Sony has delivered an integrated ‘Augmented Reality (‘AR’) technology’ called “Smart AR”.
When capturing visuals through a camera on a device such as a smartphone, the technology enables additional information to be displayed on the device’s screens such as virtual objects, or images and texts that cannot be identified by visual perception alone.
The technology employs the markerless approach, forgoing any requirement for special markers such as 2D barcodes. The object captured by the camera is quickly recognized and can be tracked at highspeed along with the movement of the camera, as it is displayed over the actual 3D space.
Sony began researching AR in 1994 with two-dimensional barcodes recognition (marker approach), and in 1998, it developed VAIO “PCG-C1” personal computers equipped with software which automatically recognized ‘CyberCode.’
Furthermore, information can be acquired or navigated by simply touching the AR information directly on the screen of the smartphone or other device, thus achieving an intuitive and seamless user interface that is unique to “SmartAR.”
Sony will continue to experiment with “SmartAR” technology with the aim to add new value for various services and business applications such as advertising and games.
