and coffee. Lots of coffee. 

Not to mention dorky glasses.

The first prototype shows an image of a dollar sign — apparently the researchers are already thinking about commercialization. While it currently can display only simple images (similar in complexity to a cheap dollar-store calculator), Imec says future versions should be able to control light transmission to the retina, create different colored irises, and function as a heads-up display, which could superimpose almost any image right onto your field of vision.

You can see the new contact lenses in this movie from Imec … with appropriately James Bond-ish music:

The LCD display technology that Imec created allows the use of almost all of the contact lens surface, unlike LED-based applications that only enable a few pixels. In fact, Imec says, the technology will work for a range of pixel sizes and numbers.

The main challenge, of course, beside the thinness, has been the shape:

“Normally, flexible displays using liquid crystal cells are not designed to be formed into a new shape, especially not a spherical one,” Jelle De Smet, the project’s primary researcher, said in a statement. ”Thus, the main challenge was to create a very thin, spherically curved substrate with active layers that could withstand the extreme molding processes.”

Imec, which claims to be three to ten years ahead of the industry, created the new contact lens at the Center for Microsystems Technology.

It’s almost too bad that Apple has already patented its term for very high-density, high-quality screens. Because this truly has the potential to be a real retina display.

photo credit: jonycunha via photopin cc

Tech giant Microsoft is working on a set of augmented reality eyeglasses, according to a new patent application made public today.

Microsoft’s glasses are very similar to Google’s Project Glass, the sci-fi-looking glasses that let you do many of the things you do with your smartphone without the need for a separate device — things like snapping pictures, recording video, or displaying a user interface.

Microsoft’s glasses, according to the patent, seem to zero in on turning your line of sight into a true UI. For example, live events like concerts or sports games will have images and text above or beside people showing relevant statistics, trivia, and more.

Here’s a description from the patent application:

“Fans of live sporting and artistic events have enjoyed various types of information which is provided on different displays to supplement the live event. This supplemental information is provided both when the user is in attendance at the event and when the user views the event on broadcast media. One example of this is the augmentation of football games to display a first down marker superimposed on a playing field in a broadcast television event, and the broadcast of replays both on broadcast television and large displays at the venue of the event.”

The patent application was initially flied in May 2011, and we don’t know when and if Microsoft actually plans to release a device based on the images shown above. Google, however, is scheduled to release its Project Glass  product in the next few months.

Via UnwiredView

Sony today launched Wonderbook: Book of Spells, its collaboration with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, for the PlayStation 3. This is one of the first major nongame applications that use the PlayStation 3 and its technology for augmented reality.

The new application is more like an interactive book in which stories come alive. You can control the interactive fiction using a PlayStation Move motion-sensing controller and a PlayStation Eye camera with your PS3. With this, children (or adults) can flick through a physical book, point at something with the motion controller, and then make animated imagery appear on the TV screen. Sony says it makes for much more immersive storytelling, bringing a world of magic to life on-screen.

The PS3 exclusive Wonderbook is from Sony’s London game studio in collaboration with Rowling. It is the first product to come from Sony’s partnership with Pottermore, Rowling’s web site related to the best-selling Harry Potter books. The technology blends both physical products and digital material. Such hybrids are an increasingly popular way to create content that appeals to the digital generation.

“Wonderbook: Book of Spells is the closest a Muggle [nonmagical person] can come to a real spellbook,” Rowling said. “I’ve loved working with Sony’s creative team to bring my spells, and some of the history behind them, to life. This is an extraordinary device that offers a reading experience like no other.”

Book of Spells takes players on a journey about wizardry. You can use the Move controller like a magic wand. Players can practice spells like a student at Hogwarts, the school from the Harry Potter books. Rowling wrote the material to lead players through the experience, providing insight to what makes a successful witch or wizard.

“We’re pleased to partner with J.K. Rowling to capture the magic of one of the most beloved book series of all time in our debut title for Wonderbook,” said Guy Longworth, the senior vice president, PlayStation Brand Marketing, for SCEA. “With the introduction of Wonderbook and titles like Book of Spells, we continue to push the boundaries of interactive entertainment, using augmented reality to deliver a remarkably unique experience that the entire family can enjoy together.”

Other Wonderbook projects coming include Diggs Nightcrawler, a film noir detective story from the Academy Award-winning studio Moonbot, Walking with Dinosaurs from the BBC, and an unannounced title from Disney.

