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Wikitude 3 and Wikitude.Me Announced By Mobilizy

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wikitude3Someone has been busy! In a Press Release published yesterday, mobile app developer Mobilizy killed two apps with one code, announcing the launch of Wikitude 3 and Wikitude.Me. The application fits into the wonderful world of Augmented Reality (AR) we keep hearing so much about. It is essentially a “World Browser” that allows location-based information to be overlayed atop your phone’s display when viewing the actual world around you.

Perhaps the best way to explain is through a video demonstration:

The huge news here is the combination of Augmented Reality and active contribution through geo-tagging points of interest. Even more awesome is that Wikitude supports logging in using third party accounts such as Yahoo!, Google, Twitter, Facebook and other OpenID partners.

wikitudeme

The Augmented Reality space is heating up in regards to AR Browsers… but I’d love to see AR implementations in more uniquely targeted opportunities for example applying it to an App like SkyMap or Augmented Reality games. Self-serving interests aside, the folks at WikiTude have done a great job and the app is worth checking out. Here is the full Press Release launched yesterday:

Mobilizy releases WIKITUDE 3 and an enhanced version of Wikitude.me

SALZBURG, Austria: AUGUST 26TH 2009. Mobilizy GmbH introduces WIKITUDE 3 for the Android OS and relaunches a completely new Wikitude.me geo-tagging platform. WIKITUDE 3 is the latest release of the Wikitude World Browser, the premiere mobile AR application for Android, which displays location-based, geo-specific content in a real-time augmented reality camera view on a smart-phone using GPS & gravimetric (compass) sensors.

WIKITUDE 3 is the latest release of the Wikitude World Browser, which presents the user with data about their surroundings, nearby landmarks, and other points of interest by overlaying information on the camera-view of a smartphone bringing information from the internet into context with the real-world. The Mobilizy development team has listened to it’s users and implemented several new features to improve and enhance the user experience within WIKITUDE 3. New features include:

  • Full Integration with the Wikitude.me user-generated, geo-tagging platform
  • An enhanced User Interface (UI) which tightly aligns with the UI in the forthcoming iPhone version of the Wikitude World Browser
  • Improved methods to enhance perspective and depth of perception of POIs (Smaller POIs indicate further distance, larger POIs indicate close proximity)
  • The search and viewing-distance for POIs can be regulated by the user with a sleek slider bar
  • New & Improved filter options allow end-users to choose which content overlays and POI categories are displayed
  • Improved methods for locating POIs through search terms
  • An improved radar-overlay displaying the user’s current viewing direction and POIs within a specified radius
  • An entirely new “Beam-Me” feature which tele-ports the user to a pre-defined geo-location, allowing the user to experience a specified geo-data overlay;

Currently, WIKITUDE World Browser 3.0 offers data overlay sources from Wikipedia, *Qype and user-generated content from Mobilizy’s Wikitude.me (www.wikitude.me)

Wikitude.me
Mobilizy GmbH has partnered with Netociety Ltd., a specialist in enterprise social software, to develop an enhanced geo-tagging experience that empowers individuals with the tools to create POIs and location-specific, hyper-linked digital content which can be viewed through the WIKITUDE World Browser. According to Markus Tripp, the project manager of Wikitude, “Wikitude.me is the first platform which allows individuals to actively contribute to augmented reality. This is an amazing and huge step forward in the AR industry!”

Wikitude.me provides an open, easy-to-use, free mobile information platform for anybody who wants to access or provide location based and situation-specific information or services via mobile phones. Basically, Wikitude.me can be understood as a platform which encourages community-driven content creation to which anybody can contribute freely, very similar to the philosophy of Wikipedia, but for mobile augmented reality. With regards to intellectual property, Wiktude.me is implemented under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License.

To get started with Wikitude.me platform users can login through existing 3rd party accounts such as Yahoo!, Google, Twitter and Facebook. The ability to add points of interest and “geo-tag the world” is done through any Internet-enabled device, such as a netbook, laptop, desktop or a smartphone like the Apple iPhone, Nokia N97 and the Android handsets which are available today. For each point of interest there is a title, description (250 chars), category, language, and link to a URL. Each POI that is geo-tagged on the Wikitude.me platform is also cross-posted on Twitter ( http://twitter.com/wikitude_me ) to inform the global Wikitude community of the creation of fresh geo-content.

Mobilizy GmbH believes that the future of mobile augmented reality (Mobile AR) literally rests in the hands of the users. Our team can develop the infrastructure for Mobile AR experiences such as WIKITUDE 3 and platforms like Wikitude.me, but ultimately the end users will determine how mobile AR will be shaped. Mobilizy is constantly researching and developing ways to improve the WIKITUDE mobile AR experience by placing the user at the center of our development process
NOTE: POI data created by early-adopters of the beta version of Wikitude.me will be migrated to the new platform early next week.

About Mobilizy:
Mobilizy GmbH is an early pioneer in commercial augmented reality and the creator of the WIKITUDE World Browser, which is the first practical augmented reality (AR) mobile application. Available on Android (Coming soon to iPhone). Mobilizy engages in the research and in-house development of location-based services and augmented (mixed) reality experiences for smartphones. Mobilizy is one of the leading innovators in developing new methods and applications for data acquisition and exchange in the emerging market of augmented reality.

About Netociety:
Netociety Ltd. is a UK-Austrian based software development firm helping companies customize, implement and adopt social software, collaboration tools and best practice. Netociety facilitates the development of collaboration systems for engaging with customers, employees and partners. Improvements in innovation, change, marketing, and productivity efforts are focused on.

WIKITUDE: The World IS the Platform!

Rob Jackson
I'm an Android and Tech lover, but first and foremost I consider myself a creative thinker and entrepreneurial spirit with a passion for ideas of all sizes. I'm a sports lover who cheers for the Orange (College), Ravens (NFL), (Orioles), and Yankees (long story). I live in Baltimore and wear it on my sleeve, with an Under Armour logo. I also love traveling... where do you want to go?

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6 Comments

  1. Just too bad the Android (HTC?) compass is so bad. It’s inaccurate, it updates rarely and basically looks bad.

  2. @Mark Gjol
    Troll much? There are two aspects to the compass:
    1) The hardware in the phone (HTC or other hardware manufacturer).
    2) The software displaying the output of the compass in a user friendly way.

    Accuracy would relate to the hardware, and it looking bad would relate to the software.

    I have a G1 and the hardware compass is sufficiently accurate for everything I have used it for and applications like Orienteer look just fine in my opinion.

  3. Oddly enough, the compass in the HTC Dream actually has moving parts which can get stuck. If the compass does get stuck, giving the phone’s chin a whack can unstick it. I didn’t believe it to start with (I assumed the compass would be completely solid-state), but it turns out it’s true.

  4. @Android User
    Why is it somebody is a troll when they express an opinion you don’t agree with?

  5. Amazing app, but not available in my country as Android Market app is not available. Any idea any where we can directly download this app ?

  6. The earlier versions of Wikitude used to be fairly zippy. This one I’m afraid is dog slow. I have turned off all layers except Wikitude. It still brings up two windows and many of them from Amzon EC2 which is no speed demon. Was much better when it was simpler. UI controls like the slider etc. also lag behind. So does the data points as you move the phone.

    All in all, a pretty bad update.

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