Blippar, Inc., a technology company building a visual discovery browser through artificial intelligence and augmented reality, today announced it is providing public access to a self-service suite that includes its best-in-class augmented reality and computer vision capabilities. The move is intended to allow developers and marketers, as well as others who may not have coding experience, to tap into the potential of the AR market, projected to grow to $120 billion by 2020 (eMarketer), and take advantage of powerful computer vision capabilities for a range of use-cases across enterprise and consumer products.

The self-service suite includes:

  • Blippbuilder Augmented Reality Suite
    • Blippbuilder – the design platform which empowers non-technical users to create AR experiences
    • Blippbuilder Script – the full set of tools previously only available to Blippar employees is now available via the JavaScript tool, enabling users to create best-in-class AR experiences
  • Blippar’s Computer Vision API

To view assets outlining the capabilities of the APIs contained in the self-service suite, with example use-cases, please visit https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9TvoglhbHmOY1ZBQ3hsR0F1Zzg.

Blippbuilder Augmented Reality Suite
Blippar’s AR self-service suite, Blippbuilder, is launching out of beta with over four thousand users, including SapientNitro APAC and 100 other agencies worldwide. Blippbuilder, available in a web interface, offers two levels of functionality: Blippbuilder, a basic level that facilitates the creation process through drag-and-drop tools and requires no coding, with the ability to create powerful AR experiences (at no cost for personal use), and Blippbuilder Script, Blippar’s full AR Suite that allows for the creation of advanced AR experiences in JavaScript.

The full Blippbuilder suite is also now available for purchase on SAP Store, the online destination to discover, buy, use, renew and upgrade offerings from SAP and its partners in a simple, digital interaction. Offerings on the store include not only software but also education, content and data, all available for purchase via a credit card and PayPal in 230 countries and territories. SAP Store brings the benefits of these offerings directly to customers wherever they are.

With the recent release of successful AR games and endorsements for AR across a wide range of influencers, including Apple’s Tim Cook, AR is poised for mainstream adoption in entertainment, advertising, and beyond in the coming years. By releasing its technology as a self-service suite which anyone can use, regardless of experience level, Blippar is truly democratizing the power of this technology and unlocking the potential for better engagement and interactivity across any brand and industry.

Blippbuilder enables agencies to develop creative solutions ranging from brand storytelling to shopper marketing, encouraging them to exercise their creative and commercial muscles to push their clients into the future of brand-building. Further, Blippbuilder will allow game developers of any size to easily integrate AR capabilities and offer advanced AR gameplay without investing large amounts of time and effort.

“After over five years of defining this space and evolving with it, Blippar is seeing the world start to wake up and truly realize the enormous market opportunity for augmented reality,” said Ambarish Mitra, Blippar co-founder and CEO. “Where once AR was viewed as a niche technology, recent adoption in gaming alongside advancements in wearables have combined with a rising desire among everyday consumers to better tap into the potential of the world around them to create a mainstream trend. After creating thousands of AR experiences and campaigns and learning what moves the needle for brands as well as consumers, we know it is now time to open our platform to the world, empower developers, marketers and everyday consumers to be creative, establish new best practices for this space, and together realize the full potential AR combined with Artificial Intelligence has to make everyone’s lives better, everywhere.”

Blippar’s Computer Vision API
Alongside the release of Blippbuilder, Blippar is enabling access to its computer vision technology via the new Computer Vision API. Computer vision, a key capability Blippar uses to identify images and objects within its visual discovery browser, is already a cornerstone for many of today’s emerging innovations from self-driving cars to automated social media curation. However, as the demand for computer vision grows, many companies remain unsure of how to best apply the utility of the technology in their market. Today, Blippar is releasing its own proprietary API — a powerful and simple to use CV platform — empowering a range of industries to take advantage of this emerging technology in order to enhance their products and services. Examples of potential use-cases for the API range from meta-tagging and indexing a library of photo assets for media players to expediting claim validation processes in the insurance industry.

“Computer vision is rapidly gaining recognition as a game-changing technology across industries,” Mitra commented further. “Our computer vision capabilities are what enables the Blippar visual discovery browser to quickly identify images and objects in a user’s physical surroundings and apply machine learning to deliver relevant information. By releasing our own API, we will enable businesses across the world to leverage this world-class technology for their own unique use-cases, which are endless.”