Wikitude Drive is the world’s first Augmented Reality (AR) navigation system and it is now available for download from AndroidPIT Germany

AndroidPIT

Wikitude Drive is the world’s first AR navigation system with coverage in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (and further to come soon). Navigate the streets without taking your eyes off the road as the AR view shows you exactly what is taking place in front of you whilst directing you to your location of choice.

AndroidPIT (link) are offering Wikitude Drive for download in their App Center at the special price of €7,99. AndroidPIT is a Web 2.0 network and an Android blog where Android experts, enthusiasts, developers and users all get together. This fast-moving and ever expanding blog has several thousands of readers and we at Wikitude are delighted that they are offering Wikitude Drive.

Wikitude Drive DE

Download Wikitude Drive from AndroidPit for a special price of €7.99 and discover the world of Augmented Reality Navigation for yourself!

1. Download “AndroidPIT App Center” at
   http://www.androidpit.de/de/android/market/app-center
2. Search for “Wikitude Drive” or click the Promo-Banner at androidpit.de

Cheers,
The Wikitude Team

The Mobilizy team concentrated particularly on the hints given by Wikitude users when developing the tool further. The first feedback provided in October directly went into the current version of the app. The company stays in touch with its fans by communicating over facebook and twitter. These channels were also chosen by the community to rapidly spread news regarding the product: „The first release in the iTunes store was promoted by the users themselves“, explains Christina Rittchen, Communications Manager at Mobilizy enthusiastically about the involvement of the community.

Everyone can help mark the world – with wikitude.me
The user is the main focus for Mobilizy on the platform wikitude.me (http://www.wikitude.me). Here, every user can easily add their personal POI’s and see them on their iPhone straight away. Like on Wikipedia, relevant infos are gathered by the community of Wikitude users, as many people have the ability to collect a lot of information in comparison to an individual. „The reaction of our users shows us that our service is received extraordinary well and that we are on the right track“, confirms Markus Tripp, Business Development Manager, the concept behind the service.

About Wikitude
Wikitude identifies the current location of the user via the GPS Signal of an iPhone and connects the digital world to the real one. If one points the iPhone camera at a certain point, additional infos about the objects that are displayed on the screen are shown. That way, the user sees a Wikipedia entry for the St. Stephens dome in Vienna for instance, when the phone camera is pointed at the building and the respective button is clicked.
The app also shows entries that were added on Qype.com and self generated points of interest (POI’s) by users.

The Wikitude World Browser is available for free download in the Apple App Store.
Wikitude World Browser for iPhone: http://bit.ly/1nDhqO
Wikitude.me – Everyone can mark the world: http://www.wikitude.me
Wikitude Press Infos: http://www.mobilizy.com/category/pressreleases
Pictures on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wikitude/
Media Contact:
media (at) mobilizy.com
Mobilizy GmbH
www.twitter.com/wikitude

Users of the current Augmented Reality Browser Wikitude 3 D (Version 7.8) will see a ‘3D’ logo on the left side of the application when they are near ‘Ground Zero’. When one clicks on this icon, the breathtaking silhouette of the WTC appears in real time and in 3D on the smartphone’s display. A video shows the impressive effect of the Augmented Reality application: http://bit.ly/Xnwz9.

The Augmented Reality browser Wikitude by the AR – pioneer Mobilizy is one of the very first fully functional AR-browsers for smartphones. Wikitude is available for Android smartphones and, since a couple of days ago, for the iPhone. The 3D feature is currently conceived for Android, a similar 3D feature for the Augmented Reality browser Wikitude for iPhone is being developed.

Many New Yorkers, as well as New York visitors, have very personal memories of the Twin Towers. This applies to a Wikitude developer who worked in One Liberty Plaza until mid-2001: “Our application is in a way a ‘Tribute in AR’, just like the towers of light ‘Tribute in light’ that rise into the sky every year on 9/11. A prerequisite to this was the ability to use 3D, which the new version of Wikitude now has”, the developer explains. The company values not only the use of modern technology, but especially the memory that connects people to the monument. “We do not aim to hurt anyone”, emphasizes the team.

