Blog: united-states

Microsoft Demos Layar on Windows 7 Phone at MIX11

Two More ARt Exhibitions Opening in April

Two Virtual ARt Exhibitions Powered by Layar Opening in April

Find Great Local Deals with Anca 3D’s Groupon Layer

Letter From the CEO: Exciting News for Layar

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Adriane Goetz April 15, 2011

This week Layar attended Microsoft’s MIX11 event at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, where the corporate vice president of Windows Phone, Joe Belfiore, showed a demo of the Layar app running on Windows Phone 7 during his keynote, making Layar quite possibly the first Augmented Reality application to run on the Windows Phone 7 platform!

The demo was shown to support Windows Phone 7’s new “Mango” update’s features, which support Augmented Reality applications by allowing developers to access motion sensors (namely the accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and location sensors) as well as the camera.

To demonstrate Mango’s new AR capabilities, Microsoft’s implementation of the Layar browser showed a layer called “Tweets @ MIX11” that displayed tweets from the conference. While no official plans to offer Layar in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace have been put into motion yet, the demo shows that the platform is now well-suited to support sensor-intensive applications like Layar.

This video is a short clip of the 2-hour keynote, but you can watch the presentation it its entirety via Channel 9.

Would you like to see Layar on Windows Phone 7? Leave a comment!

Permalink: www.layar.com/news/blog/263

Adriane Goetz April 6, 2011

Image from the Gradually Melt the Sky exhibition invitation.

Last week we wrote about two Augmented Reality art shows opening this month in Philadelphia. Well, East Coasters, you can add two more to the list.

Some of Layar’s most innovative and active “ARtists” in the US, including Mark Skwarek, Will Pappenheimer and John Craig Freeman (along with other, internationally based, members of Manifest.AR like Sander Veenhof) kick off a new exhibition this Friday at Devotion Gallery in Brooklyn called Gradually Melt the Sky.

The exhibition runs from April 8 - May 1, and featured ARtwork includes a visualization of water contamination in the Williamsburg/Bushwick neighborhoods, a “Parade to Hope” and a re-creation of the 1989 Tiananman Protest.

The ARtists will then move these and other works to Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) from April 22 - May 8 for the Boston Cyberarts Festival. If you’re in the Boston area for the event, you can access the mobile site and ManifestAR layer here.

Permalink: www.layar.com/news/blog/259

Adriane Goetz March 31, 2011

“Miro Alien Chest-Burster” by Jon Rafman at the VPAP@PIFA AR exhibition in Philadelphia.

While there doesn’t appear to be an “Augmented Reality Awareness Month” yet, April is looking like a strong candidate. Besides the lovely weather here in Amsterdam and in many parts of the world (ideal for mobile AR experiences), there are already two Augmented Reality art exhibitions (in 3 locations) using the Layar platform so far this month.

The first runs from April 7-May 1 in Philadelphia, PA as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA). This exhibition is a collaboration between Breadboard, a hybrid program at the University City Science Center dedicated to exploring the intersection of art, science and technology, and Layar Partner VPAP (Virtual Public Art Project).

VPAP@PIFA features 25 works of art placed strategically around around the city (like on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, for instance). These 3D AR models include, but are not limited to, a giant alien snake (see image, right), a deformed foot that changes color, and a giant squid.

Mark Skwarek‘s “Occupation Forces” at the (Un)seen Sculptures exhibit in Sydney/Melbourne Australia.

Meanwhile, another ARt exhibition called (Un)seen Sculptures kicks off on April 9 in Sydney, Australia as part of the Surry Hills Festival then reopens in Melbourne on April 30.

The exhibition was organized by Australian new media artist Warren Armstrong and features 3D models created by 13 artists from across the globe, including a robot army (see image, left) a memorial for Japan, and a colony of hallucinogenic toads that copulate and then die.

You won’t be able to see the models yourself unless you’re physically present at the exhibition locations, but if you do go to one of these events, send us your screenshots! (content@layar.com)

Congratulations to all the artists, veteran Layar developers and new, for their phenomenal work. These are some of the best 3D models we’ve seen on Layar yet!

Permalink: www.layar.com/news/blog/256

Adriane Goetz March 10, 2011

Groupon offers daily deals in your area.

While coupon-clipping is a practice generally reserved for those who still pay for a print newspaper subscription, collective-buying companies like Groupon and Living Social are growing rapidly. Both companies also now have mobile apps that allow you to view and purchase daily deals on-the-go and redeem them digitally (saving time and trees, yay!).

