Philipp Breuss-Schneeweis, Rainhard Findling, Nicola Radacher, Sebastian Höbarth, Andreas Hauser

DESCRIPTION
Wikitude Drive is the worlds first fully functional mobile Augmented Reality navigation system with global maps. It is a light-weight turn-by-turn navigation system that uses Augmented Reality (AR) to draw driving instructions directly onto the live video stream of your smartphone.Wikitude Drive distinguishes itself from other navigation systems in two ways: First, by superimposing directions onto a live video stream of the driver’s surroundings, he or she can easily recognise and follow the suggested route. Instead of an abstract map, the driver looks at the real world and can simply follow a line.

Secondly, Wikitude Drive solves a key problem of all other navigation systems, namely the way they force drivers to take their eyes off the road in order to look at an abstract navigation map. Since Wikitude Drive provides you with driving directions on top of a live video stream, you still see what is happening ahead of you when looking at your navigation system’s display.

Wikitude Drive works very well with the GPS system available today and proves that this technology is viable. However, due to the inaccuracy of GPS, driving directions are not fully superimposed onto the real street. We believe that augmented reality navigation will really take off once EGNOS is in place, mainly because of its improved accuracy, faster positioning signal, and more accurate altitude detection.

INNOVATION
The innovation in Wikitude Drive is clearly the use of augmented reality: Driving instructions are drawn directly onto a smartphone’s live video stream and thus onto the road, replacing the conventional maps all other navigation systems use.
TARGET MARKET
Wikitude Drive will initially target early adopters, because using augmented reality for driving is still a new and unproven concept. In a later phase, Wikitude Drive will be marketed as a navigation system for all drivers, as well as for pedestrians. Wikitude Drive will be available in the A ndroid M arket early November 2010.CUSTOMER BENEFIT
First of all, many people have problems reading maps, which provide an abstract image of reality and are therefore hard to understand. Second, people who read maps have to “translate” them to reality. And finally, map reading is not only difficult – it also takes time. Looking at a map of a navigation system requires the driver to take his or her eyes off the road. Just by looking at the map for one second when driving at 100 km/h (62 mp/h), the driver is actually “blind” for 28 metres (92 ft). T hink about how much can happen over such a distance. Since Wikitude Drive provides you with driving instructions on top of a live video stream, you still see what is happening ahead of you when looking at the display of your navigation system.”With Wikitude Drive, I don’t find myself looking for directions; the device itself guides me along the way,” says Nicola Radacher, product manager at Mobilizy.

NEWS ON WIKITUTE

Augmented Reality Glasses Powered by Wikitude
After starting out in 2008, the Austrian company Wikitude was named the 2010 Galileo Master with the world’s first augmented-reality navigation system for smartphones. Since then, it has spawned a revolution in the industry and is now looking to do it again with wearable AR technology. “Augmented reality on a smartphone or a tablet is already such a cool and fascinating topic, but running applications on these new wearable devices brings AR to a totally new level and gives us a glimpse of how we will use mobile technology in the future,” comments Wikitude CEO Martin Herdina. “At Wikitude, we are super-excited to be at the centre of it and to see our ideas, thoughts, and visions come to life.” more

Product News:
Wikitute Studio – create, publish and manage your AR app
Wikitude SDK 3.0 – just released and available for download

Contact:
Wikitude GmbH
Andy Gstoll
Schrannengasse 6
5020 Salzburg
Austria
Phone: +43 (0)662 243310
e-mail info@wikitude.com
www.wikitude.com