November 4, 2021 – Blippar, a provider of augmented reality (AR) products and services for brands, has today announced the integration of Simultaneous Location and Mapping (SLAM) into its Blippbuilder no-code AR platform, to further empower its users to create for the metaverse.
Blippbuilder, the company’s no-code, drag and drop-based platform, will now allow creators at any level – even those with no coding experience – to create immersive AR experiences grounded with SLAM technology; meaning that AR objects placed in experiences will stay firmly in place using surface detection. Blippar added that these experiences will serve as the foundation of the shared, immersive, and interactive content that will make up the metaverse.
Blippbuilder includes access to tutorials and best practice guides to familiarise users with AR creation, taking them from concept to content. Experiences are built to be engaged with via browser – known as WebAR – removing the friction of the need for dedicated apps or hardware. WebAR experiences can be accessed through a wide range of platforms, including Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, WeChat, WhatsApp, and conventional web and mobile browsers.
This announcement comes on the heels of the recent launch of Blippar’s WebAR SDK, a SLAM-enabled AR toolkit for developers with HTML and Javascript experience to build bespoke, professional-grade AR experiences. With these two offerings, Blippar states that it is “positioned to become the ‘physics layer’ of the metaverse”, where it will be providing developers and creatives with a foundation on which to build their shared AR experiences.
“Blippar’s mission is to ensure AR and the metaverse are for everyone – and our world first of bringing SLAM into Blippbuilder is the next step in that commitment,” said Faisal Galaria, Blippar CEO. “If the metaverse is to be the next evolution of the internet, it needs to be developed in the spirit of openness, creativity, interoperability, and collaboration that the internet was founded on, not tied to a single developer or tech-giant monopoly.”
Galaria added, “Whatever work is being done to lay the foundation for the metaverse, users need to be the first consideration. It’s users who will inhabit the virtual, shared reality of the metaverse, and experience it, interact with it socially, and power its digital economy and marketplaces. By putting creative power in their hands, and empowering them to be part of building the metaverse from the very beginning, Blippar is making sure that users are an integral part of the metaverse’s development.”
Preet Prasannan, Blippar’s CTO, also commented: “To truly democratise AR and the metaverse, we need to make complex technologies like SLAM widely accessible. Integrating SLAM into Blippbuilder will change AR for the better, allowing anyone to create immersive AR experiences and contribute to the metaverse – without a million dollar budget.”
Blippar will be demonstrating Blippbuilder’s new SLAM integration at AWE in Santa Clara, USA, on the 10th November. For more information on Blippar and its AR creation platform, please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: Blippar
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.