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Sneak Preview of ARE 2012 Schedule: Chock-Full of Augmented Reality Goodness…for The People

ARE 2012, the world’s largest augmented reality event, invites you – The People – to discover the wonders of  augmented reality (AR). Register today with the Early Bird Discount and save $100 before it expires on March 21st. For the first time, ARE 2012 is reaching out beyond the tech world – to everybody out there – who is seeking to leverage AR to advance their business or their life. The event will kick off with keynotes by Frank Cooper (CMO of Pepsi), and Miles Ludwig (VP Digital at Sesame) – that will showcase how mainstream corporations are using AR as a key tool to drive customer engagement in consumer packaged goods, as well as education and entertainment. Adrian Cheok (Professor at Keio University, Tokyo) keynote will blow your minds by demonstrating how AR can go beyond the visual sense and leverage all our senses. Can’t have a true AR event without “The Prophet of AR”; Bruce Sterling will come back this year to share his insights about the evolution of the AR industry, and have a fireside chat with special guest Daniel Suarez (best selling author of techno-thrillers Damon and Freedom) – about the far reaching opportunities with AR, and its looming dangers. In addition to these fantastic keynotes, ARE 2012 will feature 30 hours of sessions across 3 tracks: Business, Production, and Technology – covering topics such as: The AR Market and successful business models with Maarten Lens-FitzGerald (Layar) – on how to generate revenue with Augmented Reality, and  Matthew Szymczyk (Zugara) – about where we are in the AR Commerce Hype Cycle. AR for Marketing and Branding- a panel moderated by Gene Becker showcasing best practices from leaders who implemented some of the most successful AR campaigns to date. AR for eCommerce and Retail – including talks by Bruno Uzzan (CEO, Total Immersion)  and Andrea Carignano (CEO, seac02) about real revenue-making products in this market. AR For Wellness with Adam Odessky (HelloDocPal) about current use of AR for healthcare, and HealthCare Alert – an app tracking health alerts in real time with augmented reality. AR Games as always will be a big draw featuring speakers from the most successful AR games companies:  Brian Selzer (Ogmento), Josh Shabtai (Vertigore), and more. AR and Crime – A riveting new session moderated by AR enthusiast and Law Enforcement officer Joseph Rampolla who put together a staggering panel: Kevin Manson (Cybercop Portal),  Edward Roche (Barraclough), Best selling author Daniel Suarez (Daemon), and Brian Wassom (Augmented Legality.) AR For Cars – a session dedicated to the automotive industry led by Juliana Clegg from MVS California creator of the CableGuide HUD with participation from major car companies, and analysts in this space. User Experiences in AR with one of the world’s top experts in AR user interfaces – Mark Billinghurst (HIT Labs NZ), and additional world experts in UX for AR. As in every year, the leading players in AR Eyewear will be back to excite us about the prospects of AR in your field of view, and update us on how long we need to wait for it and what we can do to accelerate it. For the techies, a hole track of sessions will drill into the state of the art in AR Technologies. Mobile AR Technologies with Marc Gardeya (Dekko) which will talk about Hybrid Tracking, David Murphy (Nokia) – about Nokia’s Mirror world browser, Ben Blachnitzsky (Metaio) – about Object Tracking, Martin Lechner (Wikitude) about SDK for AR browsers, and Hafez Rouzati (Georgia Tech) about their standard-based Argon browser. Christine Perey (Perey Consulting) will lead a panel discussing Interoperability and Open AR Content and experiences. Dr. Thomas Alt, founder and CEO of metaio will discuss the process of building a delivery stack that ensures reliable, accessible AR from chipset platform to end-user. And speaking of hardware for AR, Stephane Gervais-Ducouret (Freescale) will speak about efficient hardware for AR,  Mike Housholder (InvenSense) about motion interface for immersive mobile AR experiences, and Neil Trevett (VP at Nvidia and President of the Khronos Group) about emerging hardware for AR. Steven Feiner, Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, will share his experience in implementing AR for more than 20 years. If you go by Churchill’s old quote: “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see”, Professor Feiner is the most qualified to speak about the future of AR. ARE will also feature a bunch of thought provoking talks about AR Game changers such as Amber Case (Geoloqi) and Brian Mullins‘ (CEO, Daqri): AR at the Center of the New Polis: Sociopolitical Impact & Opportunities. This was just a sneak preview. Stay tuned for many more speakers and fascinating sessions about how to turn around your business – with Augmented Reality.      ...

ARE 2012 Keynote Speaker: Miles Ludwig – VP Digital Group at Sesame Workshop On Why Augmented Reality Will Redefine Learning and Fun

  In another sign that augmented reality is going beyond its gimmicky stage and reaching the mainstream, we are glad to announce a major addition to ARE 2012 keynote speakers lineup: Mr. Miles Ludwig, head of Sesame Workshop’s Digital Group. Miles Ludwig oversees creative and production for interactive and digital initiatives and has led the design and development of interactive educational experiences and educational software titles for every significant technology-based platform of the last 15 years, including product lines for Mattel, V-Tech, Hasbro, Electronic Arts, Jakks Pacific, Scholastic, Nintendo, and Sony. Miles leads the team that was recently awarded an Emmy (2009), a Webby (2010) and a Peabody award (2010) for Sesame Street broadband website. He was previously the Creative Director of Elias Arts Sound Intelligence Group, and the co-founder of Kirt Gunn & Associates, Inc. (KGA), an interactive advertising agency. At KGA, he led a team that created cross-platform campaigns for Diageo, LVMH, Ford, and Volvo. Miles was educated at Brown University and New York University. Miles was recently interviewed about his latest augmented reality project in collaboration with Qualcomm. In this project, beloved Sesame Street character toys Bert and Ernie come to life and are fully interactive. “Sesame Workshop and Augmented Reality!?” asks John from EPTV. “We’ll try anything to get kids to learn” answers Miles Ludwig. Mr. Ludwig and his team at Sesame Workshop are always exploring new technologies that will help kids learn in a fun way. They believe augmented reality can deliver on that promise and are currently researching and measuring the impact it can have on improving kids’ learning. Register to ARE 2012 and get inspired by Miles Ludwig along with Frank Cooper (CMO PepsiCO) and more than a hundred speakers that will talk about how to leverage augmented reality to make the world a more engaging place....

