Review of 2015

2015 proved to be an award winning and interesting time for skignz, as well as externally, in the world of AR.

The landscape of AR changed quite significantly throughout 2015, as either acquisitions, or investments were made, reducing the number of companies in the market. Blippar invested heavily (increasing their worth to circa £1.4b) whilst also acquiring their biggest rival, Layar.

Other companies such as Apple acquired Metaio and Google invested even further ($542m) into MagicLeap.  

Other companies apps were not renewed and many digital/ad/creative agencies had to look for other ways to offer their client AR experiences, with Junaio being acquired and stopping its SDK for others to use. In addition, INTEL acquired RECON.

Also across the wider market, Apple introduced the ability to be able to open one app from another, something that was not previously available on the iTunes App store.

We know that skignz are focussed on AR, however VR's emergence over the past few months made some waves, with more progress from Occults Rift and even Facebook. Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg, quoting our own Co-founder & CMO Si Brown, stated that "Why look at your phone, when you can look through it!". 

Other VR progress was made in line with the huge interest in the technology. The first Oculus Rift Headsets were due to be shipped in the final quarter of 2015.

Moving on to skignz, the biggest difference you will have seen is the aesthetics of the skignz website and the skignz app. Considerable time was spent in developing 'version 2.0' for IOS with Android being currently finalised. 

In addition to the new look and feel, skignz were present at many outdoor events such as PRIDE LDN, Glastonbury, EDC & Leeds Festival. 

The feedback on the tech and also the performance exceeded even our high expectations.

Another key milestone was the development and introduction of the 'ARtAbove' channel, allowing ANY Artist, ANYWHERE in the World to place their own Art ANYWHERE they want, essentially making the whole world a gallery. 

This was developed in conjunction with artist Martin McCloon and was even showcased at Disgraceland (Banksy's Installation in Weston Super-mare), actually subverting the subversive.

2015 was an award winning year for skignz as they were voted as 'The UK's Most Disruptive Tech Startup' by Ignite, 'TechAwards NE', 'Thinking Digital' and the 'Marketing Award' at the BNBA'15. 2016 has already started with a bang, with skignz being shortlisted again in the BNBA'16 and last week coming Runner up in KPMG's 'Best British Mobile Startup'.

skignz increased their team with key additions of Jamie Clarke (Head of DV Partnerships) and David Murphy (Head of Sports Partnerships) both settling in quickly and hitting the ground running across the many conferences and events in the final quarter of the year.

In the final weeks of the year skignz launched their #skignzsanta experience, which allowed parents to follow the 12 days lead up to Christmas eve whilst learning each day how to set up their own personalised #skignzsanta. 

Parents placed two skignz outside their homes so when Santa was close (following on the NORAD or Google Santa websites) parents could show 'Santa' flying past through their magic santa camera Smartphone or tablet.

Initially they saw what looked like Santa in his sleigh being led away by his reindeers, then parents 'panned across the sky' to reveal a special 'personalised note' to their child(ren), telling them he can only deliver when they are fast asleep. 

The hundreds of people who did this across the globe said their children were simply ‘blown away’ by the experience, and getting them to sleep was a lot easier than normal! 

We will be looking into doing a similar thing for Christmas 2016 but we have a lot of other interesting and exciting 'skignz' projects to deliver before then...

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

skignz Indoors

We know now that skignz is working well in the outdoor world.  Visualising content such as maps, directions or even signage, right there, on your smartphone. 

It got us thinking… There are some really large spaces, which house events like concerts or conferences, but, the difference is, they are Indoors. 

With this in mind we have set about increasing the capability of skignz to work indoors.  

So whether people are attending conferences, going to concerts, or even on holiday in large hotels or on a cruise ship, we can provide skignz to them in the same, visually stimulating way.

Our technology allows us to use existing indoor equipment to pinpoint user location, and provide them with seamless quality augmented reality information.  We are working with some of our key retail clients to provide people with that experience.
  

Imagine you are in your favourite store, and you want to find out what the offers of the day are. Open up skignz and scan the indoor area.  

You can see that the best offer is in the homewares section and it’s 30% off any furniture bought today! No more rummaging around looking for a bargain! 

No more bustling through the crowds trying to find the best saving! It’s there, in front of you, and you can go directly to it and buy it.  Now, isn’t that easier?

OK, so you have been to the shops, you are now on a night out.  You’ve decided to go see your favourite band at the local arena.  

But where are the toilets? Where is the bar area?  More importantly, how do you get hold of that piece of memorabilia that you promised yourself..?

All available through the skignz view on your smartphone.  How about even being able to download the live set directly through your phone by pressing on the skignz on view above the stage?

All of these things are currently being worked on with our partner list, which it seems is growing by the day! We will keep you posted about all of our developments, as we continue to grow..

Remember.. We are putting the world's information around you… Outdoors and now, Indoors!

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

File size of the skignz App

The question we are proposing is 'Is Big beautiful or do the best things coming small packages?’

We ask this question because we have recently compiled some data about the file sizes of App on people's  smartphones and tablets.

Why did we do this?

One of our iPhones needed the software updating on it. We are sure you have come across this where IOS puts little red dot on your 'Settings App'. You go in and it says there is a new version of IOS and please download it now…

As you may have experienced, when you go to download this update it says you don’t have enough memory space! Either you have far too many Photos, videos or songs on your handset or a large number of apps. In some cases it’s not really any of the above.

Why don’t you have any memory left then? surely 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB memory are just that, space for 'your stuff'? 

