Metaverse One

Reality became augmented this week in Silicon Valley at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The third annual Augmented Reality Event, aka A.R.E.2012, brought the best and brightest around the world to the Bay area for a two day conference. Companies, research institutes, artists, and more once again got a chance to show off and experience the latest in computer vision, head & eye displays, motion sensor, mobile, and related augmented reality technologies. " ARE is where the people working on and using Augmented Reality technologies come together to explore best practices and innovations in software development, tools, business strategies, design and marketing. Developers, technologists, marketers, hardware manufacturers, mobile operators, researchers, designers, startups, business developers, and entrepreneurs gather to share their experiences and learn from their peers" - website Event organizer Ori Inbar (CEO Ogmento) interviewed by ARnewsTV before the event. A...

GDC 2011 just finished last week and wow do I have a game developer hangover! What an insane week of intense sessions on gaming, walking the expo floor, aisle conversations, meetings, and great parties. This year I was in on a media pass and got full access to the latest and greatest from the game industry. No I didn't get the Google Chrome Notebooks or Motorola Xooms they passed out to the entire audience of certain sessions, but by far this year's show was the best for things I am interested in. Even though I am not a game developer per se, there were plenty of sessions in areas of interest. The Kinect had several sessions, there was a full day of Unity3D, a few sessions about augmented reality, and some on web3D technologies. A bonus of being media, I got the chance to participate in new product/game releases. Ogmento had a location based multi-player AR game for iPhone that GDC attendees could play called Paranormal Activity: Sanctuary. Find out more about the game here ....

This past summer in New York I got the opportunity to meet up and interview Ori Inbar , CEO and cofounder of Ogmento , an augmented reality gaming company. I would easily say that Ogmento is a leader in the commercial AR gaming space and Ori is one of the industry's key players. He is a founder/author at Gamesalfresco , a leading blog on augmented reality, one of the organizers of the Augmented Reality Event , and heads the Augmented Reality New York (ARNY) meetup group. His company Ogmento , with a development team in New York and a creative studio located in Los Angeles, has raised $3.5 million dollars in a first round of institutional funding from Chart Venture Partners and other private investors. Part 1- Part 2- Here is a promotional Augmented Reality (AR) app by Ogmento developed to promote the iPhone launch by Orange Telecom Israel. Put A Spell, the world's first augmented reality learning game for the iPhone. Many thanks to Ori for such an informative and fun i...