2013 is off to a flying start with some fantastic innovations this week including the latest in Ford’s connected car innovations and Marvel’s brilliant AR ‘DVD extras’ style comic content.
Number 5) Ford adds support for Glympse
Kicking off 2013 we have Glympse being available through Ford Sync’s in-car connectivity system, which now means Ford drivers can user voice commands to let people know exactly where they’re driving.
"People typically share their location while in the car, and by integrating Glympse into Ford Sync AppLink, we're providing drivers with a rich, real-time and hands-free way to share where they are," said Bryan Trussel, co-founder and CEO of Glympse at CES.
As long as you’re not too squeamish about broadcasting your location everywhere you go, it sounds like a smart piece of innovation.
Via Mashable
Referred by @mikecbetts
Number 4) Birmingham trials car parking sensors on the street
Birmingham, the UK’s second biggest city, is trialing a smart parking technology developed by Streetline and IBM, which lets motorists know which car parking spaces are taken and which are free around the city. Around 200 sensors have been deployed around which automatically record the presence of a vehicle and upload the data to Parker, a free smart parking app.
Via Birmingham Post
Referred by @tobybarnes
Number 3) Subaru Eyesight: Minicar Music Player Demo
To promote their EyeSight anti-collision system, Subaru have created a great ‘viral’ firm which demonstrates the technology through tiny depth sensitive cameras mounted on mini remote control cars. When a single object is placed in the way of a fleet of these cars they all come to a satisfying halt, before the calmly driving off again yet and managing to avoid pranging one another within the melee as miraculously as drivers on a Mumbai highway.
Via Digital Buzz Blog
Number 2) Life of Pi cinematic experience
What better way to promote the Life of Pi in 3D than an experience marketing initiative that had you watch the movie in a boat? That’s what French agency, Ubi Bene, decided to create by enabling people to feel similarly marooned at sea as the movie’s protagonist by transforming a Parisian swimming pool for the night, so people could enjoy the movie from their very own life raft.
Via Adverblog
Referred by @paulyden
Number 1) Marvel AR comic xtras
The first Number 1 spot of 2013 goes to Marvel for their brilliant use of augmented reality to showcase ‘DVD extras’ style content alongside their comics. Announced at CES, Marvel and Aurasma have teamed up to enable you to watch the comic heroes to jump into life off the page, view commentary from Marvel writers as you flick through, or even witness the full creative process take place from pencil art to full colour artwork on certain panels. It sounds like a beautiful way to use technology to breathe life into a classic art form, and hopefully open up the comics to new audiences.
Via ARNews.TV
That’s it for this week. As ever, if anything screamingly awesome has been missed out, let us know in the comments below. Or feel free to ping any recommendations for next week to @jamescfilmer.
James Filmer
Chief Innovation Officer
UM