ARE 2012 Keynote Speaker: Frank Cooper, Chief Consumer Engagement Officer at PepsiCo On How Augmented Reality Will Redefine Consumer Engagement

Augmented Reality is going mainstream. ARE is going mainstream. Register Today and experience how AR is already making the world a more engaging place. The ARE event was initiated 3 years ago by Augmented Reality (AR) Professionals from all over the world, who united in one Silicon Valley location for 2 days to exchange ideas, demonstrate technologies, network, and raise the awareness to the emerging industry. Gradually, it attracted more attention from the mainstream, those seeking to leverage AR for for their businesses. In 2011 a third of the 530 attendees were buyers of AR products and services in entertainment, media, education, healthcare, government, tourism, automotive, sports and other vertical markets. They came to learn about how to leverage AR to advance their  brands, attract and keep customers, and how to build successful AR campaigns and products that will delight users. This has become the major focus of ARE in 2012 and will be reflected in the sessions and speakers featured in the event. More than half of the 600 attendees are expected to come from various verticals looking to deepen their customer engagement with augmented reality. To that end, we are excited to announce Frank Cooper III, Chief Marketing Officer of PepsiCo, the largest food and beverage company in North America, will take the main stage at ARE 2012 and address the augmented reality movement and everyone out there seeking to leverage this amazing technology. PepsiCo has been the leader in bringing together the entertainment industry and big brands and is constantly redefining the notion of “consumer engagement.” Mr. Cooper has a central role in that effort and was anointed as Chief Consumer Engagement Officer at PepsiCo. In Cooper’s current role at PepsiCo, he has direct oversight of key operational areas across PepsiCo Americas Beverages (PAB) that determine consumer engagement including digital, media, sports, video games and multicultural and entertainment. He has led the development of a new consumer engagement model and created breakthrough marketing programs across the PAB portfolio. Successful videogame marketing promotions, including Pepsi’s Rock Band video contest, Pepsi’s Madden Sweepstakes, Mountain Dew Game Fuel for both World of Warcraft and Halo, and Mountain Dew’s latest successful promotion with Halo: Reach have all happened under Cooper’s guidance. For the first time at ARE, Frank will tackle the 10 billion dollar question: how can CPG and retail companies leverage AR to nurture a deeper engagement with their customers? I can’t wait....

ARE 2012 1st Keynote Speaker Announced: Adrian David Cheok Inventor of "Krazy" Augmented Reality!

The line up of luminary speakers to keynote at ARE 2012, the world’s largest augmented reality event, will blow your mind. The first revealed is Adrian David Cheok, Professor at Keio University, Graduate School of Media Design, in Tokyo Japan, as well as a Young Global Leader at World Economic Forum. Dr. Cheok has been a hero of mine in pushing the envelop of augmented reality. He will join an amazing group of keynote speakers in previous years.   Adrian has been a champion of the idea that Augmented Reality is more than just about the visual sense, but has to include all the senses. Over the years, he’s been working hard to prove his idea and created many prototypes of augmented reality systems that involve the other senses. To warm you up, check out his Hug Accentuator. I can’t wait to see his Kissinger system in action. (Hint: it’s not about the legendary statesman.) Dr. Adrian David Cheok also created the first real world Pac Man game. When he wanted to create an exciting augmented reality game, he chose to remake the first video game to ever introduce a character – the legendary Pac Man. Cheok literally stepped into Pacman’s shoes in this first-person-shooter-like real world game. Make sure to register for ARE 2012 before the early bird discount expires on March 21st. Here’s an excerpt from Adrian’s illustrious career so far: Adrian David Cheok  was the Founder and Director of the Mixed Reality Lab, Singapore. and previously worked in real-time systems, soft computing, and embedded computing in Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, Japan. Mr. Cheok has been working on research covering mixed reality, human-computer interfaces, wearable computers and ubiquitous computing, fuzzy systems, embedded systems, power electronics. He has successfully obtained funding for externally funded projects in the area of wearable computers and mixed reality from Nike, National Oilwell Varco, Defense Science Technology Agency, Ministry of Communications and Arts, National Arts Council, Singapore Science Center, Hougang Primary School. The research output has included numerous high quality academic journal papers, research awards, keynote speeches, international exhibitions, numerous government demonstrations including to the President and Prime Minister of Singapore, broadcast television worldwide broadcasts on his research (such as CNN/CNBC/ABC/Discovery/National Geographic etc.), and hundreds of international press media articles. In addition, Mr. Cheok has been a keynote and invited speaker at numerous international conferences and events. He was invited to exhibit for two years in the Ars Electronica Museum of the Future, launching in the Ars Electronica Festival 2003. His works “Human Pacman”, “Magic Land”, and “Metazoa Ludens”, were each selected as one of the worlds top inventions by Wired and invited to be exhibited in Wired NextFest 2005 and 2007. More…    ...