Vous connaissez Cimagine Media ? Il s’agit d’une tout jeune startup qui vient de lancer une application de réalité augmentée sans marqueur. Rencontre avec Yoni Nevo son fondateur.
You know Cimagine Media? This is a very young startup that just launched a augmented reality application without marker. Meet Yoni Nevo its founder.
Could you introduce yourself and your company, Cimagine ?
My name is Yoni Nevo, CEO and Co-founder of Cimagine Media. Cimagine was incorporated in 2012 by a team of highly experienced experts in interior design, real time image processing, mobile development and international marketing and business development. Assisted by a multi-disciplinary advisory board in the fields of retail, e-commerce, user experience and technology, our mission has been to develop the most usable mobile AR platform for home and office goods visualization. We now offer the first, true markerless solution, letting consumers visualize products in realistic 3D in their homes, at a click of a button. Our cloud-based platform enables retailers and brands to augment their e-commerce websites, mobile apps and offline media quickly and without costly maintenance, boosting online conversion rates and in-store sales.
The video about your product is really amazing, because of the markerless usage. Could you explain the 360° Super Reality TM technology ?
Our 360° Super Reality technology scans the environment while using every bit of information available from the mobile device’s sensors, along with analysis of the users’ movements, and deep processing of the camera’s live video stream. This scan allows us to virtually reconstruct the environment in real time, and highly efficient algorithms enable us to superimpose complex 3D models over full rate video – for example, to show how furniture or electronic appliances would look like in the consumers’ homes, as if these products were really there.
Do you think the “markerless concept” is the only way today to make AR mainstream ?
Up until today, most AR implementations were actually gimmicks – highly engaging, but still gimmicks. We believe that in the near future AR will take a far larger part in our lives, and for making AR useful, it must be immediate and intuitive. While markers can be sufficient in some cases (such as when looking at printed advertisements and catalogs), in the case of e-commerce, for example, asking the user to print a piece of paper, place it on the floor and constantly view it is just too much to ask from most consumers. Our belief is that markerless is essential for making AR immediate, which is key for the journey towards AR mass adoption.
Your application is used in the retail field. Do you think retail is best market today to develop AR ?
While our current focus is indeed on retail, we are enthusiastic about AR in many other areas. The immersive experience of AR makes it a great technology gaming and location-based services, such as navigation. In addition, AR can bring a lot of value in various other fields, such as architecture, medical imaging and engineering, to name a few.
In the future, maybe around 2030, what will be augmented reality for you ?
Fifteen years from now, we believe augmented reality will be the de-facto reality… People will benefit from a virtual layer of visual, audible and textual information on top of the real-world they see, in most daily activities. The devices will likely evolve to simplify the augmented life, in computing power, user interface, and of course, in form. Wearables will likely play a key role, integrated into normal glasses or contact lenses, and so will new technologies most of us can’t even imagine today.
Many thanks Yoni !
Grégory MAUBON est consultant indépendant en réalité augmentée (animateur et conférencier) depuis 2008, où il a créé www.augmented-reality.fr et fondé en 2010 RA'pro (l'association francophone de promotion de la réalité augmentée). Il a aidé de nombreuses entreprises (dans plusieurs domaines) à définir précisément leurs besoins en réalité augmentée et les a accompagnées dans la mise en œuvre.