PTC Buys Qualcomm’s Vuforia to Add Augmented Reality to IoT Biz

Bruce V. Bigelow10/12/15Follow @bvbigelow

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In a day where EMC’s $67 billion sale to Dell dominated headlines, another New England company made a less attention-grabbing acquisition that advances its move into the “Internet of Things.”
PTC (NASDAQ: PTC), a Needham, MA-based company best known for its computer-aided design and product development software, said it’s buying Vuforia, Qualcomm’s vision-based augmented reality technology, for $65 million.
San Diego-based Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) has been developing Vuforia since 2010. As Qualcomm Vice President Jay Wright explained in 2011, Vuforia combines augmented reality software and hardware technologies so that 3-D virtual images and video content can be superimposed over the real world as it is viewed in real time through the camera of a smartphone or tablet.
At that time, Wright said Qualcomm was encouraging developers to create apps that could use Vuforia in mobile games, media and advertising, education, facial recognition, and navigation.
PTC sees Vuforia as the industry’s most advanced and widely adopted augmented reality platform. Mobile app developers in 130 countries support Vuforia, and have created more than 20,000 apps that have been downloaded more than 200 million times worldwide.
For all that effort, however, there have been precious few examples of mobile games or advertisements that became a runaway success because of the way they used augmented reality technology. In announcing the deal, Qualcomm and PTC highlighted how augmented reality would be coupled with PTC’s expertise in the Internet of Things (IoT) and analytics platforms.
While PTC has traditionally focused on developing 2-D and 3-D product design software and services to manage those products, the company has lately been emphasizing its role in the development of IoT products and services.
“Vuforia unlocks a world of possibilities for creating new ways to design products, to monitor and control products, and to instruct operators and technicians in the appropriate methods of use and service,” PTC says in a press release.
Meanwhile, Qualcomm has been looking for businesses it can shed as it tries to reorganize its operations following years of unrestrained growth. The wireless giant announced in mid-July that it would cut about 15 percent of its global workforce, or as many as 4,700 employees, as part of an initiative intended to shave about $1.1 billion in costs.
The deal is expected to close before the end of the year. Wright plans to move to PTC and continue running the Vuforia business, the companies said.

Bruce V. Bigelow is the editor of Xconomy San Diego. You can e-mail him at bbigelow@xconomy.com or call (619) 669-8788 Follow @bvbigelow

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EPIC -- Qualcom to sell Vuforia!!!???!!!!

It does not get bigger than this!
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/vuforia

ARToolKit Emerging AR Developers' Contest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're pleased to announce that the ARToolKit Emerging AR Developers' Contest has officially begun! This contest is open to anyone over the age of 16 and under the age of 24 by 12/31/2015. $19,000 in cash prizes will be awarded in three different categories: Mobile applications (iOS, Android, Windows) Desktop applications (Mac, Windows or Linux) ARToolKit for Unity LEARN MORE For Official Rules and the Entry form, please visit artoolkit.org

www.ARToolKit.org© 2015 ARToolKit. All rights reserved. © DAQRI | DAQRI 1201 W 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90017 Home | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe | Update Subscription Preferences

AugmentedReality ART

Howdy Folks,

Please come out to this years Groundswell at Frederic Church’s Olana State Historic Site next Saturday Sept. 19th 1-5pm and look through my fuzzy ThingOscope.

It will blow your mind. #AugmentedReality

There is a great line up of artists for this one-day event culminating in a performance by New Orleans own Quintron and his Weather Warlock at 4pm.

…artists will reflect on and react to Olana and its integral viewshed as an ambitious and early environmental work.

Check it out.

Tickets and info here.

Support local radio WGXC.

Hope to see you there.

*** Also coming up is the new Builders Association Xtra-multi media performance Elements of Oz opening Sept. 26 - Oct. 4 ! More info soon… #AR

John

@JohnCleater

www.cleater.com

Jeremy Bailey is teaching the Mobile AR Grad Class this Fall- You can sit in!!

Jeremy Bailey is teaching the Mobile AR Grad Class this Fall- You can sit in!!