Layar developer and Anca 3D co-founder Juan de la Torre (a recent Canadian transplant from Colombia) used Groupon’s open API to create a layer that displays nearby Groupon deals. You can search by keyword (like “restaurant,” for example) and even purchase deals from inside the layer by signing in with your Groupon account information.

Currently, the Groupon API is only available in the US and Canada, so the layer is only available in those countries as well.

The Groupon by Anca 3D layer shows you daily Groupon deals in your area.

The ability to not only see how close Groupon’s daily deals are to your current location, but to also tap through and purchase the deal directly from the AR view would be a great added feature for Groupon’s official mobile app, especially because the already functional, well-branded layer is an ideal candidate for Layar Player integration.

Hopefully Groupon will get on board and add de la Torre’s AR content to its existing app!

Anca 3D is a Columbia and Canada-based Augmented Reality development company co-founded by Juan de la Torre and Andres Cardoso. The company provides AR solutions for offline, online and mobile platforms.

You can contact Anca 3D via @anca3d_AR on Twitter or email Juan de la Torre at juan.delatorre@anca3d.com.

Click here to launch this layer on your mobile device.

Permalink: www.layar.com/news/blog/245

Rhymo November 16, 2010

Today is a big day for Layar. In fact, it may be our biggest yet.

It is with great excitement that we announce that Layar has closed a series B funding round of €10 million. Additionally, we are very proud to welcome Intel Capital as our newest investor.

The last 18 months has been amazing for us. Having the opportunity to build a company that is bringing Augmented Reality into the lives of people all around the world has been a blast. It is truly a dream come true to now be able to continue working on our goal of making Augmented Reality the most exciting and engaging content on any smartphone.

Along with this news, we wanted to take the opportunity to share a bit more about our plans for the Layar platform and what you can expect from us in the coming years. Here are a few questions and answers about where Layar is going in the near future.

What does Layar hope to achieve? We want to bring impactful Augmented Reality content into people’s everyday lives. Let’s have a closer look at some of the words and phrases in this simple sentence.

“Bring” - This means that Layar is handling the transportation of content and connecting publishers and users on as many mobile platforms as possible. Soon, we will launch the Layar Player, an SDK that will bring Augmented Reality content to any iPhone application. But we don’t only want to be facilitators; we also want to help users discover the Layar content that is right for them at the moment they need it.

“Impactful” - We believe that Augmented Reality in its very core is designed to deliver experiences that can truly touch people. Remember the quote from Confucius? “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Augmented Reality is the closest digital experience to “doing” that there is today. We will continue to invest in capabilities that offer our developers the tools to create the most exciting mobile digital experiences.

“Into people’s everyday lives” - Augmented Reality is in its infancy, much like television was before the growth of massively successful content formats like soaps, live sporting events and reality TV. It’s also comparable to YouTube before we all realized that we love to watch videos of kittens. At Layar we don’t like to assume. We don’t know which formats will be successful in the medium of Augmented Reality. Therefore, we are structuring our platform in such a way that will allow for the successful formats to naturally emerge.

So, what’s next for Layar? The next phase is all about content. In the last year we have built a global platform for Augmented Reality. The coming period is about identifying the content formats that can attract and build an audience. We will not wait passively but will be actively involved in supporting our publishers in this process.

Is Layar packing its bags for Silicon Valley? Yes and no. We really like it in Amsterdam, and we plan to stay here and expand our team here. We will, however, be opening a U.S. office in San Francisco soon. If you are interested in joining the Layar family in the Bay Area, here are a few of our American openings.

What are the key projects you are focusing on right now? With our previous funding round we grew to 25-30 people. This was still manageable with a relatively small management team. Now that we are passing 40 people we are investing in structuring and strengthening the management team and building a project organization focused on throughput. We are also focusing on building a team and process around user research and analytics into the Layar organization.

Will Layar implement Computer Vision? Yes. Computer Vision is necessary to deliver truly awesome visual experiences. One of the first implementations will be Image Recognition capabilities within a layer.

What are the first things Layar has done with the money? We have hired some great people: Chris, Sunitha, Ivo and Klasien. If you want to know what they do at Layar, just keep reading our blog. Chris, our new Web Producer, is authoring a nice blog series profiling members of the Layar team. You can see the first few entries in the series about team members Pambos and Olivier on the official Layar blog right now.

On what will you spend most of the money? On the salaries of the amazing people which are part of the Layar family. We are growing fast!

We stand at the beginning of our most exciting period yet and we hope you join us for the ride!

Raimo van der Klein, Layar CEO

Permalink: www.layar.com/news/blog/202

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