PTC announced at the end of last month during the Augmented World Expo that their platform, Vuforia, will be expanding to include new features including a remote presence capability. This addition is targeted for developers, businesses, and the general consumer market. The Vuforia platform is the most commonly used software platform by augmented reality developers.
PTC is calling this upcoming addition Vuforia Project Chalk. This project will allow for a new dimension of interactive activity during video calls. Where one person can annotate digitally another person’s environment. This will enable people to provide remote guidance with nearly the same level of effectiveness as being in the same room.
How Does Project Chalk Work?
Project Chalk will cater to users of all ages to help them complete challenging or unfamiliar tasks and jobs with the help of friends, family, professionals, and colleagues. Handymen will be able to remotely guide and assist do-it-your-selfers. Parents can help children with homework, even though they may be physically tied up in their office or workplace. Imagine all the gas you can save by virtually helping Grandma use her computer!
Project Chalk doesn’t just stop there, it will also enable a wide range of remote workers, virtual assistants, and long distance employees to troubleshoot and fix issues with increased speed, ease, and accuracy.
“We see Project Chalk as a fundamentally disruptive form of remote communication that will be well received across multiple sectors and for multiple use cases,” said Eric Abbruzzese, principal analyst, ABI Research. “We envision this capability being used beyond the enterprise on everyday devices across platforms.”
So How Do I Get It?
Project Chalk will use computer vision technologies that have been proven via the Vuforia platform. The experience will be available on a wide range of tablets, phones, and digital eyewear. Existing Vuforia-powered applications will be able to incorporate Project Chalk capabilities for iOS, Android, and Windows using Vuforia SDKs. Project Chalk will also be available as a standalone downloadable application across all app stores. The app supports the fremium model with plans both available for business and personal use.
“Vuforia Project Chalk will deliver a new mode of communication with the potential to improve our personal and professional lives,” said Jay Wright, president, Vuforia. “While we understand its use for helping others, Project Chalk will also enable a new generation of AR applications for people to create digital content to be shared on the physical world.”
Vuforia Project Chalk is expected to be available for developers in Vuforia SDKs, and for consumers and businesses via app stores in Fall 2017. For more information about Project Chalk, please visit www.vuforia.com/projectchalk.
About Vuforia
The Vuforia® platform is the most widely used software platform for augmented reality applications. For developers, it delivers a cross platform solution for attaching digital content to physical objects and environments. For consumers and businesses, it provides a communications solution for remote assistance and collaboration. For device makers, it delivers critical technology blocks that provide optimized experiences on rapidly evolving hardware technologies. Originally launched in 2011, Vuforia is supported by a global ecosystem of more than 350,000 developers and partners. Vuforia has enabled more than 40,000 applications for consumer and business use on a range of handheld and headworn devices.
Vuforia is a product of PTC Inc.
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About PTC
PTC has the most robust Internet of Things technology in the world. In 1986 we revolutionized digital 3D design, and in 1998 were first to market with Internet-based PLM. Now our leading IoT and AR platform and field-proven solutions bring together the physical and digital worlds to reinvent the way you create, operate, and service products. With PTC, global manufacturers and an ecosystem of partners and developers can capitalize on the promise of the IoT today and drive the future of innovation.
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The timing of any product release, including any features or functionality, is subject to change at PTC’s discretion.
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