Pointing Way Toward a Collective, Participative Process, Company Says Time is Right for Clear Identity for AR Solutions
LOS ANGELES (June 3, 2010) – In a move to advance uniformity and organization in augmented reality (AR), Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com), the global leader in AR, today unveiled the first logo for augmented reality applications. The company made the announcement at ARE2010, the first augmented reality conference, in Santa Clara, Calif.
The "AR+" logo – a stylized rendering of the letters "AR," encircled by a border, with a plus sign in the upper right – is designed to be included on product packaging, and in advertisements, marketing materials and other relevant communications from any company providing AR-enhanced media. AR+ logo artwork can be downloaded at no charge, from http://arplus.t-immersion.com/.
Total Immersion said the move is intended to accomplish several objectives
simultaneously: educate consumers, ease application development for AR providers and their partners, allow for seamless integration with existing solutions, control quality levels across the board, and promote industry growth. The company also urged creation of an industry-wide AR Standards Committee, designed to foster consideration of product standards, user experience definitions, and a communications framework.
According to Gartner, Inc., augmented reality is one of the "top 10 disruptive
technologies" of our time. Total Immersion, the commercial pioneer in the space, deployed some 270 projects in 50 countries in 2009, and the growth of AR is accelerating. Major industry players are considering AR in their roadmaps or have already done so, as offered solutions. Rapid growth typically gives rise to standardization efforts.
"Technology fragmentation is an obstacle to expansion and wide acceptance
of AR," said Christine Perey, PEREY Research and Consulting. "Industry leaders need to begin working together to develop protocols and standards, which will be widely accepted. Then, the AR community can grow quickly and become as open and inclusive as the Web is today."
"With the new AR+ logo, the industry can give consumers, developers, brands, and others a consistent framework for encountering and understanding augmented reality solutions," said Bruno Uzzan, CEO, Total Immersion. "There’s a sense that the AR industry has grown up too fast, that it has at times felt like the `Wild West.’ Today, the industry consists of multiple players, multiple platforms and easier access to AR. The new AR+ logo affirms that we’re working with a new human interface, now going mainstream."
Citing diverse examples of successful standards initiatives — from ISO 9001 and the World Wide Web Consortium, to the USDA Organic food standards to the MPAA’s movie rating system – Uzzan said the time has come "to identify clearly to our audience when they can benefit from AR. We have thought long and hard about it and created this symbol, which can be used by every player in every market to reflect this new stream of `AR everywhere.’"
"We’re sensing a real demand in the market for this kind of clarity, backed by an organized, collective effort," Uzzan said. "Many brands need a way to communicate their AR feature and how to access it – in a sense, telling the market what is and what is not AR," Uzzan said. "AR is moving well beyond digital marketing. Coming up fast are AR solutions in e-commerce/retail, experiential education and entertainment, medicine and science, embedded AR in durable consumer products, and public safety and transportation, among others. We believe AR+ will become a universally recognized symbol of this emerging industry, and we encourage others to join with us in adopting it."
About Total Immersion
Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com) is the global leader in augmented reality. Through its patented D’Fusionr technology, Total Immersion blurs the line between the virtual world and the real world by integrating real time interactive 3D graphics into a live video stream. Leading the augmented reality category since 1999, the company maintains offices in Europe (France and UK), North America and Asia. Total Immersion supports the world’s largest AR Partner network, with a diversified portfolio of more than 80 best-of-breed solution providers worldwide. Find the latest news about Total Immersion at: http://augmented-reality-news.com.