Raleigh, NC (7/7/2009) – Eight pioneering augmented reality companies have joined together to form the Augmented Reality (AR) Consortium, an international group focused on developing tools, technology, applications, and content for AR. The founding companies are all high-profile innovators in the field of AR and hope that their combined efforts will result in greater cooperation between members, faster market penetration, robust technical standards, and a strong focus on the end-user’s experience.
“Augmented Reality is the blend between the real and the virtual. The transformational power of AR is great enough to change the way we work, play, communicate, interact, and experience media,” said AR Consortium Chairman Robert Rice, who is also the CEO of Neogence Enterprises. “Some of the core technologies have been in development for more than a decade, but a new convergence of powerful mobile devices, recognition and tracking algorithms, and an enormous amount of geolocative information open the door to widespread use. We recognized the need for early innovators and entrepreneurs to work together to step through that door.”
Augmented Reality is identified as one of the top ten most disruptive new technologies for 2008-2012 by Gartner Research and is expected to be used by more than 30% of the mobile workforce by 2014. Gartner defines disruptive technology as one that causes a major change in the “accepted way of doing things,” including business models, processes, revenue streams, industry dynamics, and consumer behavior.
“We are excited about the open forum the Consortium provides to discuss emerging markets, standards and protocols, and a collaborative industry roadmap,” said Ori Inbar, CEO of Ogmento and President of the Consortium. “This is a unique opportunity to share ideas with other world leaders and pioneers at the earliest stage of what promises to be a digital renaissance.”
Augmented Reality, especially when combined with mobile devices and smart phones, has applications in nearly every industry and can revolutionize advertising, entertainment, education, military and emergency services, architecture, medicine, manufacturing, business, conferencing, navigation, and tourism.
ABOUT AUGMENTED REALITY
Augmented Reality blends interactive media with the real world in a contextual and localized format. AR is unique compared to other technologies as it represents a convergence of ubiquitous computing, semantic and meta-data, mobile computing, contextual media, and locative or geospatial content.
This represents a true paradigm shift in media on the same level as the introduction of print, radio, television, and the internet itself. It has the potential to fundamentally change the way people interact with computers, the world around us, and each other.
The current most common implementations of Augmented Reality use printed patterns or markers and streaming video from a webcam to create interactive 3D media overlays that appear to exist in the real world. Many companies are beginning to embrace AR as a new advertising and marketing channel.
ABOUT THE AUGMENTED REALITY CONSORTIUM
The AR Consortium was founded in June 2009 to facilitate the development and advancement of augmented reality technologies for the global market. Founding members of the Consortium include Int13, Metaio, Mobilizy, Neogence Enterprises, Ogmento, SPRX Mobile, Tonchidot, and Total Immersion.
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