World's first augmented national newspaper created in Taiwan
Taiwan’s biggest media group, the United Daily News has partnered up with a revolutionary augmented browser firm called Aurasma to create the worlds first augmented national daily newspaper. Images, editorials and advertising are all interactive by simply placing your mobile device’s camera over the piece.
United Daily News have around one million readers daily and all will now be able to use Aurasma to create multimedia experiences from their newspaper. Launched in July this year, Aurasma has had over two million downloads to date on both Apple devices and high-powered Android phones. The technology works by using cutting edge image and pattern recognition technology to recognise real world images and objects.
Users of the service can access interactive content such as videos and animations by simply pointing their camera towards the image. Such symbols that I have tried out so far are a Diet Coke logo, ‘The Who’ album cover and even a Tottenham Hotspurs football shirt.
Martina King, Managing Director of Aurasma, said, “Look at any newspaper today and chances are advertising inside will be carrying the ‘A’ logo – identifying to readers that it is Aurasma enabled. It is an incredible achievement just fourth months after our launch.’
The Application is available for free on both Android market and the App store as a lite version. It features different features that can be used on logos as well as global locations which include the Empire State Building and Big Ben.
This technology is really interesting and can be used as a bit of light hearted fun but it could also have a lot of real world implications. Using it in Educational purposes, for medical students, in mechanical or engineering situations. There are so many opportunities for one piece of technology.