Friday 2-5, IDM 

Also Mark has reserved the motion capture room on Fridays so if you want to use it please talk to Mark. Priority goes to current students. 

DM-GY 6133 MOBILE AUGMENTED REALITY STUDIO

This course examines the affect of augmented reality [AR] on our bodies. Augmented reality is changing the way we understand our world in relationship to software by overlaying our physical reality with real-time, interactive digital experiences. Augmented reality has traditionally focused on the ways in which software might adapt our physical environment but this class will focus on how it affects our bodies – our behaviours and our identities. The body will be examined as both a software interface and a mutable object, capable of taking on new forms and capabilities. Students will gain a strong understanding of both the theory and technology necessary to create innovative experiences that push our collective understanding of the body as software. 

Call for Submissions

Simulacra, by Karina Smigla-Bobinski - CURRENTS 2015

Currents New Media Festival Call for Submissions for our 2016 program! The 7th Annual Santa Fe International New Media Festival will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA June 10th – June 26, 2016. Deadline for Submissions: November 15, 2015 Submission Guidelines CURRENTS’ curators look for the unique ways artists use technology as a tool for expression and communication, and ways that scientists, programmers and developers are integrating the arts and aesthetics into their explorations and projects. The citywide Festival will be held in venues throughout Santa Fe: El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, the Center for Contemporary Arts, the digital dome facility at the Institute for American Indian Arts, Santa Fe Art Institute, Peters Projects, Axle Contemporary, Warehouse 21 and the Santa Fe Railyard Plaza. In addition to exhibitions CURRENTS 2016 offers panel discussions, workshops and multimedia performances. All exhibitions and most events are free to the public. This years categories are: New Media Installation Outdoor Architectural Mapping and New Media Installations Single Channel Video and Animation Multimedia Performance Fulldome Experimental or Interactive Documentary Web Art, Art Gaming, Mobile Device Apps Oculus Rift Robotics 3D Printing Interactive Installations for Children Partner calls: Axle Contemporary New Media New Mexico Click here to enter your submission!

Jul GDG Meetup: Google Cloud Spin, VR & Project Tango

This looks like fun!

Jul GDG Meetup: Google Cloud Spin, VR & Project Tango

NYC-GDG

Added by Nitya Narasimhan

Wednesday, July 29, 2015
5:30 PM

Google Chelsea Market Office
75 Ninth Ave, Floor 2
New York, NY 10017

ARTICLES

An Open-Source Guide to Help You Build Your Own Graffiti Drone

• by Hrag Vartanian on June 30, 2015
• 1

Katsu’s Icarus One drone in a New York City subway. (via icarusone.com)

Artist Katsu has been working hard at extending the language of public mark making, and his latest experiments have been drone-based. Long known for his distinctive, large-scalefire extinguisher tags that trail across whole walls, his spray-painting flying machines are the latest evolution of his interest in “things that can make marks,” he tells Hyperallergic.

Icarus One (via icarusone.com)

“It must come from a childhood spent drawing, making my own fireworks, trespassing, and living in video games,” he says. “Like the video game, the drone offers an unusual flesh-and-blood experience. It feels real, it feels right. Like an expansion pack for my body. It probably has a little to do with the looming singularity. Drones will replace us in the physical space. They’ll make art and get high and fix the environment. I hope.”

Named after the Greek mythological figure who flew too close to the sun with wings made of feathers and wax, Icarus One is the “world’s first open-source paint drone.” A page of instructions on the project’s website offers schematics to 3D-print your own parts, links to places to buy necessary elements, and even the option to buy one fully assembled.

Katsu’s Dronescape at Coney Art Walls (photo courtesy the artist)

The artist most recently used his specially designed drone to paint a “dronescape” atConey Art Walls in Brooklyn’s Coney Island neighborhood. The result is a simple and moody landscape on a handball wall that consists of a lightly dusted blue sky and hazy green hills. “The series of paintings I am making now reflects this very short period of time before drones are able to paint like printers,” he says. “It’s the beauty in simplicity and crudeness. Like the beauty in a child’s drawing.”

