Posted on June 14, 2016
Out of the lab and into the pub
“There’s a lot of discussion and media attention about augmented reality (AR) and the multi-billion dollar market it will become in the near future,” says Queen’s Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Michael Greenspan. “A lot of companies are trying to create development platforms in the hopes of essentially becoming the MS Windows of AR.”
Greenspan is banking on a different strategy though, one that delivers to consumers a complete AR system with a single killer application. To that end, he and his research team have developed Procam Pool.
Greenspan and his team renamed their system Procam Pool but a prototype was featured on Discovery Canada show, Daily Planet, in 2010.
It’s a project that started a few years ago as a fourth-year design project, advanced to a master’s thesis and now a marketable product. Five Procam Pool units were installed last year in O’Leary’s Sports Restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden.
“They’re in there, they’re running and we get feedback that it’s a great experience,” says Greenspan.
The system was also featured on BBC 4 series, Gadget Man, with Stephen Fry and guest Jeremy Clarkson in 2012.