In today’s society, technology is growing faster than you can say “onomatopoeia” (well okay, maybe not that fast, but it’s still pretty fast). We have moved from desktop computers to laptops, from wire connections to WiFi, and from flip-phones to iPhones, and even more! However, one creative entrepreneur saw this rapid growth and decided to take it to the next level.
Entrepreneur Ambarish Mitra is on his way to make Blippar the first successful augmented reality app, which lets people look at real-world objects through your phone camera. First, it’s important to understand that a “blipp” is “the action of instantaneously converting anything in the real world into an interactive wow experience.” Essentially, this app can scan regular items and make them into an interactive experience for everyone to use. People would have to download an app that is currently active in multiple app stores, called Blippar, and then use it to scan an object. For example, say a user decides to scan a bottle of Heinz ketchup (I’m specifying the brand because the app works with brands as of right now; it hopes to expand its database to multiple unbranded objects in the future). The app would recognize the shape and other markers associated with that bottle, and *hopefully* recognize it as a bottle of Heinz ketchup. Now this is where the magic comes in. To make it an interactive experience, the app uses that reference and triggers pre-programmed information on the app, which means a recipe book pops up on screen with recipes of potential meals with Heinz ketchup as an ingredient. This association constant works with multiple other objects as well, so if a candy bar was scanned, a game could be triggered that was associated with that candy bar. Mitra doesn’t plan on stopping here, though. He aims to make the whole world into a searchable database. For example, he plans to have it where holding your phone up to an orange might give a location of the nearest grocery store, or to what type of fruit it is, and more. He wants to bring a new meaning to the words “search engine”, and he truly believes he can succeed amidst the fierce competition of tech giants.
Mitra’s creative process stems from multiple different components, but mainly from his vision and excitement for the future. As stated in Collin’s and Amabile’s “Motivation and Creativity”, there are three important factors for creative output: intrinsic task motivation, domain-relevant skills, and creativity-relevant processes. Ambarish has definitely worked his way up because he believes in his ideas. In fact, when he was 17 years old, he was actually living in a slum in New Delhi, India, and his creativity helped him start and sell multiple businesses. Now, as he heads Blippar and other ventures, he has over 88 million dollars invested in his project from other companies who share his vision (any resemblance to Slumdog Millionaire, anyone?). Otherwise, he has worked in the IT industry for some time as well, gaining those relevant skills, and eventually quit everything in pursuit of his augmented reality app. Mitra’s creative processes revolve around collecting the information around him, envisioning the next step forward, and then actually executing the idea. After he started seriously working on Blippar, he started to face tough competition from companies such as Google, but believes that this is just a side project for bigger companies. He believes that the only way to success is to actively focus on this project, and is currently expanding on that dream to make virtual reality the new reality.
References:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201703/jeff-bercovici/blippar-augumented-reality-universe.html
I'm so happy someone else knows about this app! My little brother is a tech WIZARD (built his own computer and everything), but when he decided to spend $800 of his hard earned money on a Virtual Reality machine I thought he had lost his mind at the young age of 16. But then I found out how awesome virtual reality is and make him let me mess with it anytime I go home. Last time I visited home he showed me some videos about this app and was geeked about it and the changes it would help to implement in the tech world in the coming years.
ReplyDeleteI think it's awesome that Mitra's humble beginnings will help him to grow this idea without too many obstacles. It's kind of a scary concept, but I think that if he were to achieve the level of integration he wants that this could be as revolutionary as the Disney MixIt stick or the idea of the original VR machine.
I love the idea of Blipper because it's not only creative on it's own but it encourages others to be creative. By taking a picture of something then having a million other options, we are able to connect users with more than they would have know. I think it could also be used an educational or training device. For example, with Blipper, it could be used in medical schools if you take a picture of an injury and remedies pop up, or even just in an art gallery to take a picture and all the information about that painting pops up. I think a lot of time we see things we can't describe into a search engine and Blipper would be able to come over that barrier.
ReplyDeleteThis article really hits home. I was born in India and I know so many brilliant minds in big cities are just hoping for the chance to make their ideas and dreams a reality. Mitra's passion to get out of his poverty, make a life for himself, and to actually be in the position he is now is a testament to his dedication to his idea and background. I would account it to both an intrinsic motivation for himself, but an extrinsic motivation to have a better life.
I've previously posted on how Pokemon Go's augmented reality has really changed society, and when I was writing the post it had dawned on me to think of the idea where is technology going. It made me think back to the idea of Ray Kurzweil and the technological singularity, and his idea that in the foreseeable future we will reach a point that technology will advance farther than we can imagine. We have reached a point with our technology that there is a near infinite range of applications and integrative qualities. Just as well as a near infinite spread of directions that advancements in technology can go in. One step is the integration of technology into everyday life. We already do it to a scale, and it is shown that Americans are very adaptive to new technology. Look at smart phones, they have been around a short amount of time relatively and yet everyone has one. Look at self driving cars, how long until that becomes a norm. Then we have augmented reality, i.e. integration of digital information with real life. I believe that augmented reality is just beginning, and we have only scratched the surface of its full potential. Blippar is just one innovative step towards bringing about integration of augmented reality into daily life. Right now for me, Blippar is just a form of search optimization be decreasing time, method, and options for searching an object. I believe that a creative outlook for it would be a widespread integration of Blippar into handy digital device such as fridges, cameras, or smart watches.
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