Augmented Reality for Virtual Shopping up to Industry 4.0

Over 1000 people attended the 8th InsideAR Conference

Munich, November 7th, 2014:  Last week, the 8th InsideAR Munich came to an end with an attendance record of 1,100 visitors. The annually held exhibition and conference dedicated to Augmented Reality (AR), is powered by Metaio, the world leader in AR technology and software. 

In the welcome keynote, Dr. Thomas Alt (CEO) and Peter Meier (CTO) introduced the Metaio 6 platform under the motto “Track it all”. Metaio 6 provides the latest object tracking technologies, which allow developers to create and deploy their content for AR applications. Being the first AR software platform to support 3D-cameras and depth sensors, Metaio 6 enables developers to create more realistic AR applications. “We’re proud to announce that over 110,000 developers around the world are working with the Metaio SDK, creating AR and Computer Vision-based applications with our software,” says Thomas Alt. “Metaio’s overall market share has reached 40% to date, giving us an extremely confident outlook, for both the company and the industry at large”.

One of the most noticeable trends during the two day conference was that AR technology is maturing further and further from its niche roots to a mainstream solution for many companies. Firms such as Intel, Volkswagen, Audi, Lego, DHL, SAP and Daimler indicated during InsideAR not only AR’s arrival in industry, but also to end consumers. For example, virtual shopping scanners and location-based services supported by AR, are gaining greater popularity. Hence, Metaio presented a shopping application for retailers at InsideAR based on image and object recognition technologies that enables customers to get rich digital information about products right at the point of sale.

InsideAR guests had the opportunity, to get information about updates in the AR field and developments from the Metaio R&D labs in our exhibition area. Metaio’sThermal Touch, which can turn virtually any surface into a touchscreen by using infrared cameras, was available for live testing. Other cutting edge technologies including 3D cameras and smart glasses from manufacturers like Epson, Seebright, Vuzix, Oculus Rift and Google were also on show.

All keynotes and workshops can be found on the Metaio YouTube channel: Day 1and Day 2. If you need images from InsideAR, you can find them here:www.insideAR2014.com.

Highlights video #1: Impressions from InsideAR Munich 2014

Highlights video #2: Best of Demos

InsideAR conferences for 2015 are already planned in San Francisco, Beijing, Tokyo and Munich.

Video: Highlights from InsideAR 2014