---

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

The thing about augmented reality is that it’s inaccurate. What good is an app that can overlay the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts on my phone screen if it actually just leads me into the city sewer system? New technology company Precision Augmented Reality Works has an AR system that removes those issues.

“We come at augmented reality form a completely different direction,” said PAR Works chief executive John Serafini. “We use point-cloud models to build models of any arbitrary object, building, or product that you want to augment. The software builds a very precise model of that object in the cloud server and overlays specific information on top of that model and returns it to your device. We can do that within a second or so and we within a few millimeters of accuracy.”

http://player.vimeo.com/video/53110636

Compare that to the traditional method of augmented reality which relies on a device’s sensors. Most apps use a phone’s GPS, compass, and altimeter to determine its location and where it is looking and then overlays the information on top of the picture. Only the accuracy is only within tens and maybe even hundreds of meters.

Something like Google Goggles, while not strictly augmented reality software, uses an alternative method where users take a picture that is then matched against a finite database of objects. If the software recognizes the image, then it will return information about it.

PAR Works has already deployed their tech onto construction sites where foreman can take a picture of the work in progress, send it to the cloud, and get back a comparison between reality and the original blueprint schematics in less than a second.

The Consumer Electronic Association named PAR Works an International CES Innovations 2013 Design and Engineering Awards Honoree for its work in the augmented reality field.

Now, PAR Works is sitting back waiting to see what developers can do with its technology. The Virginia Tech scientists that created it, led by co-founder and chief scientist Dr. Jules White, completed the platform and are offering it to interested programmers and designers at PARworks.com.

“We just announced a developer competition for $25,000,” said Serafini. “Our platform is complete and available for developers to build upon. For the next couple of months we’re gonna take a hard look and watch what people are building on top of our base technology. We want to see the traction we’re able to build. That’ll help dictate to us where the business is.”

PAR Works was born out of the Allied Minds investment company which works to apply longer-term principles to the tech sector.

“We only invest in raw technologies coming out of universities and federal research institutions,” said Serafini. “Whoever makes the investment in the initial technology goes on board as the CEO and general manager of the company.”

That’s how Serafini got the gig at PAR Works. He believed in the tech enough to invest in it and so he now has to work to take responsibility for it. Another benefit is Allied Minds will continue to fund the company as long as it continues pursuing its business model. That means that the technology people don’t have to go looking for capital investments.

Typically, venture capitalists deal in strict timelines. For technology, investors are looking to put in some money, push along the company, and harvest that investment within two to six years.

“Some of the technologies we see coming out as raw intellectual properties from universities and national labs are so disruptive and transformative they require five to seven to ten years of development time to maximize value. Because they are answering hard problems from five to ten years out.”

Allied Minds has the ability to reach back to principal investors, the most notable of which is Investco, to write big checks when they’re required. This combined with their investor-to-CEO management model gives them the slack to see these investments through to fruition.

---

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Cachetown is a mobile app technology that uses your smartphone’s camera to turn the world into a video game via augmented reality — with lots of advertising potential for brands.

“Think Google Adwords, Super Mario Brothers meets Foursquare and augment that into the real world by location,” is how the company behind the service, Candy Lab, describes it.

The idea is that if you can create a game or some sort of incentive, you can use the world as a backdrop for advertising and promotional marketing. Sort of like putting up billboards and “coin boxes” whereever you point your camera. The service, the startup says, is perfect for events or location-based activities because it provides a level of interactive marketing that isn’t currently available through traditional advertising.

“When I first saw it, I thought ‘Wow, this is a great application for Google Glass,’” said Googler and startup guy emeritus Don Dodge in his onstage review of the startup at DEMO.”But I don’t see people walking around and holding their phones up.”

Andreessen Horowitz partner Frank Chen chimed in, saying, “I was at Disneyland and I saw a woman walking down Main Street holding up an iPad. She ran straight into a telephone pole.”

Those issues of form factor aside, Dodge concluded, “I think the first use of it will be location-based games. But eventually, location-based ads and prmotions will work very well.”

Founded in 2010, the San Diego, Calif.-based company has raised private funding from family members. Candy Labs is seeking to raise a $1.5 million funding round to help build out its Cachetown service. Check out the demo video below for a closer look at the service.

Cachetown is one of over 75 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Fall 2012 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After we make our selections, the chosen companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.

