Mok Oh, Founder and CTO of Everyscape, says mirror worlds are the next web and his company is positioning itself to be a part of this coming goldrush.
What are mirror worlds, you ask? It’s a direct representation of our actual world replicated in the digital world. He pointed to Google Earth as the best example, but noted how poorly it does on the street level. That’s why so many companies are driving around with cameras attached to cars taking lots of pictures.
Everyscape is one of those companies. It is constructing a replication of cities to create an immersive, 3-dimensional local search experience. In his demo, Oh navigated down a street like he was driving a car, then came upon an image of a coupon in the road. Clicking on it enlarged the coupon and pointed to the store on the right that was offering the deal.
Then he navigated into the store and looked around at the actual inventory. he says his company will eventually offer ecommerce integration so a shopper could potentially purchase an item from the photos. (He then took us down the stairs and into the bar Cheers, made famous by the TV show in the 1980s and 1990s.)
“The killer app is local,” said Oh, who said his company is working with local businesses in about 70 different verticals. “And mobility is critical to mirror world’s success.”
Mirror worlds are not maps, but are based on a similar construct. Oh said Google Maps are probably the most viewed map in history. But the company knows they can be so much more, which is why it is spending as much as $500,000 per vehicle to capture street-level images by car.
Mirror worlds are also not augmented reality. But the two are related, Oh said. And he showed an impressive demo on an iPad simulator that proves the potential the new device will have with regard to mirror worlds. Using the Everyscape platform, he navigated into a restaurant and found the exact table he wanted to reserve, then entered a text “tag” on the table that would – in theory – notify the restaurant of his request.
If you want to know more about “mirror worlds,” check at the book by the same name written by David Gelernter.
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