The Scrying Game- July, 2010

Well, I haven't used any "witchy magic" metaphors, lately, so I figured I'd throw it in for what will be the first of a monthy review of "The State of Consumer Ready" Augmented Reality. It's not based on any hard-numbers, (although c0dehex does have a Pro Analyst on the team...more later). It's based of web developments over the past 30 days.

Yes, I know the first "30 day" review dates back further than this tender young blog, but we have to start somewhere, right?

Based on July's articles, here's the list of who/what to keep an eye on. There's plenty of "movers and shakers", but these are the ones that stand out.



Tech Trend:Tagless AR. Sigh, although we'll see QR codes, and proprietary ARTags, the future belongs to tagless. If anything, for a while, products will continue to use ar tags  to alert users about ar content, or QR code their web address of download URL, we'll (overall) see less black-and white MRC, and more picture based AR.

The Big Dog : Total Immersion


Total Immersion, with their D'Fusion technology, proven consumer-ready marketplace products, tagless ar, and impressive client list, are sitting at the top..at least for the moment. Having experienced their Avatar iTag and 7-Eleven/WWE augmented Rey Mysterio mask firsthand. I can firmly state that TI, if they keep their momentum, will stay on top for the forseeable future.

"The" Browser/ Techs: Layar

The Layar Browser has become almost the "default" ar browser.

With it's ever expanding apps and implementation , Layar is firmly planted, providing intuitive user experiences.

Hottest contender: Metaio. Utilizing Junaio Glue, this tagless tech , if embraced could become "the adobe flash" of ar browsers. Even Adobe has big news, but imo, they're arriving to the party, a bit late.



Most Augmented Country: The U.K.

Yup. Home of tea and crumpets. Maybe it's all the rain, that keeps them indoors, coding a rainless augmented reality. Recent Augmented Reality for the United Kingdom include Cassette Playa's AR fashion show, Conspiracy for Good, and Museum of London's StreetMuseum, ( to name a few)



Smartphone Wars: Droid X.

Yup, giving this one to Droid, atm. (no blatant favoritism, here). With the iPhone's market dominance you'd think this one would be easy, but their recent bungles,and Droid X's recent sellout, I'm leaning towards droid, and the growing droid market, for both phones and apps.

Hottest contender : Samsung Galaxy S. The Force is strong, in this one.




"WOW Item of the month: Toxin Labs Augmented Business Cards.

This was a tough call. A lot of "New", "now" and "wow" to cover, so it's about lasting impressions, and I think out of all that came this way, the AR business cards are the one that sit on top of my "Wow, *have* to get one of those" list.


 Where do we go from here? Time is the revealer of all truths.

 Go, and see.