Angry Birds Space was OK, but it looks like an Iranian company has figured out what would make for a better sequel.

PenAR, a software company that specializes in augmented reality technologies, produced a very cool version of Angry Birds that makes it appear as if it is happening in 3D right in the room you’re standing in.

The app uses a technology called markerless augmented reality that lets a developer code in an image to use as a play field. In this case, PendAR (which means “Imagination” in Persian) used an Angry Birds poster as the computer-recognized pattern. The camera then reads the poster’s x-axis, y-axis, and z- axis and paints the 3D world on top of that.

“Just imagine, you can shoot the birds right on your desk,” PendAR CEO Mojtaba Tabatabaie told GamesBeat in an interview.

“We believe showing how this popular game, Angry Birds, would work with this technology shows people how much augmented reality could affect their lives in the future,” Tabatabaie said.

Take a look at the game in action:

Sadly, don’t look for this Angry Birds AR game in your smartphone’s app store.

“We don’t have any plans to publish the game,” Tabatabaie told GamesBeat. “We don’t have any connection with Rovio.”

Still, someone should get Rovio and PendAR together in a room to talk about this. I want to shoot augmented-reality birds into my ketchup during dinner time.

---

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

No matter how good a piece of clothing looks online, the reality often falls short. The joy of ripping open a package is destroyed when you discover that a particular shade of teal makes you look seasick or that leopard print jeans are a far better idea in theory.

Sometimes, you need to try things on to know if they are right, and this is a frustration shared by web retailers and customers alike.

Zugara was granted a patent today for its augmented reality technology that creates virtual dressing rooms for online consumers. The Webcam Social Shopper seeks to alleviate the element of the unknown from online shopping by enabling consumers to virtually try on clothes.

The platform generates a simulated view of what a wearable item will actually look like on your body using information from a web cam. The result is a digital mirror that reacts to gestures, motion, and voice controls, so you can twirl in your potential new party dress, or check out your butt in those shorts (no, it doesn’t look big).

Social shopping is also an element of the technology. Users can take pictures of their virtual ensembles and share them on their social networks.  Even further, the platform recreates the experience of shopping with friends. Multiple users, from multiple smart devices, can simultaneously browse, chat, try-on, comment.

“When you are going online to shop, you either see an item by itself or see it on a model that may not have your body type,” said CEO Matt Szymczyk. “You need to know how the item will really look on you, but it is not just about size. Shoppers want to see what colors match, how their skin looks in different garments, how a blouse will look with a pair of jeans they already own, and what their friends think.”

Often, the reason an outfit falls short is a certain je ne sais quoi. One ill-advised ruffle or latent fears of looking like a little boy could surprisingly make a purchase unwearable, and by the time you have dealt with disappointment and repacked the items for return, the convenience of online shopping is gone.

The team started out in the augmented reality space and realized that this technology could be powerfully leveraged to increase conversion rates for e-commerce providers. They developed the product into a tool that businesses can use to enhance her experience and drive sales. In July, European e-commerce platform PrestaShop integrated the Webcam Social Shopper, which brought its capabilities to 127,000 retailers.

According to their data, people who use WSS buy at 2 to 3 times the rates of “regular” shoppers, and engage with the site for longer periods of time. The direct clients of Zugara’s software are retailers and online apparel portals. For example, on the Barbie Dream Closet, the little girls can don a sparkly array of ensembles to see which strikes their fancy.

There are other comparable products out there, like Swivel, and even Cisco is developing a “StyleMe” product to play dress up in cyber land. However, this patent keeps Zugara’s technology protected, meaning they can publicly go to market without [a strong fear] of poaching.

While the primary intention may be practical (a la the effect of horizontal stripes on my torso), I am more interested in the entertaining options. For example, what do I look like in a Barbie lame princess gown? Or a silk kimono? Or a floor length Oscar de la Renta?

I may never get to attend the Oscar’s in real life, but I may be able to simulate what I would wear if I did.

Journey, the best-selling Playstation Network title, is considered one of the most artistic games released this year. It’s the tale of a wandering vagabond traversing a magnificent desert and, through a unique multiplayer system, meeting with one other player at a time to harrow through the massive levels hand-in-hand. Sony is commemorating exactly that with an art book of Journey, and the company held an event in Los Angeles to show off the visuals from the game as well as the artists behind it. I had a chance to attend and see the art that helped create the game, its unique character and landscape, and the public reaction to it.

