Nokia teams up with Uni of Southern California to augment reality

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 22 April 2009 05:40

IT Industry - Strategy

The University of Southern California (USC) and Nokia's Hollywood research centre have teamed up to undertake research around augmented reality which according to Nokia is a key component of "advanced mobile user experiences".

Augmented reality (AR)"supplements a user's view of the real world with three-dimensional computer graphic objects, providing a real-time, interactive and intuitive means of accessing and displaying spatial information."

Nokia explains that "Where virtual reality immerses a user completely in an artificial world, augmented reality lets that user go about normal life, seeing the real world with additional information superimposed on it. For example, a tourist might be visiting a street in London and could see information about a pub they are walking by, or what's on sale inside the store across the street."
 
In their initial joint project, USC and Nokia will focus on new vision-based AR tracking and content recognition techniques, adapted for use on mobile platforms. Ulrich Neumann, professor in the Computer Science Department in the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California said: "While there is no limit on future applications for augmented reality experiences on mobile devices, the enabling technologies behind complex augmented reality are still in the research stages."

The umbrella framework agreement between the two organisations allows Nokia and USC to work together on multiple projects in a variety of areas and wil, Nokia says, streamline the process for commercialising USC inventions.
 
Nokia Research Center Hollywood, announced in November 2008, aims to "focus on long-term research activities to further strengthen Nokia's leadership position in the convergence of Internet and mobility...[and to] further leverage the creative talent and experience in the media, entertainment, and new technology companies in the region. "

USC is the first university to enter into a collaborative research agreement with NRC Hollywood. The USC Stevens Institute for Innovation facilitated the licensing transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.