Smartwatches get AR

Metaio, a company specialising in augmented reality (AR) software and solutions has announced the first ever object recognition solution for smart watches.

The technology company released a video that demonstrates a computer vision-based health & lifestyle app for wearable devices implemented using Metaio technology.

Smart watch manufacturers are still struggling to find the balance between simplicity and functionality. By adding computer visual recognition functionality, the goal of fast and effective interaction with a smart watch is achieved.

Utilizing the camera of a smart watch, users snap an image which a companion smartphone then checks for matches using Metaio visual search technology. When a match is found, data is returned to the user in the form of glanceable information on the watch, or rich, interactive data on the smartphone.

When we gave phones and glasses the ability to see the world around them, it opened up huge opportunities for all kinds of mobile apps”, said Metaio CEO, Dr. Thomas Alt. “We can see that smart watches are going be a huge part of the mobile computing revolution, so we wanted to make sure that we could bring the power of computer vision and augmented reality to this form factor.

There exist millions of objects in our environment that can be scanned by a smart device, but it is not always convenient for users to be constantly removing their smart phones from pockets or purses. Placing object recognition capabilities on the wrist allows for convenient access to visual search and augmented reality applications that already exist today.

The company released a video showing a working demo of a health & lifestyle application. Rather than entering nutritional information manually: users simply scan the food package from the wrist, which automatically populates a daily nutrition diary on a companion device. The video also illustrates smart watches being used in retail to quickly scan products to purchase and request delivery to the home.

According to Metaio the technology can be implemented on existing smart watches currently on the market and will be running a live demo of the application at the upcoming AR conference, InsideAR in Munich on October 29th and 30th, 2014.

Watch the video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/XyO972dT4TI

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