Oh, and we’ll also be giving away a signed copy of The Art of Journey, which you can read more about below.

The event, which highlighted the visual design of Journey from the artwork of Matt Nava, Art Director at thatgamecompany, featured dozens of different pieces, including screenshots, pre-game renders, drawings, and even live paintings courtesy of BlueCanvas, which co-hosted the event. You can see pictures from the event in the gallery below, which includes much of the artwork that is in the The Art of Journey book. The spectacle was completely open to the public in the heart of downtown, and anyone over 21 could come in and see the gallery or even play the game on one of three stations. Many patrons clearly demonstrated that they had no idea what the game was — some likely didn’t know what a Playstation 3 was — but even then, viewers exhibited a certain fascination with the sparkling desert, the strange armless character that always seemed to stare into the distance, and the odd portraits of creatures unknown.

The gallery was a success. Nava and Jenova were busy signing copies of The Art of Journey most of the night, and a constant stream of newcomers shuffled in to see what was happening or to purchase the first copies of the art book. You can learn more about the creation of the book in the video below.

The Art of Journey will release later this month for $60 through BlueCanvas and other retailers, but the publisher has not set a hard release date yet. The book includes over 150 pages of art from the game, most of which aren’t screenshots, as well as a number of 3D augmented-reality simulations through a free smartphone app. Some pictures of those in action are in the gallery below. Finally, every copy of The Art of Journey includes a free download of the Journey soundtrack through the Playstation Network.

Interested in winning a copy of The Art of Journey, signed by Art Director Matt Nava and Game Director Jenova Chen? Click here to learn more!

---

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

SAN FRANCISCO — Intel executives are excited about the next refresh coming for the PC. Kirk Skaugen, the general manager of the PC Client business at Intel, said today at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco that “more innovation [is] coming in the next 18 months on the PC than you’ve seen in a decade.

Skaugen, pictured above, said that Intel and IDT have teamed up to produce wireless charging for laptops and PCs, allowing you to charge a device such as a phone (pictured) simply by putting it near a PC.

“Our goal is to eliminate wires from the PC,” Skaugen said.

The refresh is expected to begin on Oct. 26 with the launch of Windows 8, Microsoft’s new touch-oriented operating system, and continue through the next year or so. If it happens as expected, the refresh could generate $200 billion in annual sales for the computer industry.

Kevin Krewell, an analyst at The Lynley Group, said, “A lot of the innovation has to do with the new user interface, with touch, gesture and voice. All of the technologies have been around for a while. We are getting to a critical mass where people are used to touch and voice. The technologies are pervasive around us in things like Apple’s Siri. The PC is a natural place to incorporate those as well.”

He said the moves are clearly driven by concern that the PC is losing ground to tablets and smartphones. “Absolutely,” he said. “The whole platform development of Ultrabooks (thin and powerful laptops) is an attempt to mitigate the damage caused by tablets to the pc infrastructure.” But he doubts people will be excited about convertibles, which incorporate the tablet into a laptop.

Here’s the checklist of innovations coming for the personal computer:

• Windows 8 operating system with touchscreen controls. About 80 percent of people prefer touchscreens to other controls in tests by Intel, Skaugen said.
• Close-range depth tracking from a range of 6 inches to 3 feet, using SoftKinetics’ 10-finger recognition software and camera. Creative and SoftKinetic have created a camera that will debut in 2013 and eventually be built into a PC.
• All day battery life on a laptop.
• Voice recognition from Nuance. You can command your PC with your voice, dictate short sentences, and translate text to speech synthesis.
• 2D/3D augmented reality. Intel worked with Total Immersion to let you do things like try on a pair of sunglasses and see what they look like on your face, even if you’re doing it virtually via online shopping.
• Face analysis. A camera can recognize you and use that as your security password.
• A Perceptual Computing software development kit beta to enable developers to create new apps for the PC taking advantage of the above innovations.
• Intel’s fourth-generation Core microprocessor, code-named Haswell, will debut in the second half of 2013. It will have twice the computing power for the same amount of power consumption of today’s chips. A new version of the Core processors will operate in the range of 10 watts of power dissipation. That compares to 17 watts to 15 watts for Core processors today and 2 watts for Atom processors.
• In the next year, the number of Ultrabooks in the market will double from 70 today to more than 140.
• Convertible laptops, which will double as laptops or tablets, will debut in the near future.
• Better security, including anti-theft technology 2.0, which shows where your lost laptop is and hardware locks it if needed. Intel also has Identity Protection Technology so you can have a more secure social networking experience.
• Near-field communications. A short-range wireless technology allows for communication between a laptop and a mobile phone or tag.
• Support for the next-generation of high-definition video, with 4K resolution.