Augmented Reality connects reality with computer-generated data. Information is shown on the current camera display of the smartphone. The exact positioning of data in a live photo is possible thanks to the equipment of modern smartphones: using the data of GPS, the compass and the movement sensor, the exact geographical coordinates are calculated. In the case of the Wikitude World Browser, the data comes from cooperation partners like the online yellow pages qype, Wikipedia or the user community. Wikitude is therefore a travel guide that you can use all over the world which shows sights and points of interests in an Augmented Reality camera view. The application recognizes landscapes, cities and sights and delivers tourist guide information to the display.

Wikitude World Browser for the iPhone
Wikitude World Browser for Android

During the the initial 1.0.1-beta release of WIKITUDE API, Mobilizy worked with over 100 developers from 25 nations to help improve the current WIKITUDE API version. Martin Lechner, CTO of Mobilizy, affirms that the beta release of WIKITUDE API was a great success and believes that the enthusiasm developers have shown during the beta-program demonstrates that there is a great desire for developers to create their own AR experiences. For the nascent field of Mobile AR the WIKITUDE API represents the emergence of an open AR development platform which could further drive the adoption of Wikitude as a potential standard for developers who want to create their own mobile AR experience. The goal of offering the WIKITUDE API, says Philipp Breuss-Schneeweis, CEO of Mobilizy, “is to support the development of AR experiences which help improve and enhance how people interact with information in real-life contexts and situations.” Mr. Breuss-Schneeweis also believes that the Wikitude API is an important step forward in supporting the mobile AR community to grow and develop. The Wikitude API has the potential to unleash a wave of innovation amongst AR developers.

Visit http://www.wikitude.org/developers to obtain a copy of the WIKITUDE API Package and to receive more information on the WIKITUDE API.

Mobilizy has established a key system to provision the access to the WIKITUDE API for commercial and non-commercial usage. Basically, using the API is free for non-commercial applications. For terms of usage and conditions please contact info(at)mobilizy.com.

Some of the new features in the WIKITUDE API version 1.0 release include:

* customized callback-actions can be defined when user clicks on bubbles;
* customized menu items can be defined to enable customized program-workflow;
* debugging support;
* the ability to remove the watermark on the camera-view with a registered API-key;

The Wikitude API is a potential game-changer in the emerging field of mobile augmented reality. By providing an API for the Wikitude platform Mobilizy is taking a lead in unleashing a wave of innovation within the nascent field of mobile AR within the design and development community.

About Mobilizy:
Mobilizy is an early pioneer in commercial augmented reality and the creator of Wikitude, which is the first practical augmented reality (AR) mobile application. Wikitude gives the user data about their surroundings, nearby landmarks, and other points of interest by overlaying information on the real-time camera view of a smart-phone. Mobilizy GmbH engages in the research and in-house development of location-based services and augmented (mixed) reality experiences for smart-phones. Mobilizy is one of the leading innovators in developing new methods and applications for data acquisition and exchange in the emerging market of augmented reality.

WIKITUDE: The World IS the Platform!

CONTACT:
Mobilizy GmbH
Jakob-Haringer Str 5/IV
5020 Salzburg
Austria

Phone: +43 662 45 45 55 – 425
Fax: +43 662 45 45 55 – 410
Web: www.mobilizy.com
info@mobilizy.com
www.twitter.com/wikitude

Mobilizy is a mobile software development company which focuses on augmented reality and location based services solutions.  Our primary product is the Wikitude World Browser,  but we are entering the field of navigation because Mobilizy believes that navigation is part of a natural evolutionary process within the field of mobile AR to help people get around in the world.

Wikitude Drive boasts the following features:

• Mobile AR navigation, similar to a heads up display (HUD);
• Fully functional, map-less navigation;
• POI 2 POI navigation;
• Integrated voice commands (additional text-to-speech engine required);
• World wide navigational data which is accessed in real-time from the internet; (a mobile internet connection is necessary to access data while in motion)
• Peer-to-peer navigational functions
 ( Social navigational features will be implemented in future releases)
• Interfaces with existing navigational APIs (for example: NavTeq, Map24, TeleAtlas)

According to Philipp Breuss-Schneeweis, CEO of Mobilizy GmbH, “our navigation system has a huge potential for location based advertisement, but we believe that the number one use case for Wikitude Drive is simply navigation.” With the announcement of Wikitude Drive, “Mobilizy is aiming to gain a competitive advantage through developing high-quality, innovative software solutions,” says Philipp Breuss-Schneeweis.  He goes on to also say that: “Wikitude Drive is part of a natural evolution in mobile augmented reality.  I believe there is much more to AR then simply planting colored POIs on a  cam-view, people want to know how to get to these POIs and Wikitude Drive shows the way.”