Katsu foresees a central role for drones in the “new post-human art” environment. “These are our new limbs, the internet, the smartphone, the drone …. It’s only in its infancy but the Icarus drone will eventually open the doors to precision drawing and painting on a scale and speed like we’ve never experienced.”

Icarus One painting the Dronescape at Coney Art Walls (image courtesy the artist)

He sees his work with drones as a type of “daydreaming with technology. A weird subconscious space where vandalism takes you. The euphoric feeling of marking things …. For me the drone raises the issue of authorship and anonymity in art and graffiti. A feeling of privacy. Imagine drones anonymously drawing abstract works on walls around the city. Or vandals using them with programmed missions. Drones that are untraceable to owners. Drones without identities. Cyber crimes in the physical.”

A detail of Icarus One painting on a wall (image viaicarusone.com)

He’s already working on the next generation of Icarus with his friend Maddy Varner, which, he explains, will have “eyes.”

The implication of the Icarus drone is that the function of the artist will eventually be automated after the right program or algorithm is created to propagate her or his ideas and designs.

“[The drone project] hasn’t changed me as an artist. It has however mutated my perception of self,” he says. “I see my reflection phone in hand, drone in hand (or on back). I feel I have reach. My drone paintings can take larger form — 100-foot, shit, 300-foot-long paintings.”

You have to wonder if Katsu’s evolving family of drones, like their namesake, will overstep their limitations. The Greek legend recounts the tale of a giddy Icarus who, overcome by hubris, flew too close to the sun and melted the wax of his wings before plunging into the sea to his death. Considering the illegality of graffiti in most cities and increasingly stringent regulation of drone usage, it’s not hard to imagine the penalties that spray-painting drones could rack up.

“The drone paintings are a look into the science of painting, the logic of it,” Katsu says. “Drones are used as expendable replacements for people. I think that this project gives them a new meaning. It gives them a certain warmth you can commend. It also gives them a warmth you want to beat, arrest, and punish.”

Tagged as: Coney Art Walls, Coney Island, drones, graffiti, Katsu

magic leap --- the SDK, “It’s real!”’

3Jun

Magic Leap Harnesses Neal Stephenson for an Augmented Reality Announcement

‘Onstage alongside CEO Rony Abovitz and Chief Futurist/superstar sci-fi novelist Neal Stephenson, Magic Leap’s Chief Creative Officer Graeme Devine said he had a secret to share before revealing plans for the AR platform. “We are going to start training developers on this” Devine said before encouraging developers to go visit its site and send a request for access. He later excitedly tweeted about the SDK, “It’s real!”’

- See more at: http://mezbreezedesign.com/2015/06/03/magic-leap-harnesses-neal-stephenson-for-an-augmented-reality-announcement/#sthash.agitK8ks.dpuf - See more at: http://mezbreezedesign.com/2015/06/03/magic-leap-harnesses-neal-stephenson-for-an-augmented-reality-announcement/#sthash.agitK8ks.dpuf

WSJ -- Apple Buys German Augmented-Reality Firm Metaio

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APPLE

Apple Buys German Augmented-Reality Firm Metaio

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Associated Press

Apple has acquired German augmented-reality firm Metaio.

Apple confirmed the acquisition with its standard response when it buys a company. “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” said an Apple spokesman.

Metaio has worked on a technology that allows people wearing Google GOOGL -1.42%Glass-like eyewear to make any real world surface into a virtual touch screen. It also created software to let developers create tablet apps that flash repair instructions across the screen when the tablet’s camera is pointed at machines such as car engines or a printer.

The acquisition comes a few months after Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Gene Munster said Apple has a small team exploring augmented reality technology. He argued that Apple could help develop AR products that appeal more to consumers than products like Google Glass.

Apple news site 9to5mac reported earlier this week that Apple is working on adding augmented reality features to its Maps application. The feature would allow a user to point an iPhone camera down a street and it would overlay information about restaurants, cafes and other local businesses in that vicinity. The acquisition was earlier reported by 9to5mac.

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