AR Contest to showcase exciting uses for
Augmented Reality based on Open Data
October 4 2011, Basel, SwitzerlandAR-4-Basel, a project dedicated to developing innovative, new mobile Augmented Reality (AR) experiences based on City of Basel data, today announced 15 new partners and many exciting prizes for the Augmented Reality App Challenge. The Challenge is a contest for Augmented Reality developers whose winners will be announced on October 25 during a gala event in Basel. The competition is open to all AR developers using any technology that will showcase the very best of mobile AR innovation based on open data of the city of Basel.
To inspire application developers’ creativity, the project team and City of Basel partners are offering access to a huge range of geographic and point of interest (POI) data, on which to base submitted applications. Developers entering the Challenge will have access to data sets from the Land and Survey office of Basel, Basel Tourism Bureau, Industrielle Werke Basel and GTA Geoinformatik GmbH, consisting of thousands of key POIs and tourist attractions in the City. This will enable the development of richly detailed AR experiences that will engage consumers as well as professional users.
“The data partners’ support demonstrates the growing understanding that AR is valuable for visualizing information by citizens and tourists with smartphones,” said Christine Perey, chair of the AR-4-Basel project.
“The level of detail in the POI data sets that have been made available by City of Basel partners will enable the creation of some of the richest and most interesting AR experiences to date. This contest is a genuine example of the innovation and creativity emerging at the intersection of open data, mobile technology and AR tools.”
Any experience created and submitted before Oct 15 will be tested in the city by volunteers such as citizens, city employees, faculty and students at the University of Applied Sciences Institute of Visual Communications, University of Basel Computer Science as well as the IMI Hotel Management School.
The contest is open to submissions until 15 October after which time respected industry judges will select winners.
Developers named App Challenge Winners can look forward to receiving a number of valuable prizes, donated by project partners, including:
- A Weekend for Two in Basel donated by Basel Tourism
- A one-year commercial license to metaio’s juanio Plugin
- Ten annual licenses to AR Toolworks’s AR Toolkit
- Five licenses to Layar Vision
- Ten licenses to BuzzAR’s commercial visual search platform
- Five licenses to Beyond Reality’s In2AR Flash AS3 Library for Augmented Reality
- Tickets to important Augmented Reality conferences such as the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), AR Today and Augmented Reality Event (ARE)
Mobile AR is a rapidly growing market, with analysts Juniper Research forecasting that the global market for these applications will reach more than $1.5 billion by 2015.
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AR-4-Basel App Challenge Entry
Developers wishing to enter the Application Challenge should use this form to submit their application and gain access to the City of Basel data sets. For more information on the prizes available to developers please visit the prizes page
AR-4-Basel Partners
AR-4-Basel Project warmly thanks the partners, who have been invaluable in making the App Challenge happen:
AR Toolworks, Basel Tourism, Beyond Reality, BuzzAR, Department of Public Works and Transportation of the Canton of Basel-Stadt-Division of Urban Planning, City and Canton of Basel-Land and Survey Office, FHNW- Institute for Design and Art Research, FHNW-Institute of Visual Communications, GTA Geoinformatik, IMI University Centre – International Hotel Management Institute Switzerland, Industrielle Werke Basel, Layar, metaio, PEREY Research & Consulting, TU Berlin-Geoinformation Science Department, University of Basel Computer Science, Wikitude
Contact
Christine Perey
AR-4-Basel chair
Tel: +41 79 436 68 69
Email: cperey@perey.com
http://www.AR-4-Basel.com