![\"augmented-reality-banner\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitybanner.jpg?resize=690%2C310&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-banner\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
[Note: this functionality is now production, as part of the SAP BusinessObjects Mobile Explorer<\/a> product — a free download from the Apple App Store]<\/p>\n Based on a blog post and proof-of-concept application<\/a> earlier this year, I have been championing a SAP BusinessObjects Innovation Center<\/a> project to build an \u201caugmented corporate reality\u201d prototype.<\/p>\n The idea stemmed from one of the key themes of my BI future directions presentations<\/a>: that for the first time in centuries, new technology comes from the consumer world, not from governments and businesses, and so we need to adapt and adopt these technologies for corporate use.<\/p>\n The mobile telephone is starting to become a \u201cuniversal pointing device\u201d: using the phone\u2019s GPS location and compass, it knows where you are, and what you\u2019re looking at. There is now a wide range of augmented reality mobile applications<\/a> available on the market that help people find the nearest pizzeria, get information about a monument, or locate local twitter users.<\/p>\n How could this functionality be used in the business world? My first proof-of-concept blog post<\/a> imagined examples of a manager getting information about a particular retail operation, a factory foreman getting maintenance records of machinery, and comparing sales between two different areas of a retail store.<\/p>\n These examples spurred a lot of conversations with customers around the globe about possible applications:<\/p>\n Based on those conversations, we have been able to validate the core concepts and refined the functionality of our prototype. The result is an iPhone \/ iPad application that works closely with the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer technology and the BI onDemand web site.<\/p>\n Before I tell you more about it, let me emphasize: it’s a prototype, not a product<\/strong>. The SAP BusinessObjects innovation center<\/a> is modeled on Google Labs<\/a>. We\u2019re taking a transparent, Web 2.0 approach to innovation. Rather than working for years in some dark room and then unveiling a completed product, the team creates iterative prototypes and make them freely available for download, so that you can test them, use them, and give us feedback. They’re free, but not supported, and we give no guarantees that they will be developed further. The idea is that not-so-good ideas sink without wasted development, while good ideas get refined before turning into real products (our track record is very good: mobile BI, the Explorer product, and many features of the current BusinessObjects platform all started off as prototypes).<\/p>\n And please note that everything I mention below may change over time, based on your feedback. We are in the process of refining the prototype, and hope to make it available for you to download and use in the next few weeks or months. <\/strong><\/p>\n You upload a data set that includes Point of Interest (POI) information to the BusinessObjects OnDemand platform at bi.ondemand.com<\/a> (you can sign up for a free account), set some data configuration options, then access that data set from your iPhone or iPad. The prototype works out what information to display based on your location and the phone\u2019s compass heading:<\/p>\n The prototype uses five fields of information to define the \u201cpoints of interest\u201d (POIs) that can be viewed: latitude, longitude, name, an associated image, and at least one data value.<\/p>\n First we install the Augmented Reality Explorer application (currently, this involves a specific build for identified devices \u2013 we will make it a free download from the Apple App Store as soon as we can). We then open up the application on the iPhone, and log into a BI OnDemand account:<\/p>\n We choose an appropriately-configured data source. The points of interest are then automatically displayed based on your location: you can choose to see either the closest POI first, or the one closest to the direction you are pointing your phone. The icons are configurable — in this case, I\u2019m using them to indicate the current state of sales: the arrow indicates whether current sales are larger than the previous period, and the color indicates whether the current sales are above, equal to, or below the current sales targets.<\/p>\n We can choose to display the points on a map, and zoom in to get more detail by tapping on the radar to make it full screen, and sliding a finger to choose the radius of distance we\u2019re interested in:<\/p>\n I can also view the points of interest superimposed on the real world, using the iPhone\u2019s camera \u2013 as I move around, each POI seems to hover over its physical location, and I can choose what information is displayed as each point is selected:<\/p>\n At any time, I can choose to filter the points by any of the dimensions available in the data set, and clicking on a POI takes me through to the same interface as the BusinessObjects Explorer application<\/a>. Any filters that are applied in the augmented reality view are applied to the Explorer view, and vice-versa, so I can easily and simply explore the information available (and it could be many millions of rows of data, if you\u2019re using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Accelerated<\/a>)<\/p>\n And the prototype looks great on the iPad, too (the camera view is not available, obviously):<\/p>\n If you have an questions, comments, or feedback, or feel like you have a good case for getting a copy of the application even before we post it to the App Store (e.g. you\u2019re an SAP employee with a customer who might be interested), feel free to contact me or the SAP BusinessObjects innovation center<\/a> team directly. We\u2019re particularly interested in finding real-world scenarios for this (it\u2019s not about doing something just for the sake of the technology).