Their offspring is “Entrance by AOL”, a Lumia-only entertainment hub that combines content from AOL properties like Moviefone, Huffington Post Entertainment, and AOL Music.

Built with discovery in mind, the app’s linked interface allows users to explore connections between content without the need to launch another app. (That’s the “hub” part.)

More interesting, however, is the app’s augmented reality feature (pictured above), which overlays movie theater locations and screening times onto a user’s surroundings. (Sadly, we haven’t yet been able to try out the feature, but we’re hoping it’s as interesting as it sounds.)

As for Nokia’s strategy with the move, Entrance by AOL is meant as an added incentive for users to pick up the next crop of Lumia devices. For AOL, the app is an “entrance” into AOL’s stable of content, which is sure to get a lot of screen time among new Lumia owners.

We’ll have more in-depth impressions of the app in our coverage of this morning’s Nokia event in New York City.

Mike Suprovici, the head of mobile app developer Explorence, has one simple mission: to make playing outside fun again.

“I grew really frustrated with my friends taking to video games instead of going outside,” Suprovici told GamesBeat via email. “At the same time, I noticed that mobile sensors were becoming just as powerful as those in Nintendo’s Wii, if not more so.

“What if there was a way to bring the video game outside and into the real world using sensor-based play? Could we make these experiences as engaging as the Wii and Kinect? If so, we have the potential to make outdoor recreational activities as fun as popular video games.”

Suprovici cofounded Explorence in 2010 with Bill Gleim and Mark Thompson. The company launched its first two free iOS apps this summer: StreetDash and BullDash. Both use location services on a player’s phone, like Google Places and Foursquare, to present goals and track a player’s progress during a run, but the second game takes the idea a step further.

BullDash draws inspiration from the annual Running of the Bulls event in Pamplona, Spain. “You push start and before you know it, virtual bulls [are] chasing you,” Suprovici said. “Hurry, or you risk being trampled or gored. The longer you survive, the more coins you earn.”

You may be wondering whether BullDash requires you to keep looking at your iPhone to make sure you’re not about to get the horns — which would make your runs way more entertaining for anyone who sees you going by — but Suprovici explained that the game also includes sound cues: ”Once you plug in your headphones, the app surrounds you with immersive sound effects. You can hear the bulls as they get closer, crowd cheers, and people yelling.”

Explorence’s titles are the latest entries in the emerging augmented reality (AR) market. Sony and Nintendo include AR cards with their 3DS and PlayStation Vita handheld systems, and games like developer Tecmo’s Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir for the 3DS have built longer experiences around altering the player’s environment. But Suprovici believes that AR has a major flaw: “In its current form, AR changes behavior rather then complimenting it,” he says. “Most of the AR applications today are cool but not that useful.”

Suprovici believes that wearable interfaces like Google Glass will help AR transition from fad to functionality. In the meantime, Explorence has two or three more games coming out this year, and he hopes that apps like BullDash get people off of their couches.

“We want to educate people on the notion of outdoor video games,” he says. “Your smartphone has very sophisticated sensors that enable a wide array of interactive play in the real world. This is just the beginning. Also, as a byproduct, we hope the game will encourage people to exercise. One of the complaints is that running is boring. Running for your life? Not so boring.”

Does this mean that TheMostDangerousGameDash is headed to the App Store? To be honest, I’d probably try that.

---

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Attention, shoppers. IBM has unveiled an augmented reality mobile app that lets you pan store shelves with your smartphones to receive personalized product tips, recommendations, and coupons.

The app is one more example of a creative use of augmented reality, which blends digital data with real-world imagery. The app brings the benefits of digital commerce to traditional brick-and-mortar stores, where 92 percent of retail still takes place, according to market researcher Forrester Research.

As you enter a store, you can download the app on a smartphone or tablets, register for the service, and create a profile of features that matter to you, such as ingredients you’re allergic to or your favorite foods. Then, as you browse the aisles and point your phone’s video camera at merchandise, the app will recognize the products and overlay digital details on top of the images.

