IBM announced a new ‘augmented reality’ smart mobile application set to change the way fans access information and keep up to date at Australian Open 2010. The application is based on the successful AR app “Wikitude”.

The IBM Seer Application has been designed to allow fans real-time access to tournament and venue specific information wherever they are in Melbourne Park. The application takes a live view from a GPS-enabled Android mobile phone and superimposes content and data associated with various points of interest such as live scores, match information and catering facilities, onto the screen, providing a more dynamic and immersive Australian Open experience for tennis fans.

The IBM Seer Application, first seen and developed by Mobilizy at Wimbledon 2009, acts as a real-time guide and interactive map of the 2010 tournament, allowing users to see what others can’t, and bringing them closer to the game. Anyone with an Android mobile phone can download the IBM Seer Application from the Android Marketplace App Store.

From tennis to food courts, points of interest throughout Melbourne Park and beyond have been identified and mapped. Using an Android phone and the plotted coordinates, the application offers the user an immediate display of exactly what they are looking at. It augments this with other live data such as updates from the IBM-managed scoring system and an aggregated twitter feed generated by IBM scouts reporting from around the grounds, giving the user a comprehensive and dynamic insight into their surroundings.

For instance, pointing the camera lens towards a court will not only identify the court number, but also display details about the current match in play on that court. IBM Seer Application users can also use the phones’ Map view, which pinpoints their location on a detailed map of the grounds, while the ‘Radar’ function indicates the user’s current position and nearby points of interest within range.

About IBM Seer
Mobilizy developed the application together IBM. The application features are based on Mobility’s Wikitude technology and GPS positioning and digital mapping from Navteq. Ogilvy Digital was responsible for technical project management and provides server hosting for the IBM Seer application.

A video of the IBM Seer Application in use at Melbourne Park can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/IBMScout

It was an intense project with a tight deadline that kept everyone on the Mobilizy team busy: “Thanks to Ogilvy’s clear vision, we were able to deliver on time. Ogilvy knew exactly what they want.”, says project manager Andreas Hauser.

Mobilizy also had a tester on site, visiting the playgrounds at Wimbledon (see this blog). “Of course, it is an experiment, more or less a “trial”. Something like this has never been tried before. Using GPS and Accelerometer has been tested thousands of time with Wikitdude,  but we were not sure if something like this actually works at so close distances. Initial tests were promising. It takes visionares, like Ogilvy, to dare something like this. We’ll see how it’s going to work out during the event.”, reported Christina Rittchen, after returning back to Salzburg.

“The entire team here absolutely loved to work on this project. As much as it was a challenge it also has been an absolute pleasure.”, says Davide Sciola, Digital Producer from OgilvyOne.

Also special thanks to our partner Sengaro. Sengaro is an Innsbruck based company who developed the “offline map” that we are using within the IBM Seer. Sengaro is the company behind “Mobeedo“, the “first multi-purpose information system for the mobile age”.

Wimbledon, 08.06. & 09.06.2009