<\/p>\n Augmented Reality Explorer is a prototype from the SAP BusinessObjects Innovation Center. It displays corporate information overlaid on the real world, and you can access information about a physical thing simply by pointing at it with your iPhone or iPad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[69,100,128,129,130,160,162,198,204,213,219,324,476,618,635,636,637,701,718,719,743,850,911],"class_list":["post-12142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bi-20","tag-accelerated","tag-analytics","tag-augmented-corporate-reality","tag-augmented-explorer","tag-augmented-reality","tag-bi","tag-bi-2-0","tag-business-analytics","tag-business-intelligence","tag-businessobjects","tag-camera","tag-dashboards","tag-explorer","tag-innovation","tag-ipad","tag-iphone","tag-ipod-touch","tag-location-intelligence","tag-mapping","tag-maps","tag-mobile","tag-prototype","tag-sap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/augmentedrealitybanner1-1.jpg?fit=690%2C310&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3X9RF-39Q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/image54.jpg?resize=225%2C169&ssl=1\" "\\"image\\"")
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/image55.jpg?resize=225%2C169&ssl=1\" "\\"image\\"")
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/image56.jpg?resize=225%2C169&ssl=1\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/p>\n\n
How it works<\/h3>\n
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/image57.jpg?resize=690%2C418&ssl=1\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/image58.jpg?resize=690%2C284&ssl=1\" "\\"image\\"")
<\/p>\nDemonstration Screen Shots<\/h3>\n
![\"augmented-reality-demo01\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo01.jpg?resize=345%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo01\\"")
![\"augmented-reality-demo02\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo021.jpg?resize=339%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo02\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"augmented-reality-demo03\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo03.jpg?resize=345%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo03\\"")
![\"augmented-reality-demo04\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo041.jpg?resize=340%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo04\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"augmented-reality-demo05\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo05.jpg?resize=345%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo05\\"")
![\"augmented-reality-demo06\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo061.jpg?resize=339%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo06\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"augmented-reality-demo08\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo08.jpg?resize=345%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo08\\"")
![\"augmented-reality-demo07\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo071.jpg?resize=339%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo07\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"augmented-reality-demo12\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo12.jpg?resize=345%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo12\\"")
![\"augmented-reality-demo13\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo131.jpg?resize=339%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo13\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"augmented-reality-demo09\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo09.jpg?resize=345%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo09\\"")
![\"augmented-reality-demo15\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealitydemo151.jpg?resize=340%2C751&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-demo15\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"augmented-reality-iPad-demo04\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealityiPaddemo04.jpg?resize=690%2C539&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-iPad-demo04\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"augmented-reality-iPad-demo06\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealityiPaddemo06.jpg?resize=690%2C539&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-iPad-demo06\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"augmented-reality-iPad-demo07\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/augmentedrealityiPaddemo07.jpg?resize=690%2C539&ssl=1\" "\\"augmented-reality-iPad-demo07\\"")
<\/p>\nOther thoughts:<\/h3>\n
\n
Next steps:<\/h3>\n
Early press coverage:<\/h3>\n
\n