Mobilizy is investigating integration capabilities with mobile social-networks.  We are also seeking partnerships with innovative companies in the navigation industry to implement further develop our AR navigation system.  For more information about Wikitude Drive, and our unique mobile AR solutions please contact Andreas Hauser at: drive@mobilizy.com

About Mobilizy:

Mobilizy GmbH engages in the research and in-house development of location-based services and augmented (mixed) reality experiences for smart-phones.  Mobilizy is one of the leading innovators in developing new methods and applications for data acquisition and exchange in the emerging market of augmented reality.  Mobilizy is also an early pioneer in mobile augmented reality with it’s flagship product the Wikitude World Browser, which is the first practical mobile augmented reality application developed for the Android platform.

CONTACT:

Mobilizy GmbH
Jakob-Haringer Str 5/IV
5020 Salzburg
Austria

Phone: +43 662 45 45 55 – 425
Fax: +43 662 45 45 55 – 410
Web: www.mobilizy.com
media@mobilizy.com
www.twitter.com/wikitude
http://facebook.com/wikitude

WIKITUDE 3 is the latest release of the Wikitude World Browser, which presents the user with data about their surroundings, nearby landmarks, and other points of interest by overlaying information on the camera-view of a smartphone bringing information from the internet into context with the real-world. The Mobilizy development team has listened to it’s users and implemented several new features to improve and enhance the user experience within WIKITUDE 3.  New features include:

• Full Integration with the Wikitude.me user-generated, geo-tagging platform;
• An enhanced User Interface (UI) which tightly aligns with the UI in the forthcoming iPhone version of the Wikitude World Browser;
• Improved methods to enhance perspective and depth of perception of POIs  (Smaller POIs indicate further distance, larger POIs indicate close proximity);
• The search and viewing-distance for POIs can be regulated by the user with a sleek slider bar;
• New & Improved filter options allow end-users to choose which content overlays and POI categories are displayed;
• Improved methods for locating POIs through search terms;
• An improved radar-overlay displaying the user’s current viewing direction and POIs within a specified radius;
• An entirely new “Beam-Me” feature which tele-ports the user to a pre-defined geo-location, allowing the user to experience a specified geo-data overlay;

Currently, WIKITUDE World Browser 3.0 offers data overlay sources from Wikipedia, *Qype and user-generated content from Mobilizy’s Wikitude.me (www.wikitude.me)

Wikitude.me
Mobilizy GmbH has partnered with Netociety Ltd., a specialist in enterprise social software, to develop an enhanced geo-tagging experience that empowers individuals with the tools to create POIs and location-specific, hyper-linked digital content which can be viewed through the WIKITUDE World Browser. According to Markus Tripp, the project manager of Wikitude, “Wikitude.me is the first platform which allows individuals to actively contribute to augmented reality.  This is an amazing and huge step forward in the AR industry!”

Wikitude.me provides an open, easy-to-use, free mobile information platform for anybody who wants to access or provide location based and situation-specific information or services via mobile phones. Basically, Wikitude.me can be understood as a platform which encourages community-driven content creation to which anybody can contribute freely, very similar to the philosophy of Wikipedia, but for mobile augmented reality. With regards to intellectual property, Wiktude.me is implemented under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License.

To get started with Wikitude.me platform users can login through existing 3rd party accounts such as Yahoo!, Google, Twitter and Facebook. The ability to add points of interest and “geo-tag the world” is done through any Internet-enabled device, such as a netbook, laptop, desktop or a smartphone like the Apple iPhone, Nokia N97 and the Android handsets which are available today. For each point of interest there is a title, description (250 chars), category, language, and link to a URL.  Each POI that is geo-tagged on the Wikitude.me platform is also cross-posted on Twitter ( http://twitter.com/wikitude_me ) to inform the global Wikitude community of the creation of fresh geo-content.

