Wikitude: Philipp Breuss And The Story Behind The Software

After having seen the highly impressive demonstration of Wikitude, we just had to find out more, so Digital-Lifestyles spoke to Philipp Breuss, who has lead the development of Wikitude.

Philipp previously worked for Sony but gave this up to make the development of the Wikitude software which he describes as “the most exciting things that we ever did.”

He’s been building the application for the last year, but as a mobile travel guide for Android that also uses Mobile Google Maps and Text from Wikipedia.

Where it changed from a nifty application (see the video) to what Digital-Lifestyles see as the kind of application that will actually make people buy the T-Mobile G1 and eventually other Android Handsets, was the addition of the augumented reality.

The augmented reality started being added four months ago when the development team grew to three people. Building it has been complex, calling in lots of expertise, including that of university professors who have slightly struggled with the complex maths.

Preparing for the UK Launch
Following the launch of the G1 in the USA yesterday, lots of people have been getting the download of the application. Figures so far – in less than a day – 2,500.

Not surprisingly T-Mobile are falling over themselves over having this app at the UK G1 launch.

He describes the company behind it, Mobilizy, as a “very young start up,” and admits that they are still searching for a business model for the software. Frankly we’d think that they’re not going to have a problem with this – people will be blown away when they see it.