Auggie: An ugly award with high potential

Oder: Bananas don’t grow in Austria

The world of Augmented Reality from an Austrian point of view

Markus Meixner is a human being like you and me. He eats, sleeps, cares for his social contacts and, of course, works. But this is where he starts just not to be like you and me. DI Markus Meixner is a professional in an industry that has the potential to sustainably change the world as we see it. Augmented Reality, AR for short, changes indeed the way of seeing things that we perceive day by day.

Technology, you say? Technology from Austria? Is not that a contradiction in itself? Has not the almighty Silicon Valley digested everything based on technology and progress?

Markus Meixner views just different, and especially further into the future than most of us, hence he has been engaged in AR since the very beginning of his professional career. Already in 2012 he gathered a small dedicated team to busily design technology of the future, refine it and put into action. The immediate success quickly proved him right. Soon his company ViewAR received requests from all over the world, including companies that are well-known from the daily media.

But what is Augmented Reality exactly and why so powerful potential lies in that technology?

But let’s come back to Markus Meixner. He rightly claims, that “recognizing a trend is a good start, but to have success with the implementation is an entirely different pair of shoes.”

The Auggie Award straight from Silicon Valley

On June 2 2016 it was done and the team ViewAR could not believe their luck. The AR app BeoHome design, developed for Bang & Olufsen won the category “Best AR App worldwide”. Please see an interview with a winner who does not yet know of his victory. As the story says, Markus Meixner had been invited for an interview to explain his AR approach and to provide an outlook on the future of the industry shortly before the awarding ceremony.

Really ugly but full of high hopes for the future

One can really be divided on the design of that “Oscar” of technology called Auggie. But what really counts are 2 findings coming straight out of Silicon Valley. The first lesson will let Austrians citizens be full of pride: We are top notch in Augmented Reality and should’t be too modest about it. In fact, we can compete with technology providers from around the world without fear.

The second finding is already harder to digest: companies in our country should start to engage with AR and its possibilities as soon as possible, otherwise the international competition will extinguish some sectors in Austria once and forever.