Mobilizy GmbH believes that the future of mobile augmented reality (Mobile AR) literally rests in the hands of the users.  Our team can develop the infrastructure for Mobile AR experiences such as WIKITUDE 3 and platforms like Wikitude.me,  but ultimately the end users will determine how mobile AR will be shaped. Mobilizy is constantly researching and developing ways to improve the WIKITUDE mobile AR experience by placing the user at the center of our development process
NOTE: POI data created by early-adopters of the beta version of Wikitude.me will be migrated to the new platform early next week.

About Mobilizy:
Mobilizy GmbH is an early pioneer in commercial augmented reality and the creator of the WIKITUDE World Browser, which is the first practical augmented reality (AR) mobile application. Available on Android (Coming soon to iPhone). Mobilizy engages in the research and in-house development of location-based services and augmented (mixed) reality experiences for smartphones.  Mobilizy is one of the leading innovators in developing new methods and applications for data acquisition and exchange in the emerging market of augmented reality.

About Netociety:
Netociety Ltd. is a UK-Austrian based software development firm helping companies customize, implement and adopt social software, collaboration tools and best practice. Netociety facilitates the development of collaboration systems for engaging with customers, employees and partners. Improvements in innovation, change, marketing, and productivity efforts are focused on.

WIKITUDE: The World IS the Platform!

CONTACT:
Mobilizy GmbH
Jakob-Haringer Str 5/IV
5020 Salzburg
Austria

Phone: +43 662 45 45 55 – 425
Fax: +43 662 45 45 55 – 410
Web: www.mobilizy.com
media@mobilizy.com
www.twitter.com/wikitude

WIKITUDE Developer API:
Build your own Augmented Reality application using the WIKITUDE Developer API. Our API is a powerful application-programming interface, which allows for the open development of marker-less AR (Augmented Reality) experiences. The WIKITUDE Developer API package contains the following:

• WIKITUDE Developer API documentation
• WIKITUDE AR API javadocs.zip
• WIKITUDE AR Intent.jar
• Sample application – BasicOpenARDEMO.zip

The WIKITUDE Developer API is a potential game-changer in the emerging field of mobile augmented reality. By providing an application-programming interface Mobilizy is taking a lead in unleashing a wave of innovation within the nascent field of mobile AR within the design and development community.

Examples of AR applications using the WIKITUDE API are:

• Enhance existing applications with an AR camera view;
• Interactive virtual/augmented media at key places of interest;
• Embedded media in the physical world (text, audio, & video);
• Massively multiuser ubiquitous mobile augmented reality games;
• Geo-graphically specific Job opportunities
• Real-estate listings.

Mobilizy GmbH is currently working out a key system for the final release of the WIKITUDE API that clearly lay out terms and conditions of the WIKITUDE API usage.

Please contact Mobilizy if you would like to start developing with WIKITUDE API as part of your innovative AR projects: developers@wikitude.me

WIKITUDE World Browser Updates:
The WIKITUDE World Browser has also been enhanced with the AR snapshot feature originally found in the Premium version of WIKITUDE; this new feature allows for easy screen-capture and sharing of your augmented reality view with others. The Premium version of the WIKITUDE World Browser has the additional feature of adding a title and subtitle to the AR snapshot.

About Mobilizy:
Mobilizy is an early pioneer in commercial augmented reality and the creator of Wikitude, which is the first practical augmented reality (AR) mobile application. Wikitude gives the user data about their surroundings, nearby landmarks, and other points of interest by overlaying information on the real-time camera view of a smart-phone.

Mobilizy GmbH engages in the research and in-house development of location-based services and augmented (mixed) reality experiences for smart-phones. Mobilizy is one of the leading innovators in developing new methods and applications for data acquisition and exchange in the emerging market of augmented reality.

1. WIKITUDE World Browser – The original mobile AR browser and travel guide.
2. WIKITUDE.me – Wiki-tag your world (user generated geo-tagging portal)
3. WIKITUDE API – Build your own augmented reality application.