Digify develops augmented reality mobile application for art

MANILA, Philippines -  Digify Inc., a techno-creative R&D lab that specializes in augmented reality and Internet of Things technologies, has been commissioned by Samsung Philippines to develop Facets, a mobile application that is guaranteed to enhance the museum-going experience.

These applications, deployed on mobile phones, tablets and smart television, were recently unveiled at the “Relative Realities” exhibition in Yuchengco Museum featuring artists Ambie Abaño, Ernest Concepcion, Jason Montinola, Leeroy New, Arturo Sanchez Jr. and Josephine Turalba. The exhibit will run until September 8, 2014.

The Facets mobile application employs augmented reality (AR) to reveal a hidden layer of digital experience into physical art objects. This layer comes in the form of motion graphics, video or 3D and multimedia objects, which Digify also produced.

“This exhibit is a good showcase of convergent art where art and technology are equally essential in completing the experience. In future implementations, you can expect to see a more integrated creative process where digital is not just an add-on but at the very core of the art piece,” said Judd Gallares, president and COO of Digify.

Digify is a pioneer in augmented reality in the Philippines. It was the first to launch its own proprietary AR engine, which can recognize visual as well as sonic markers.

Augmented Reality is a live view of the real, physical world whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.

“We started by using open-source technologies but eventually developed our own engine in order to accommodate customization requests from our clients. And we’ve continued to evolve the product by adding modules that could recognize new triggers, sonic being the most recent one,” said Joan Bulauitan, general manager of Digify.

This year, Digify transformed its AR technology into a real-time pattern recognition software that can detect and recognize signatures emitted by various media sources using access devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones.

The company recently launched Almost Real, a mobile application that can recognize sonic patterns in the audible and inaudible ranges. When a signature is recognized by the access device through the Almost Real app, content such as coupons, videos or song lyrics is triggered, allowing for a rich and immersive user experience.

The Facets mobile application is now available for download from the Google Play Store. Scan the attached image using the app for an augmented reality experience.