Start-up Blippar has begun demonstrating its augmented-reality apps to the crowds at CES 2012, after winning an UK Trade and Investment (UKT&I) competition to discover the best in British innovation.
The London-based company, which launched in August, received sponsorship from the agency to go to Las Vegas, including a paid-for booth on the show floor. It is showcasing its free app for iOS and Android — also called Blippar — that uses a mobile device's camera, GPS and image-recognition technology to provide augmented reality for advertising.
On the user's end, this is done by simply opening Blippar and placing the camera over the 'call to action' on the product, flyer, magazine or newspaper. The call to action (or 'blip', as the company calls it) then triggers the app to deliver an augmented-reality layer, which tells the user more about the product. In the example above, the film poster blip starts playing a movie trailer on the iPad.
Blippar is working on pushing forward its technology, but this does not include a software development kit (SDK), Blippar's business development manager Dave Black told ZDNet UK on Wednesday.
"We don't want SDKs, because we don't want people developing bad experiences for brands," he said. "We don't want brands to be able to hijack other people's creatives. There are other companies here with open SDKs. Essentially, if you are Adidas you can go to a Nike poster and put your advert on that poster."
Image credit: Ben Woods
