Here's What Team INDE Has Been Up To in 2019

2019 is coming to its end, so we've asked our colleagues at INDE to take a stroll down on memory lane and vote for their favourite AR experiences of the year. While it's nearly impossible to include all of our projects, we’ve tried our best to summarise what we've been up to in 2019.

We started the year with an exciting sports-related custom project - a theme that has been prevalent all year long - in creating a fan-centric campaign for Pizza Hut. The BroadcastAR Interactive experience launched on 26 January at the fan zone of Super Bowl LIII, and allowed fans to dance with Pittsburgh Steelers stars Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster. The experience let fans choose the dance they wanted to perform with the athletes dancing right beside them in real-time, which was captured by our system and could be shared instantly. After the success of the experience, we deployed it once again for the NFL Draft in April. This project was clearly one of our favourites. "I loved watching the videos coming out of SnapShare afterwards, and seeing the huge grins on everyone's faces. Also, the dance moves were dope!" - added our Product Director Alexandra.

AR experience at Super Bowl LIII by INDE x Pizza Hut with Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster

In April, we appointed AccessAR as our business development partner for Canada. The Toronto-based company specialising in social media filters has been developing opportunities for our core augmented reality product portfolio - BroadcastAR, MobileAR, HeroMirror and LiveAvatar, while we integrated their AR lenses and filters into our arsenal of products. The AccessAR partnership wasn't the only exciting news about Canada in April: our BroadcastAR experience in the CORE in Calgary generated 8% increase in foot traffic, thanks to the overwhelming media attention they have received on this activation.

BroadcastAR augmented reality experience at the Core, Calgary, Canada

During that time we custom-developed a BroadcastAR experience for the Whitsunday Airport in Proserpine, Queensland. It didn't just let passengers discover the wildlife of Australia during their wait at the baggage carousel, but also helped the airport to win the Innovation and Excellence Customer Experience Award at the AAA National Airport Industry Awards.

Although we developed our Pokémon: Detective Pikachu HeroMirror experience back in 2018, it kept us busy for a while in 2019 too. In May Warner Bros celebrated the release of their first live-action animated film in the franchise with our AR-powered photo booth that has been deployed in 10 AMC theatres across the United States. "It included massive amounts of driving, which is lots of fun on its own" - said our Tech Support Engineer Attila, who particularly enjoyed this project.

Our Pokémon: Detective Pikachu HeroMirror experience debuts at ComicCon Brasil

In June we have announced a groundbreaking partnership with Brookfields Properties to launch the world's first AR display network of 7 high-traffic screens in flagship malls across 6 U.S. states with more to follow. "For many years we've prided ourselves on massive engagement rates with our systems. Now it's time to use that engagement power to benefit potential advertisers and consumers alike. This network provides a totally unique approach to launching campaigns and more. National coverage engaged consumers and the potential for more" said Alex Poulson, CEO of INDE. 

Not many companies can claim that one of their very first clients was the National Geographic, but INDE surely can. We felt honoured that we had a chance to work together once again: this time we created a life-sized Sumatran Rhino that "walked" through the auditorium during their Explorers Festival.

National Geographic chose INDE to keep the Sumatran Rhino legacy alive

Later that month Madame Tussauds D.C. joined the increasing number of attractions that engage its visitors through a unique augmented reality experience. The custom HeroMirror installation was our first kiosk-sized experience, that doesn't only offer a unique photo opportunity, but also "gamification" of the user interaction. We have been invited to participate in ACM SIGGRAPH for this project: our Director of Research & Development Tamas Matuszka, PhD represented us and presented his paper "HeroMirror Interactive: A Gesture Controlled Augmented Reality Gaming Experience".

INDE R&D proof-of-concept video: gesture control using an RGB webcam (no Kinect or Real Sense)

In July we announced our very first permanent showroom at London's Flux Innovation Lounge for our retail-focused VYU suite. Later this month we have deployed a custom BroadcastAR Interactive installation for  Arsenal F.C.'s flagship shop The Armory, that let fans have their football skills rated by Mesut Özil, Ainsley Maitland-Niles or Alex Iwobi. Once the tricks were complete Arsenal player responds with his signature reaction, then gets set for a unique photo opportunity with the fan, that could be shared instantly. 

INDE partnered with Arsenal FC for an in-store Augmented Reality experience with players

In September we have launched a MobileAR application for Patchings Art Centre that "resurrected" Rembrandt, Turner, Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Richard Parkes Bonington. The augmented reality experience lets them talk about their art, and also allows them to share some unique experiences along the way. The application has a unique feature that lets users convert their own photograph to the style of a well-known painter, thanks to a neural-style transfer algorithm and five different machine learning models. It has been a love project for many of us, but most of all for our developer Marci, who found it super challenging, but also very rewarding.

INDE's MobileAR augmented reality experience "resurrected" Rembrandt, Monet, and van Gogh

At the end of the year, we developed a HeroMirror experience that brought Junior de Barranquilla fans up close and personal with their favourite football stars. After the fans trigger the HeroMirror through its motion sensors, they have to pick their favourite Junior de Barranquilla star - Sebastian Hernandez, Jose Luis Chunga, Teofilo Guitierrez, Matias Fernandez, Victor Cantillo or Sebastian Viera - to pose with. In case they can't pick just one athlete - and most of them can't - they can take a group photo with all of them simultaneously. After the system captures the encounter, they can share it instantly with their friends and family. It has been the first major custom project for our account managers, Anna and Virág, who learned a lot during this exciting period of the year.

INDE's AR photo booths let Junior de Barranquilla fans to meet with their favourite football players

“It’s been yet another year of innovation for INDE” - commented COO Alex Alanson. - “Its vital that we continue to operate at the cutting edge of our industry to maintain our market-leading position in AR, but this has the be married with the need to deliver practical solutions for paying customers across the globe. What’s apparent to us is the increase in customer awareness of what AR is, and (increasingly) how the technology can be applied for practical purposes other than just entertainment. We’re looking forward to seeing where this trend takes us in 2020 and beyond”.