You’ll be able to see info such as ingredients, price, reviews, and discounts that apply that day. If you opt in, data from your social networks can be integrated into the data stream. If a friend reviewed a product that you’re looking at, the app will flag that review.

You can tell the app that you want a cereal brand that’s low in sugar, highly rated by consumers, and on sale at a low price. Then you pan a shelf of cereal boxes, and the app reveals which cereals meet the criteria.

“In the age of social media, consumer expectations are soaring, and people want information and advice about the products they’re going to buy,” said Sima Nadler, IBM Research’s retail lead. “By closing the gap between the online and in-store shopping experience, marketers can appeal to the individual needs of consumers and keep them coming back.”

The app is the result of work by IBM Research scientists in Haifa, Israel.

Retailers who adopt the app can connect with consumers by turning marketing into a welcomed service, not an intrusive one. The app can also help retailers understand consumers better, based on their likes and dislikes. And it could make loyalty programs and digital coupons more convenient for shoppers.

The app integrates with the retailer’s back-end computer system, powered by IBM Smarter Commerce software, which delivers info to the consumer’s device.

[Photo credit: Jon Simon for IBM]

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Graffiti has made its way into the digital age. Android and iOS app Stiktu can scan physical objects and add virtual artwork, words, and custom content to them. The brainchild of augmented reality company Layar, the app makes its worldwide début today.

The app originally launched in a handfull of European countries in late 2011. Now, anywhere in the world you can add your own form of personal graffiti without the worry of getting arrested.

Stiktu uses your phone’s camera to snap a photo, then offers you options to add stickers, words, paint, and whatever else you can dream up. It can also identify shapes of the objects you scan to easily add your own content.

While Stiktu gives you the option to share your creation with Twitter and Facebook, what’s really cool is that if someone else scans what you’ve tagged, they’ll be able to see it in their version of the app. Imagine conducting a 21st century scavenger hunt where you tag a landmark with a message for someone else to find. The romantic in me has visions of missed connections finding each other from a Stiktu message or perhaps an adorable wedding proposal.

“Stiktu opens tremendous new possibilities to interact with the physical world around us. At Layar, we want to democratize space and Stiktu is the app to help us reach that mission,” said Layar co-founder Raimo van der Klein in a company blog post.

Augmented reality, which bridges the divide between virtual and physical worlds, has crossed into a new frontier: print media.

Penguin Books recently unveiled a surprising partnership with Zappar App, an augmented reality entertainment channel, to bring four novels from the English Library to life. Augmented reality, known as “AR,”  is type of virtual reality that overlays objects and scenes in the real world with digital information.

To access the content, just download the free Zappar mobile app, available on Android and iOS, and select a Penguin novel on the drop-down menu. Point your smartphone camera at the cover of popular titles such as Moby Dick and Great Expectations to unlock an interactive and highly visual experience. Hover over the Moby Dick cover page, and a whale swims across your phone screen, as you’re prompted to “like” Penguin Books on Facebook.

Publishers have been experimenting with integrating AR for years (in 2010, GQ ran a series of enhanced Calvin Klein underwear ads), but this futuristic technology has not yet been incorporated into classic novels until now.

“Gimmicks are easy, compelling value-adds in transmedia are hard,” said Marshall Kirkpatrick, chief executive of Plexus Engine, on the topic of the AR-enhanced Penguin novels.

The jury’s still out on whether AR can help print publishers attract a younger generation of ADD-riddled readers.

Nicola Hill, marketing director for Penguin Press, is optimistic about the opportunity to turn static print into an interactive experience. Hill describes this partnership as an “inventive” and a “fresh publishing idea.”

But managing director for Zappar, Caspar Thykier, said augmented reality is in its nascent stage. According to Thykier, publishers should take AR with a pinch of salt. “We are taking a measured approach to this,” he said. “It would be crazy to say that we are revolutionizing publishing.”

Still, Thykier said there are limitless possibilities for AR. “It’s a bit of magic isn’t it?” he said. “It’s about exciting and surprising people with additional layers of content.”

Underwear ads are one thing, but there’s something unnatural about waving a smartphone over a classic work of fiction.

Experts say we’ll see a series of magnificent experiments over the next few years. “Most will fail,” said Chris Grayson, Director of Digital, humble.tv. “The hint of what we’re seeing on mobile today is a tease of what is to come.”