However it's increasingly likely with every IOS update that the OS on your phone or tablet eats away at that available memory space, thus restricting what you can have or do with your device.

As we cannot do anything about Photos, Videos and Songs on your phone/tablet, this led us to looking closely at the size of apps we have on there. Focussing on the more common apps that people use around Social Media, search, messaging and more relevant to skignz, other major AR Apps.

The results were startling to say the least! All of the big apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Chrome, twitter etc… were around 75mB to 100mB in size. Then they slowly decreased in size with the likes of Instagram, We Chat, WhatsApp etc… right down to the AR based apps such as Blippar, Layar and Wikitude who were all a more sensible 15mB to 20mB.

File Size (Mb)

App's

We at skignz feel over the coming years there will be a move towards 'less apps' on your phone,  leaving more space for immediate storage or as connections improve more access to the cloud of your information.

With all of the above in mind, we then come to skignz. 

With its huge potential to benefit just about every person on the planet either professionally or personally, the verticals it can deliver 'visualised data' in a more meaningful and helpful manner, you would expect it to be leaning towards the higher end of the size of Apps, maybe a bit bigger than the other more established 'image recognition based AR apps.

skignz is only 1mB in file size… yes you read that right, your eyes are not deceiving you….

ONE megabyte. 

This file size this makes skignz one of the smallest 'file size footprints' available, yet has the ability to 'visualise' most if not all of the 'data' of the other apps in a more engaging and interactive way, especially the collection data normally presented on a map interface.

This goes right back to Si Brown's quote in 2013/14 that skignz helps you to stop looking at your phone… and start looking through it…

Next time when you are backing up your Phone or tablet, take a look at how much memory your apps are taking up… surely there is room for the little cute/light and small skignz app. 

It will open you up to a whole new world of information

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

12 'skignz' Days of Christmas - An experience your children will NEVER forget!

Tomorrow sees skignz launch their 12 Days of Christmas... leading right up to some 'Special skignz Magic Dust' we have 'sprinkled across the sky', right around the world for Christmas Eve.


This is especially so for those of you will young children who are still 'believers'. 

We 'believe', so we have developed two very special 'skignz' to help you get those little kiddie winkies to bed (no mean feat when their are 'off the scale' excited).

We at skignz also believe that: 

"If a picture speaks a thousand words... and a video speaks a million... then what does an experience represent, a billion? a trillion? or is it unquantifiable... beyond words..."


What is the 12 'skignz' Days of Christmas?
We have created an 'Online Advent Calendar' that you can visit each day at the following link www.skignz.com/santa 

Please don't forget, it's like any other 'Advent Calendar' in as much as there's no peeking on the days that are yet to come! (you can go back and look at previous days though).


What are we trying to achieve?
Every child has a wonderment around Christmas, Santa, his elves, the whole mystery. One of the customs is to put out a drink and mince pie for Santa, but since 1957 NORAD have provided children across the globe with regular updates on Santa's progress.

More recently a website (www.noradsanta.org) was created that many a child keeps regular watch on Christmas Eve... all wanting to know when Santa will be in their Country, region, town and street.

Two things happen at this point... the children are 'off the scale with excitement' and parents try to usher them to bed as he's 'getting close'. remember from when you were a child, that Santa only delivers his presents when you (children) are fast asleep.

Ok then, how do you 'Calm the children down' and get them off to sleep in a reasonable time?


How are we going to do this?
Each day you will open a window and it will provide you with a little bit more information on 'How you are going to BLOW your children's minds on Christmas Eve, yet be such a powerful experience that they will WANT to go to bed IMMEDIATELY and go to sleep....!"

We will lead you on a 'step by step' process of downloading skignz, setting up an account, right through to placing the 'Special Santa skignz' and how you will 'reveal' them to your children on Christmas Eve....


Where do the special 'skignz' come in?
If you follow all the steps in the lead up to Christmas Eve, which includes setup, checking and testing you will have created two virtual 'signs in the sky'.


The first is a Picture of Santa's Sleigh flying away into the distance...
 

The second one is a special 'Note from Santa', that is personalised with your childrens names on... explaining that he's just flown over (where you are and where you have placed the skignz and intend to show the children them).

It also says that he noticed that 'Lexi & Gab's' (insert your own children's names) are still awake and that he can't deliver their presents until they are fast asleep, encouraging them to go straight to bed, love from Santa.

*Please note that the two images above are actual images taken through the skignz app.

Then what?
You let your children follow the Santa through the NORAD website until he's close by where you are, then you go to the door/window to see if they can see him. 

At that point you say "maybe if we use our SmartPhone or Tablet it will help us see him". 

You then 'open the skignz App' and pan around like you are videoing the sky, where you will see the Sleigh riding away with Santa waving (We highly recommend you video or take pics of your childrens faces when they see this)

Then next pan across to where you have placed the second skign... 'Santa's Note' where you can read that Santa has left them a note and either let them read it or read it to them...

The children won't be able to see the skignz without the SmartPhone or Tablet, so you can say that Santa sent you a special camera to see him ;-)

And after that... when they are no doubt speechless... take them to bed!

We hope you enjoy this little magical experience we have created for any child anywhere in the world whose Parents or Guardians have taken the time to set this up for them... 

Afterall Christmas is all about children, especially those that believe... even the slightly older ones may question their beliefs ha ha ha or is that HO HO HO....

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
from 
The Santa skignz team

PS We ask just one thing of those of you who have read this.. 

Please share www.skignz.com/santa with others across Social Media, text, phone calls, messneger etc... , so many more children get the chance to experience this as well. 

We want to reach as many children as possible across the globe.