CrowdOptic Technology to Power Lancome Virtual Gallery App and World's First Crowd-Powered Heat Map Logo at the Luminato Festival in Toronto

SAN FRANCISCO, June 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CrowdOptic, a maker of crowd-powered mobile applications, today announced that its technology will power key features of the virtual art gallery smartphone app being launched by its partners, the Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA) and Lancome Canada, a division of L'Oreal Canada, at the 7th Annual Luminato Festival in Toronto.  

Full details of the mobile app, named "20 Bloggers for a Rose: The Lancome Virtual Gallery," and its capabilities are available in today's companion release, The LBMA and Lancome Partner to Develop Virtual Gallery & Worlds' First Human Heatmap Logo.

Use of the smartphone app during the festival will be shown in a virtual heat map shaped like the iconic Lancome rose; This event will form the world's first ever, crowd-generated augmented reality display.  "This will be the first time a crowd will actually contribute to augmented reality, the result their activity culminating in a completely new virtual experience," said Asif Khan, President of LBMA.

Lancome Canada and LBMA selected CrowdOptic because its technology is the only one in the marketplace that can support such group/collaborative experiences using AR technology.

LBMA's Khan sees Lancome Canada as an early adopter and pioneer of the direction in which many of LBMA's partners will eventually be heading. Having witnessed a similar transformation of the Web in its infancy into Web 2.0, Khan expects similar needs and end user expectations will apply in the Augmented Reality space, where apps will evolve away from static displays toward dynamic displays, built from group interaction and inputs from end users.

"Industry is leapfrogging right past static AR directly to group-connected, collaborative AR, where the emerging technologies like smart glasses are inevitably taking us," said Khan.

The Lancome Virtual Gallery app will be available to download for Android and iOS-enabled phones during the festival. CrowdOptic's CEO will be presenting the technology at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley Talks on Computing Systems (TOCS) on June 4, 2013 and at the leading augmented reality conference, Augmented World Expo, on June 5, 2013.

About CrowdOptic
CrowdOptic is a new crowd-powered "heat" signal – the next evolution of location-based services that recognizes the hottest crowd activity in real time as it occurs, and also after the fact, through powerful analytics.  By tracking where smartphone cameras are located and where they are pointed, CrowdOptic can instantly filter mobile media and create new opportunities for eyewitness engagement. CrowdOptic identifies, tags and rebroadcasts the live event experience to the world, on mobile, social TV and second screens. CrowdOptic is used around the world to power a wide range of apps that let users aim their phones to connect, report news, find friends, alternate broadcasts, cast a vote and discover others who share their focus and interests.  CrowdOptic is a privately-held, venture-backed company based in San Francisco. www.crowdoptic.com.

SOURCE CrowdOptic